Here we catch up with brand ambassador and young rider Ruby Thompson as she hits winning form in the world of eventing…
After lots of hard work and determination we made it to Badminton for the Grassroots Championships and what a fantastic week it was!
Qualifying for Badminton has been quite a long process due to Covid and event cancellations. It all began when I won the BE90 on Penstrumbly Calon Lan (Batty) at Warwick Hall in 2020. This qualified us for an Area Festival for Badminton in 2021 which we also won and qualified us for Badminton 2022.
It has taken lots of training with Steph Robson throughout the winter months and we have done some British Showjumping and British Eventing at the start of the season to prepare us and get every detail right. We have also been doing lots of hacking and cantering to keep fitness levels up.
After arriving at Badminton we did our dressage test in a long arena on the Tuesday and then showjumped and went XC on the Wednesday. The atmosphere was just amazing; to ride around the cross country course and hear the crowd cheering you after every fence was fantastic.
It was an incredible experience to ride at Badminton let alone come 15th out of 115. My dad took Batty home so he could enjoy a well-deserved rest and we were able to stay watch the amazing Laura Collett take the Badminton 2022 title.
I’m really excited to be in with a chance of qualifying again next year having picked up three Area Festival Qualifiers. I’m really looking forward to the rest of this season with him.
I have also had an absolutely amazing week at Parkend U18 training camp followed by a fantastic win at Belsay.
Parkend U18 training camp is run by British Eventing, they run camps for riders who are interested in being on the U18 teams. We took part in lots of training with the U18 Northern instructors working on all three phases; dressage, show jumping and cross country. We met some lovely people and had a great time with lots to learn.
We then headed to Belsay on Saturday 4th June with Smilla IV (Millie) in the BE Novice. We had a fabulous day and led from start to finish with a lovely clear around the toughest XC track I have ridden around!
The following day Penstrumbly Calon Lan (Batty) competed in the BE90Ou18. We had a fantastic day and again lead from start to finish taking another win! Overall, a lovely week spent with lovely people.
I’m now looking forward to the rest of the month with my wonderful horses. We’ve been going to the camps to try and be selected for the U18 Northern teams and we now have a busy month ahead with both eventing and Working Hunter classes.
Qualifiers for Horse of the Year Show have only just started so we are just about to start our campaign to try and qualify with Fantastic Master Fox.
I’m also hoping to step up to BE100 with Batty and CCI2*S with Millie.
Ruby feeds her horses Speedi-Beet and Fibre-Beet (depending on their needs) as part of a balanced diet.
