Action Man is teacher’s pet
Munstead (1), Surrey
LESS than 24 hours before securing a win in BE90 section P, teacher Sue Buxton was flying back from Geneva, where she had been supervising a school trip.
“It wasn’t the ideal preparation and I had to ask for late times on Sunday,” smiled Sue, who teaches physics at Wycombe Abbey in Buckinghamshire.
But her winning partner, the 13-year-old Connemara Action Man, was completely unfazed by his owner-rider’s last-minute scrabble to get to Surrey and duly pulled out all the stops to finish on his dressage score of 26.3.
“I’ve had him since he was five,” said Sue, who is looking forward to her first trip to Badminton for the grassroots championship. “He’s generally very brave, except for noise.
He’s frightened of the bells in the dressage and showjumping and I have to be really careful with things like un-Velcroing my number bib and standing too close to tannoys.”
Emma Copestick has also learned to expect the unexpected with her BE100 section I winner, Gardenhill Boy.
“He’s not an easy character – he’s chestnut, sensitive and anything can set him off,” explained Emma, who works in a tack shop. “He pulled a muscle at the end of last season, so I eased him back into work gently this year and didn’t put any
“He’s chestnut, sensitive and anything can set him off ”
EMMA COPESTICK ON
GARDENHILL BOY
stress on him or myself. I didn’t for one minute expect to win.”
Beth Hobden, 15, put a blip while contesting her first novice at Poplar Park firmly behind her when she won the BE100open aboard Shannondale Aston, while Annabelle Simes scored her first win in BE90 section O aboard Herberts Way.
Darcey Blaze Marcus and Queen Theillet notched up an impressive third consecutive BE90open win, having already taken the top spots at Tweseldown (3) and Littleton last autumn.