Jake won the Royal International Horse Show Grade B and C qualifiers on his horse Sam W. Jake said, “I haven’t jumped many jump-offs on him yet, as I haven’t had the chance (because of Covid).”  He added, “I thought I might as well have a go and we ended up pretty fast!  We’ve been trying to jump some bigger classes and the aim is to try for Junior Teams with him next year.”

He also won the Winter Grade C qualifier on his horse, Alice (who goes under the competing name of  Calcourt Qualvados), qualifying him for the Winter Championships.  Jake commented, “I know her very well and we were drawn slightly later in the jump-off, so I was able to watch a few go.  All the routes you could take were quite similar, so I was trying to get the smoothest round possible; a lot of the courses this weekend have been about how much you could risk it across the ground.”

Competitions have stopped again for the moment but Jake is continuing to train and keep the horses fit due to the uncertainty of when things will start again.  He is hoping that he will be able to compete in Belgium at half term, and then go out to Italy in March to compete in some Under 18 Junior classes.  All of this is dependent on how the Covid situation develops, and also Brexit may have implications regarding the transportation of horses to Europe.

Caroline Johnson, Associate Leader at Ivybridge Community College said, “Well done to Jake for his success at the Royal International Horse Show, it’s fantastic to see the success he had on both of his horses.  We sincerely hope he will be able to compete in Belgium and Italy and wish him best of luck with the upcoming competitions.”