Runners & riders compete

Perthshire’s Kilgraston School welcomed teams from across the country for their annual Equestrian Championships.

The event, held at Highfield at Howe in Fife, included the addition of NSEA (National School Equestrian Association) dressage and show jumping qualifiers.

And this made for a busy day of action with riders coming from as far away as Ellon in the north and Hawick in the south.

A new combined training class was introduced to start the day, a walk/trot dressage test and 50cm jumping, which was won by Strathallan, with Maia Flemming taking individual first.

Class two witnessed the Junior Under 12 Combined Training Class show off their skills.

Kilgraston came out on top for the team results, and also the individual with Erin MacGregor in first place and Mischa Steele taking second.

The 75cm Show Jumping was next on the schedule, which was the first NSEA qualifier.

And the Kilgraston team of Mischa Steele, Daisy Lockhart, Camryn Wilson and Erin MacGregor won the class to qualify for the national championships, this year being held at Addington Manor.

Maia Flemming of Strathallan and Jennifer Campbell of Glasgow Academy also qualified as individuals, coming first and second respectively.

Class three, the Intermediate Combined Training, was the busiest of the day.

It was Strathallan on top this time in the team’s competition, with Kelso High School coming second and Kilgraston in third place.

Individual Dressage went to Sorrell Feather of George Heriot’s and Individual Show Jumping to Vicky Edgar of Kelso High.

In the 95cm Show Jumping, it was a very close call as to who took home the qualifying tickets. But Vicky Edgar edged out team-mate Louise Hebdon of Kelso High to the red rosette.

Team qualifications went to Kelso High for first and second place.

The last class of the day was the Open Combined Training, which consists of Novice Dressage and 1m-1.05m Show Jumping.

Eilidh MacAulay of Morrison’s Academy led all the way through and won the Dressage, Show Jumping and CombinedTraining.

Kilgraston’s Anna Smallwood came second in the Show Jumping to also qualify for the championships. And in the Dressage it was Issie Bamford of George Heriot’s who came second to Eilidh and also qualified.

A Kilgraston spokesperson said: “Many thanks to Pentland Land Rover for sponsoring the event and presenting the prizes to all of the winners on the day. Congratulations to everyone who competed and we look forward to welcoming you all back at our next event.”