Junior A Games Team Report 2003

The Junior A Team:
Trainer - Ros Evans,
Chelsea Burns, Rachael Offer, Mary Pearson, Katie Offer and Robbie Ferguson.

It was good to see the team gain confidence as the season progressed ; but before the reminiscences I would like to take this opportunity to say a few thank you’s:

• first to Karen my co-trainer who took over when I slipped away for my own competitions;
• to Robert Noble for organising all the entries and turning out an hour early to book the site and put out the equipment;
• to the parents for giving up evenings and weekends to chauffeur riders and ponies all over the country.

The Team Members:
Chelsea and Tiggy were always the strongest, and were willing to run “anywhere” which was a bonus. I was able to run them first until other team members found their feet then Chelsea could enjoy more of their flying finishes.

Robbie and Harry were another partnership which could be relied upon for a fast and furious performance (sometimes I hardly dared look). By the end of the seasons Robbie realised he was also a good starter.

Rachel came out with Millie, a completely new pony to the club. Millie was nervous and highly strung at the beginning but patience and sympathy paid off and Rachel was also flying happily by the end.

Mary and Archie were both new to the A team. Archie was adamant that games were really not his thing: now give him a course of jumps – that was different. This made things difficult for Mary but she persevered and got a steady tune out of Archie.

Katie, also new to the A team, was on Pepper who had rebelled last year. However Katie’s determination and a few breaks kept Pepper going reliably and they completed the season very successfully.

By the end all pony/riders could run in all the mainstay races and it was sometimes very difficult to know whom to leave out. But the team was always supportive of each other and tried to ensure no one person got left out of too many races.

As far as results go, they won the Area and Zone and most of the other Scottish competitions, but our hiccup came at Sansaw. Unfortunately holidays and other commitments reduced numbers at training and competitions on the run up to Sansaw. Then on the day problems with tack inspection, and not being used to running before seniors, meant a very rushed practice session. For that morning competition I felt we were ill prepared: add to that “big competition”nerves - barrels got knocked over, passes missed, things that were normally clockwork definitely were not. However we pulled back in the afternoon, with a much better run and ended up 5 out of 14.

Next year I think a realistic target must be an excellent performance at Sansaw.

Well done Team, it was a pleasure to work with you.

Ros Evans, Trainer