British Showjumping National Championships
WRITTEN BY WILLIAM EUSTACE
Hello my name is William and I am 11 years old. I started riding on my own during the first lockdown and have worked really hard to gain a place at the British Showjumping Nationals finals in the BS Club classes. I have two ponies Pride of Rineen and Dungimmon Splash who we only got at the end of January.
The Nationals is the most amazing show, I have never felt so proud to be somewhere, it was so busy with lots of stalls and flags around the ring it felt like a real final!
The rings were big and shiny with flower pots everywhere! I was excited and really nervous at the same time. It was so hot that day that my parents kept making me drink tonnes of water and kept moving under different trees to stay in the shade between classes with the ponies. I had qualified for 4 classes so I had a lot of riding to do! Dungimmon and I only started jumping 80 and 90cm at the end of May so mummy said we were there for the experience.
Both ponies were insane, literally amazing and jumped clear all day, that was 8 clear rounds!
I won the 60cm on Pride of Rineen and have never felt so proud in my life. It was a big class and so nerve racking as I was in early!
I then came 6th in the 70 in another big speedy class.
It was baking when I rode my pony Dungimmon Splash in the 80cm and I was so amazed that we came 3rd it was a dream come true as he is still so new to me! I then entered the 90cm and it was huge!! So much bigger than the 80cm!! But Rafe as he is known was mega and we powered round to win by only 1/100th of a second!!! I wouldn’t have minded coming second as it was such a close jump off! But winning was just a dream come true! I never expected it! The commentator was brilliant and made us all feel so special it was probably the best day of my life!! I won rugs, sashes and silver plates!
