MARLBOROUGH'S Megan Floyd again booked her ticket to the Royal Windsor Horse Show riding club championships, after success at a qualifying round organised by Bath Riding Club at Castle Cary.

The club hosted two showjumping ‘Top Score’ qualifiers for the AmTrust Equine RWHS British Riding Clubs Championships, a unique grass-roots competition that offers club competitors the chance to compete at Royal Windsor, Britain’s leading outdoor equestrian show held each May.

Floyd, a member of the Craven Hunt Pony Club, has qualified for the finals each year since the competition started in 2009, finishing third that year. This time she won Bath’s Top Score open qualifier, jumped against he clock, by 30 points on her appaloosa pony Time Bandit to take the top junior ticket.

Frome’s Katherine Riley was second on Purdy, with Avon Vale Pony Club’s Katie Bastable, 12 and from Southwick, third on her consistent grey mare Whizz. Melksham’s Jess Weston and Thomas took the top senior ticket in fifth.

The other Top Score qualifier saw the first senior ticket go to Taunton Riding Club’s Oliver Cossey, already a big winner on the club scene.

He earned the same score as winner Pip Atkinson, based in Somerset and riding her mare Clover Court, but was slightly slower over the finish line.

The top junior ticket went to third placed Anna Wren on Silvie Fox, with Bastable, a pupil at Stonar School, in fifth.

Katie Brown and Blackie scored a double in the day’s first two classes, winning the 2’ class by a clear two seconds and the 2’ 3” section by an emphatic 11 seconds.

Results

2’: 1 Katie Brown, Blackie; 2 Daisy Hudson, Smokey Cloud; 3 Joanna Hudson, Sergeant Pepper

2’ 3”: 1 Blackie; 2 Louise Hill, Ellie May; 3 Smokey Cloud; Sergeant Pepper

2’ 6”: 1 Katherine Riley, Purdy; 2 Lucy Harris, Buchu; 3 Sarah Pugsley, Kiwi; 4 Angela Dobbins, Zia.

2’ 9”: 1 Yasmin Phillips, General Bradley; 2 Hannah Francis, True Stepper; 3 Taloula Bartlett, Smokey Joe; 4 Stacey Martin, Charlie Brown.

Top Score A: 1 Pip Atkinson, Clover Court; 2 Oliver Cossey, Fifth Avenue; 3 Anna Wren, Silvie Fox; 4 Buchu; 5 Katie Bastable, Whizz; 6 Holly Press, Smoking Inferno

Top Score B: 1 Megan Floyd, Time Bandit; 2 Purdy; 3 Whizz; 4 True Stepper; 5 Jess Weston, Thomas; 6 Sorrel Mandil, Winnie.

3’ 3”: 1 Whizz

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