Equestrian Life April 2018 Issue

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Mitsubishi Motors Cup Local
Riders Head to Badminton
Ahead of this year’s Mitsubishi Motors Cup, taking place on
1st and 2nd of May at Badminton House in Gloucestershire,
we catch up with three riders who have qualified.
Held on the eve of
the world-famous
Mitsubishi Motors
Badminton Horse
Trials, which attracts top horse
and rider combinations from
across the globe as well as
visitors in excess of 150,000 over
the five days of competition; the
Mitsubishi Motors Cup offers
amateur riders from all over
the country the opportunity to
qualify throughout the eventing
season for these finals. Not only
will riders contest to win the
Mitsubishi Motors Cup trophy,
presented in front of Badminton
House, the pinnacle of any
amateur event rider’s career,
they will be vying for a chance
to take home a 2018 vehicle of
their choice from the Mitsubishi
Motors range for one year, and a
commemorative plaque.
KATIE CORTEEN
I am based near Burnley,
Lancashire. I am lucky that my
livery yard is only a couple of
miles from my house and the
staff are excellent and help
me out enormously, especially
with me working full time as
a trainee solicitor – I hope to
qualify in June. The facilities are
also brilliant with a large indoor
arena, gallops and a solarium,
which ensures Millie (Curra
OKO) is always fit enough for an
event. This will be my first time
competing at the Mitsubishi
Motors Cup where I will be
competing at BE90 level.
I have owned Millie since
July 2017, we had only been
together for seven weeks when
we managed to qualify for the
Mitsubishi Motors Cup, she had
only done three events prior
to her coming to us. Millie was
bought to take the pressure
off my main horse who had an
injury at the time, however she
quite quickly became the centre
of attention with how talented,
trainable and willing she is.
Millie is very unique as she is a
chestnut mare with the world’s
best nature, instead of the
cliché which accompanies many
chestnut mares. She would not
dream of even putting her ears
back or being nasty, and she just
loves cuddles and kisses. The
only quirk that Millie has is that
she can be quite energetic if she
has not been out for a while. She
likes her work and to be out and
about competing.
Our training so far has been
going very well. We have had a
few trips to Somerford Park cross
country schooling and have
been successfully competing in
British Showjumping and JAS
competitions, winning our last
outing at Aintree. We have been
trying to significantly improve
our dressage scores with
dressage trainer Jess Dunn, who
is based only a few miles from
us, and are hoping that we
should see the improvement
in our scores when we get back
out. We have a training camp at
the end of March at Somerford
Park and then a day’s training
session with Chris Bartle before
the Mitsubishi Motors Cup, so
we are hoping that will give
us a very good boost! We did
have a minor blip when Millie
got a splinter in her lip which
got infected, however that has
luckily been sorted.
I am unbelievably excited to
gallop in front of Badminton
House and through the big lake.
It will be surreal after seeing it
so many times on television. I
am also looking forward to being
able to stay all week and soak up
the atmosphere, whilst hacking
Millie around the grounds.
I have got a rather large support
team coming with me which is
great. My mum, dad, boyfriend
and three dogs are coming down
for most of the week, closely
followed by a large gang of
supporters from my livery yard,
courtesy of the yard owner.
My brilliant physio Ailsa Vines
and one of my best friends from
University are also travelling
down to watch. Millie’s previous
owners and rider are also
coming, together with Karen
Huyton who recommended
Millie to me as she thought we
would get on so well. – how right
she was.
HAYLEY DUXBURY
I’m a full time Paramedic based
in a little village called Scorton
in Lancashire and this will be
my first time competing at the
Mitsubishi Motors Cup. I feel
incredibly privileged for this
PHOTO BY ADAM FANTHORPE
opportunity and very excited by
the prospect, I will be competing
at BE90 level. I have owned
Diamond After Chance for three
and a half years and this will
be our third season eventing
together. However it did take
nearly two months to be able
to actually get on him after
we bought him. He is quite
unique, he is full Irish Draft with
a quirky personality. I bought
him as a just broken five year old
from a local dealer. He had no
name but was soon christened
Dynamo as his party piece was
to go from 0-60mph at the
drop of a hat, he is sometimes
referred to as Usain Bolt. One
of his first forays into eventing
featured a near elimination in
the dressage as he bolted across
the arena. Luckily he seemed
to do this less as his eventing
10 April 2018 Equestrian Life