Equestrian Life May 2018 Issue

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Champions of
Champions Show
A brand new showing Championhips is all set to launch
this Summer, a great idea for Riding Clubs and individual
riders alike. We caught up with the show’s Organiser,
Sarah Harrison, to find out a little bit more.
Do you come from a horsey background
I am now 35 years old and have been showing
since I was seven, I got my first pony for
my 6th birthday and started to compete the
following year at my local riding clubs. My
mum has always had horses and competed at
Riding club level.
What are your earliest showing memories
My earliest memories are riding at Leigh and
district and Bolton Riding club when I was
seven years old on my first pony Jinja, but
my all-time favourite has to be my beloved
Chantilly Lace VI. I would say I love all
showing classes, it’s definitely a way of life
rather than a hobby.
I quickly progressed to BSPS the following
year and then I moved on to a professional
producers’ yard the year after. I had five years
on Team Hollings from 1992 to 1996 and rode
at HOYS for the first time in 1992 aged nine. I
then went on to produce my own ponies from
home myself up to the present day. I am a
Star judge for BSPS, CHAPS, SSADL and AHS.
I have judged at the highest level including
Royal Windsor, The Royal International
Horse Show and The Horse of the Year Show
and the reason I have created Stars is to put
something back into grassroots Showing.
Tell us briefly about the Star
Championships idea?
STARS Championship has been created
after reminiscing about my childhood on a
Facebook.
I have competed at Riding Club for many
years, apart from my best show ponies I had
a couple of family ponies that I used to take
to our local riding clubs and try to qualify for
Birchinley Manor which was run by the late
Melvern Jones. This show was simply the
best and in its hayday, 52 Riding Clubs used
to meet to fight it out, to win at Birchinley – it
was a great honour!!
This show was simply
the best and in its
hayday, 52 Riding
Clubs used to meet to
fight it out, to win at
Birchinley – it was a
great honour!!
It came to my attention that for over a decade
the riding club world had nothing to aspire
to and no end of season championship show
that you had to qualify for and represent your
riding club so that’s how STARS got created,
although our show is like no other riding club
event with our format of a 50/50 marking
system with HOYS Star judges and lots and
lots of extras like working in time slots,
golden ticket qualification cards sent by post
and bridle numbers. I do believe that with
all our experience competing and judging at
such an high level The STARS team can create
the most prestigious Riding club of the year
event.
Who can compete at the Championships
Each Riding Club who has affiliated with
STARS will send their end of season points
winner to compete, this qualification can be
passed down to reserve or 2nd reserve if for
whatever reason the first two can’t go to stars
to represent their club.
Do you need to qualify as an individual to
compete
Yes, you need to qualify has an individual.
STARS is running 30 classes this year and we
aim to build on that next year and people who
want to compete at STARS need to become a
member of an affiliated club and then go to
all their clubs point shows throughout the
season aiming to be points champion which
will then automatically qualify them for
stars champion of champions. Only the same
combination of horse /pony and rider are
eligible no substitute are allowed.
Each riding club will run a series of their
own point shows to then send their points
champion to compete at STARS.
Who will be running the event with you?
My close team are myself, my Mum Sharon
Harrison, Caroline Hamilton, Marie Wakefield
and Nigel Hollings.
How can Clubs get involved and is there a
cut-off date?
Any riding club that runs a series of points
shows can affiliate with stars. If they contact
me via our fb page I will send them an
affiliation form which they need to fill in and
return by post once they have done this I will
then add them to stars affiliated club list.
We don’t have a time deadline but we have
capped the affiliation to 50 clubs this year
due to our timetable, hopefully next year we
will run over more days and be open to an
unlimited amount of clubs. We aim to be a
national riding club event.
Are these Championships for anyone
or just amateur, home-produced
competitors?
We are aiming for the riding club competitors
and if your horse/pony as qualified for HOYS
in the current year you are not eligible to
compete at Stars. This show is a meant to be
a ‘Riding Clubs HOYS’ and we want to give
people a taste of the limelight, give them
ambition to try and climb the showing ladder
to finally ride at HOYS. This show is for
grassroots competitors and we hope that the
fact you need to go to a Riding club all season
to collect points to qualify for stars this will
eliminate any pot hunters wanting to take the
spotlight.
12 May 2018 Equestrian Life