Sian Davies-Cooke and Dawsons Diamond jump the stranded boats on the beach in the Novice Section I
An Eventful Life filmed all competitors on cross country at
It may have been bucketing down at Tryon, North Carolina but the water jump at Allerton Park was still feeling the effects of a hot English summer with the upturned boats being slightly marooned on a still very scenic beach
“The lake is quite low” said Lady Mowbray “And it’s not easy to top up a 40-acre lake!”
Despite missing a bit of splash at this water jump, the grounds at Allerton looked and felt as beautiful as ever as the horses galloped around some of the historic 250-acre park across the courses designed by Ian Stark (Advanced and Intermediate) and Dominic Lawrence (Novice and BE100).
Ian, who also designs at other notable northern events such as Bramham and Chatsworth, has been the course designer here since 2010, adding the Advanced course to the existing BE100, Novice and Intermediate courses in 2012. He may have been busy commentating the cross country at Tryon later in the day for the BBC but he was spotted early in the morning checking out his courses (ah, the wonders of modern technology)
Dominic helped build some of the fences at the London 2012 Olympics at Greenwich and two of them – The Chestnut Log Complex and the East End Barrows – are now permanently located on course at Allerton Park. In 2016 Dominic, mentored by Ian, redesigned the BE100 and Novice courses reversing both from their original direction for most of their length.
Allerton Castle, built by the premier Baron of England, Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton in the 1840s, and once owned by Prince Frederick (the ‘Grand Old Duke of York’ and brother to King George IV), provides a dramatic gothic backdrop to the cross country course.
The imposing ‘Temple of Victory’, overlooking the Start Box is reputedly on top of the hill mentioned in the nursery rhyme “The Grand Old Duke of York who had ten thousand men …”. Who says that eventing isn’t educational?
Sarah Duckett and C Louis Le One jump with the Temple of Victory on the hill behind them
But riders don’t just come here for the history and nursery rhymes. Situated near Knaresborough in North Yorkshire (which prompts thoughts that there really should be a Wishing Well fence with Old Mother Shipton looking on) it is ideally located for riders in the north of the country but plenty are now also making the trip from the South having discovered the delights of Allerton Park; everything is easily accessible, the dressage arenas are on well-drained flat old pasture, with masses of space to lunge and warm up and the show jumping arena is also flat and generous in size with a good-sized warm up area.
Not to mention the roast pork sandwiches and Yorkshire ice cream you can enjoy whilst sitting around the centrally located show jumping arena …..
Emma Hawksby and Rainton Rising, third in the Novice Section Q (above) and Nicola Wilson on Yacabo (below)
One of Britain’s top riders, Nicola Wilson, is located nearby and is a regular here. This year she brought nine horses, including All We Need in the Intermediate Novice, who went home a winner.
Nicola also brought a new ride along, Yacabo BK, previously ridden by Andrew Nicholson to compete in the Advanced for 11th place at just their second start together. The Advanced class run on Sunday afternoon was won by young Chloe Bell on Javas Spice with a very healthy margin of 8.4 penalties over second placed Jessica Watts and Sportsfield Adventure. Chloe also won the Nikki Otterburn Trophy for the best placed mare in this section and placed sixth in the Intermediate on Crimewatch
Chloe Bell and Crimewatch
Another familiar horse with a new rider was Sandman 7, previously ridden by Pippa Funnell and now with the talented young rider Yasmin Ingham on board.
Yasmin was riding Sandman 7 in the Open Intermediate for third place and also took third in the Advanced on Night Line and fourth on Rehy DJ, her winner of the Young Rider Championship at Houghton earlier this year having his first Advanced start at Allerton Park
Yasmin Ingham on Rehy DJ (above) and Sandman 7 (below)
The Open Intermediate was won by another local rider, James Somerville on board the nine-year-old Altaskin Jack ahead of Matt Hecking and Yasmin. It was a good day for James, whose top horse Talent recently finished fifth in the CCI3* at Blair Castle, with a win for the up and coming seven-year-old GStar in the BE100
Sam Ecroyd and Kings Ginger (above) and Emily on Brookleigh (below)
Emily King has recently made a move north to be based in Cheshire with her partner Sam Ecroyd and the two top young eventing riders were out and about at Allerton Park with Sam winning the Intermediate Section L riding the very well-bred Kings Ginger, by Chilli Morning and out of Kings Temptress. Kings Ginger was bred and is still owned by Emily’s mum and eventing legend Mary King who rode him until mid-2018 but Sam has now taken over the reins, obviously with great success
It was great to see Emily on board Brookleigh, the Australian horse previously campaigned by Clayton Fredericks, at just his second start since falling at Badminton in 2016. Emily and Brookleigh started with a very good score of 29.1 in the dressage and jumped clear in both phases but obviously opted for a steady confidence building cross country round, adding plenty of time faults but looking very happy.
Lauren Blades on Carrigsean Tigers Eye (above) and Nicola Wilson on All We Need (below)
Lauren Blades finished second to Sam Ecroyd in the Intermediate Section L riding Rodnikova Dream and also took second place in the Intermediate Novice on board Carrigsean Tigers Eye behind Nicola Wilson and All We Need
Sadly we didn’t get any photos of competitors on Saturday but we are really looking forward to watching the footage of one of our cross country video winners, Heidi Woodhead. Heidi won two of the Saturday Novice classes on board Gorgeous DHI and Handsome DHI (sensing a theme here) as well as picking up two second places and a third – a very day weekend at the office!
