BRC Area 17 Arena Eventing Qualifier, Moreton, March 2025, by Tiffany Christer

Having nice normal start to the day as our times were in the afternoon, rather than the usual crack of dawn jaunt down to Moreton, which was quite refreshing!! Diane and I loaded up the Haffies and set on our way. Margaret joined us on our adventure for extra hands and support. We had a good journey down & met our team mates, Corinne and Sara! Sara kindly jumped in last minute as Kerry unfortunately couldn’t make it due to sickness.
Walking the course we all felt crikey! There’s some challenges here!! The first part of the course was pretty good but the xc part threw in a 3part jump in the corner, so you had a very tight turn and the 3rd jump out was a very skinny arrow head- Eeeek!!

Corinne was first up in our team and rode brilliantly!! Sadly knocking 2 poles but made the time and placed individual 6th. Well done Corinne!
Next up was Diane, a fantastic round and impressive fence 3 upheld as Sky had locked onto a different fence so handbrake turn and eeek moment as fence 3 was suddenly there! Obviously a little giggle from the team Lol, again a couple of unfortunate poles (I think there were only 3 clears in the entire class!! Just to give you an idea on the challenging course!) Sara was next and Tango was soo doing well but unfortunately decided the penultimate jump, a 3x brush line up was too much and refused them resulting in elimination, so close as he was doing a wonderful round! Last but not least, Hattie and I, Hattie being her fantastic self I decided to try a risky line!! Turning sharply from fence 10 to 11, and cutting out having to go a long way round all the jumps, it meant we had to jump the fence at an angle but she executed it perfectly!! I was soo proud! Haha! We were clear upto and over this fence too so a fantastic start! Sadly we knocked a couple of poles after this point! 1 in the very tricky corner/skinny combo, another after that which was just a misjudged takeoff then we caught the joker which was a shame buuuut we only went and placed team 2nd!! What an achievement! We were all very chuffed and wasn’t expecting this as we all had some poles. Fantastic day, with fantastic support! A huge thanks to Sharon who was our helper and supported with horse holding etc! To top off a fantastic day we’ve found out we’ve been invited to the champs too!! Whoop whoop!!