Fredericks heads list of Wiltshire winners (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Fredericks heads list of Wiltshire winners

11:23am Thursday 19th March 2009 in Sport By Kate Healey

Equestrian: Wiltshire riders scored an impressive total of six wins at the Tweseldown one day event in Hampshire, on the second weekend of the 2009 British Eventing season.

Leading the way was wonder horse Headley Britannia and Lucinda Fredericks, winner of an Olympic team silver medal for Australia in 2008 and back-to-back Burghley and Badminton three-day event titles.

The mare, who turns 16 this year and originally came to Fredericks as the horse no-one else wanted, opened her season with a fine win in the Open Intermediate section. She led from the start to see off top Devon international Lucy Wiegersma by just .2 of a mark.

“It was lovely having Brit feel like a spring chicken – I hadn’t planned to win but she is so well behaved and knows her job,” said Fredericks. “She was bubbly in both the show jumping and cross country – she jumped her socks off in the first of these phases, where a lot were having problems over a well-up-to-height course in gluey ground.”

The duo will now go off to Fontainebleau in France next week to contest the three star CIC one day international.

“I’m trying to get the funding together to take Brit to the Kentucky three day event in the USA next month,” Fredericks added. “The Australian federation won’t help but I haven’t given up.”

Pewsey’s Fiona Hobby scored a double at the venue. She topped an Intermediate section by a clear ten marks on Fun Time Frankie and scored her second win on her BE 100 ride Adagio II, who finished six marks clear of the field.

Lower Stanton St Quintin’s Kitty Boggis, 27, topped her Open Intermediate section on Jan Jarvis’ 11-year-old General Opposition.

Marlborough’s Kiwi Andrew Nicholson was his usual busy self, winning a Novice section on his new ride Parkmore Repechage and taking seconds on his Intermediate entries Mr Cruise Control and Qwanza.

Devizes’ Ed Eltham completed Wiltshire’s winning run when he headed an Open Novice section on The Keepers20Picnic. The 22-year-old, who also picked up a second on Bonza Billabong, jumped a double clear to finish ahead of Little Cheverell’s Coral Keen, 22.