Category: Scholar - Horse Trials Support Group

HTSG Scholar Alex Bragg - July Round Up

10/8/2018

Alex had a very busy and successful July, starting with 6 horses competing at Barbury International Horse Trials with four horses finishing their sections in the top ten...

After Barbury, Alex headed to Jardy in France and wow what an amazing event it was for him. Zagreb performed out of his skin in the Event Rider Masters (ERM) CIC3* section to lead from start to finish to claim a famous win. Not to be out done, Shannondale Percy finished 3rd in the other CIC3* section and in just their second competition together Alcatraz came 9th in the CIC2*.

After all the excitement of Jardy it was back home for Alex and Team Bragg for 7 horses at Dauntsey and then onto Aston Le Walls with four in the Intermediate - there was more success with two 3rd places for Bonmahon Blue Mist and King of the Mill.

After Aston Le Walls, Alex headed to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight for the inaugural London Capital & Finance Osborne Horse Trials. All three horses (Zagreb, Barrichello & Alcatraz) went well with star of the show being Barrichello taking second place.

To round up the month Team Bragg were out in full force at Wilton Horse Trials with an unbelievable 8 horses competing. There were another 2 winners, King of the Mill in the Intermediate and Cobalt De Dugny in the BE100.

HTSG Scholar Laura Collett - July Round Up

4/8/2018

Barbury International Horse Trials was first up for Laura in July with 5 horses in action. Two top 10 results in the CIC2* and an excellent 9th in the Event Rider Master CIC3*.

After Barbury Laura had a quick trip to Tweseldown and then onto Jardy in France with three horses, one in CIC1*, 2* and 3*. Star of the three was London 52, finishing in 11th place in the Event Rider Masters CIC3* class.

Back on home soil Laura had a successful visit to Dauntsey Park with two young horses both winning their classes...

dAston Le Walls was the next event for Laura and again another busy one with 5 horses competing, 3 in the Advanced, 1 Open Intermediate and 1 Novice. Laura's successful month continued with another double win, with Hanson DHI in the Novice and Dacapo in the Advanced 8/9 yr old class.

Sadly after this successful weekend Laura had some sad news to announce, which was that her recently retired four star campaigner Grand Manoeuvre (Milo) had been put down aged 14, just a few months after being retired.

Laura said she was “totally devastated” by the loss of “Milo”.

“It was such a hard decision to make but ultimately it was quite black and white,” she told H&H.

“He picked up an injury in his hoof, which is why he was retired in April. Milo had always had odd feet, but we were always able to manage them.

“We hoped he would have a year off and then come back to do some low-level dressage as he needed to remain active to keep his brain happy. He had been turned out during the day, but his soundness didn’t improve.

“When the ground became hard due to the weather, we decided to put him on box rest for a month to six weeks as he had become increasingly sore. Unfortunately even on box rest he became more and more lame, so it became clear that the kindest thing to do would be to put him to sleep.”

The month was rounded out with British Eventing updating their leading horse and rider tables and we were very pleased to see that Laura had moved up to 5th in the rider standings and Mr Bass continued to hold onto his number one position.

Alex Bragg talks to HTSG

18/7/2018

Alex Bragg, one of the HTSG scholars for 2018 talks to us about the support he has received and some of the benefits of being a member.

If you haven't heard Alex won the latest leg of the Event Rider Master on his top horse Zagreb. Read the full report on the ERM website.

HTSG Scholar Laura Collett - June Round Up

30/6/2018

Following Laura's brilliant second place at Luhmuhlen earlier this month she has continued to have a very successful few weeks with a 2nd place in the Event Rider Masters CIC3* at Arville on London 52.

The following weekend Laura headed to Great Witchingham Horse Trials where she had 3 top finishes. To round up a very successful month Laura was very excited to announce that she had been added to the Team GB long list for the World Equestrian Games on Mr Bass.

HTSG Scholar Alex Bragg - June Round Up

30/6/2018

June proved to be a very busy month for Alex with his increasing string of horses competing at various national and international events. At the beginning of the month he had 6 young horses running at West Wiltshire...

Next up for Alex was one of his local Somerset events, Nunney International Horse Trials where he had 9 horses over the weekend. It was a successful weekend with 7 top 10 places...

This busy month was finished off at Chepstow with 5 horses running all in one day. It was a day of mixed fortune but Alex continued to perform with his young horses with a win and a 3rd place...

HTSG Scholar Laura Collett - 2nd at Luhmühlen 4*

17/6/2018

Alex Bragg Yard Visit - Postponed

4/6/2018

This yard visit has been postponed until later in the year - full details will be provided in due course.

An exciting and exclusive members visit to Alex Bragg's yard in Somerset has been arranged for the 24th June.

Alex is one of the HTSG Scholars for 2018 and has kindly agreed to host a yard visit for 20 members.

The day will include:

A yard tour, explaining what kit and tack Alex and his team use.
An introduction to the horses, their achievements and plans for 2018.
Riding demonstrations in the arena and discussions about what Alex thinks makes a successful eventer and how his team try to produce horses to that standard.
Lunch with informal Q&A with Alex.

The visit will be at Poplars Equestrian, Chilton Trinity, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA5 2BG. It will start promptly at 10.30am and is expected to finish after lunch at approximately 1.30pm.

As this event is limited to just 20 members please complete the below contact form to register your interest in attending. This form will be closed on the 18th June or as soon as 20 members have registered an interest.

Badminton 2018 - Round-up

16/5/2018

The beginning of May saw our busiest and most exciting time of year, Badminton Horse Trials. After a very challenging start to the 2018 eventing season with many cancellations it was great to be at the biggest and best 4* event in the world and also enjoy some bright sunshine.

As always the Horse Trials Support Group had our members marquee just a stone’s throw from the main arena, offering members a great place to meet friends, watch the action on screens, enjoy good quality food and attend several events put on by the Committee.

197 members took up their Badminton passes this year which represents the majority of our membership – it was wonderful to greet so many of you in the marquee.

We hosted a number of events throughout the four days of the event which included:

Afternoon tea on the Thursday with a very interesting first day dressage review from Peter Storr, former British National Dressage Champion.
Informative cross country course walks on the Thursday and Saturday with Ginny Elliott, and Spencer Sturmey. We were honoured to have been joined by Lorna Clarke for the course walk on the Thursday. HTSG members were joined by some lucky British Eventing prize winners on the Saturday, along with a group of students from Haddon Training.

Yogi Breisner, former World Class Performance Manager also took a group of members around the course and was welcomed in the marquee throughout the event.
On the Friday evening nearly 100 members and guests attended the cross country preview evening. The panel was made up of Ginny Elliot, Tina Cook and our two scholars, Laura Collett and Alex Bragg. We were delighted to welcome Eric Winter, Course Designer, to the marquee, and he provided a really interesting insight into his thoughts when designing the toughest cross country course in the world.

Photos © Fiona Scott-Maxwell

On Saturday during our pre-cross country breakfast we were joined by the fascinating Diarm Byrne of EquiRatings who talked us through the stats from dressage and gave us some predictions for the cross country.

Finally, on Sunday we conducted our raffle prize draw – there were some amazing prizes donated. Many thanks to Dodson & Horrell, Holland Cooper, Fairfax & Favor, Timothy Foxx Clothing, KM Elite Products, Point Two Air Jackets, Burghley Horse Trials, Blenheim Palace Horse Trials, Barbury International Horse Trials, Mojowristbands.co.uk, HiHo Silver, Annabel Brocks, Sederholm, Pol Roger, British Eventing Official, English Tweed & Patchwork Co.

Laura Collett with the many prizes from our raffle

We would like to thank our members and guests for their generous support at these events over the four days.

Read how Scholar Alex Bragg faired at Badminton 2018

View photos taken by HTSG Committee Member Michael Rogers

Chatsworth 2018, HTSG Scholar, Laura Collett

15/5/2018

Last weekend our second training Scholar for 2018 Laura Collett headed to Chatsworth International Horse Trials to compete on three horses in the CIC3* - Dacapo, London 52 and top horse Mr Bass.

Laura and Mr Bass were competing in the first leg of the Event Rider Masters series.

Photo © Fiona Scott-Maxwell

Laura and Mr Bass scored a personal best in the dressage and were leaders after the first phase on a score of 25.3. Laura was quick to directly thank the Horse Trials Support Group for the additional training her scholarship funding has allowed her to secure.

On Sunday Laura headed into the show jumping as overnight leader and last to go, but unfortunately had four faults with one fence down. The show jumping proved tricky with only nine of the 39 competitors jumping clear and within the time.

Photo © Fiona Scott-Maxwell

Heading into cross country everything was still to play for as at Chatsworth the time is incredibly influential. Laura and Mr Bass jumped a lovely clear round with just 6.4 time penalties to finish an excellent fourth place.

Photos © Fiona Scott-Maxwell

Although Laura was a little disappointed to have four faults in the show jumping, the key thing about this run is that it was a really good preparation run for the 4* event at Luhmuhlen in just over four weeks time.

Badminton 2018 - HTSG Scholar, Alex Bragg

10/5/2018

Alex and the rest of Team Bragg Eventing set off to Badminton with high hopes for his two rides, Mrs Nuttall and Mr & Mrs Roe's Redpath Ransom and the huge Zagreb owned by Mrs Sally Ellicott. The first trot up went without a hitch with Alex looking very smart courtesy of Timothy Foxx and Mackenzie & George - we feel he could have easily won the Hiho Silver sponsored Best Dressed competition.

Thursday morning was an early start as Alex was drawn to go fifth on Zagreb who did a great dressage test, looking relaxed and happy.

Photo © Fi Boughton

Photo © Sweet-Images Photography / Hiho Silver

Photo © MDR Photo

Redpath Ransom was a little tense with the atmosphere heightened as it always is on Friday afternoon. Alex said ‘Both my boys tried really hard on their dressage. Zagreb performed a consistent test for a competitive sub 30 score. Redpath Ransom’s nerves got the better of him and the tension prevented him from picking up good marks’.

We saw Alex again on Friday evening along with fellow scholar Laura Collett as they were presented with their Training Scholar awards at our Cross-Country Preview Evening. Their humour was well received by the crowd, who valued their insight into the course.

Photo © MDR Photo

Photo © MDR Photo

Saturday dawned bright, we bumped into Alex walking the course and he was happy and looking forward to the day. Zagreb was early out on the course and stormed confidently round, unfortunately breaking a pin at Fence 18. It was great to see them through the finish with a smile.

Alex & Zargreb - Photos © MDR Photo

The great sadness of the afternoon was the catastrophic injury to Redpath Ransom on the flat towards the end of the course - until then he had given Alex an amazing ride around the course with Alex really getting the crowd cheering at the lake. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the entire team.

Alex & Redpath Ransom - Photos © MDR Photo

Alex bravely presented Zagreb for the second horse inspection on Sunday morning. Simmone and Heather had Zagreb looking fantastic and he passed with no problems. The show jumping course caused many problems and was very tight for time. Zagreb jumped a great round for just 4 faults and the crowd appreciated Alex’s obvious pleasure with his horse.

Photo © Fi Boughton

Overall, it was not the Badminton the team were hoping for but we are delighted to hear of new horses joining the team in the coming weeks and look forward to the yard visit to meet them all in June (keep an eye on Facebook and here on the website for more info).