Sophie takes gold to qualify for trials

An Auchterarder girl has won gold at the British Show Pony Society’s spring show.

Sophie Maher, a pupil at Morrison’s Academy in Crieff, won Scotland’s first Burghley Gold Cup qualifier at the show on Saturday, April 8 at the Morris Equestrian Centre in Kilmarnock.

She was the only double-clear in the‘not exceeding 143cm’ category after winning the working hunter phase and coming fourth in the dressage phase.

She also cleared the final show-jumping round on her New Forest gelding Silver X, who is owned by Hazel MacAuley.

Sophie, who is a member of the Strathearn Pony Club, is trained by Emma Binnie and Ernest Dillon.

She will now go on to compete at the Burghley HorseTrials in Lincolnshire from August 31 September 3.