.BRC Horse trials Champs Report – Swalcliffe, Oxfordshire 2-3rd August 2025 The club had a very successful qualifier at Poplar Park with 3 teams qualifying (70, 80 and 90) and lots of individual placings which followed with championship offers. Unfortunately, due to various reasons we ended up with one x 80 team and one x 90 Individual being able to go and I was looking for an 80 team member to substitute right up until 2 weeks before! Thanks fully the brilliant new member Sarah Stirling and her handsome chap Mac (Machardo) stepped up to assist the 80 team which was made up with Sandra Bond riding Rusty, Emily Clover and Pebbles and Ella Smith on Dollar (also owned by Emily). Abi Jacobs and Auld Flame won their section in the 90 qualifier so were representing the club as an individual. Abi, Sarah, Emily and Ella all made the trip up on Friday and made their horses comfortable for the evening before being up early for Abi’s dressage at 08:39am. Myself and Sandra travelled up early on Saturday, eagerly watching the scores to see that Abi had scored a 19.3😮 and was leading her section !! We arrived to hear all about the amazing test from Ella and Emily and quickly made Rusty comfortable in her stable before heading to the XC to watch Abi come through the water making light work of it and finishing clear with no time faults leading on her dressage score until the following day! It was then onto plaiting and dressaging for the team with Sarah the pathfinder scoring a fabulous 26 in her dressage test and was leading her section 😊 Emily followed with a 31, Ella -32.5 and Sandra 33.2 leaving the team in a fabulous position before SJ. The SJ course encouraged a forward canter but with uprights down hill and a few spooky fillers it was causing problems. Sarah again went first delivering a super clear to be told she had missed fence 7!! We all said she hadn’t (including the stewards!) Thankfully hubby Trevor had filmed it, so we had video evidence 😊 after form filling and video watching they reinstated the clear round …phew ! Emily and Ella then jumped two lovely rounds just taking a pole each with Sandra ending the day with a spotless clear to leave the team in 2nd position overnight 🥳 It was then time for supper at the lorries and getting done in time for the quiz ! We did our best but have to say we didn’t win and were quite a way from winning!! We did enjoy the BRC cupcakes which were being handed out though and after a few G&T’s, Prosecco’s and 20,000 steps we were ready for bed 😴 The next morning was the trot up for Abi and the immaculately presented duo flew through to wait nervously for their SJ round which was the last of the day!! We all waited patiently and I did my helper stint on the SJ ring watching how the rounds were progressing, and it was a mixed bag but definitely a few clears were being had. We all made sure we were ready to support Abi in the SJ (nerves were jangling!) She had a fence in hand after dressage. As she went into the ring the rider before fell off at the last fence and the horse jumped halfway out of the arena…thankfully both were ok but we were all even more anxious for poor Abi given the extra wait 😬 Emily had given Abi a team talk and we were ready to watch a lovely smooth round just clipping a pole for 4 flts and an overall win! There were lots of happy tears and hugs and Flame looked very proud of herself 🐴 – and amazing score which resulted in overall 90 champion individually 🏆🥇 Well done Abi and Flame 😊 After the emotions from the SJ, we quickly moved onto the XC which again was a true championship course with lots of questions, skinnies, banks and hills! It was clear that the horses had to be fit and bold to get round. The first few riders went and it was causing issues especially cows in the far corner causing a dismount for one unlucky rider. Sarah and Mac flew round looking very cool and finishing on their dressage score! Ella sped round with Dollar who thoroughly enjoyed himself and caused a couple of time faults due to his keenness 😂 Emily then had another super clear with just 2.4 time. Sandra had been working on Rusty’s dislike for fences before water but unfortunately, she took a dislike to fence 5 and there was no budging her which resulted in elimination ☹ The team did fantastic job coming 4th overall out of 28 teams with Emily 7th, Ella 5th and Sarah being overall individual champion!! 🥇🏆 We all waited for the prizegiving and took lots of photos before our long trek home…. It was a fantastic weekend, the weather was perfect and it was a true team effort, thank you to all our teamies for making it a good one ! See you next year 😊 Denise xx Team Manager