Tim Davies & Nielson claim the prestigious Equitop GLME Senior Foxhunter Championship
Saturday 10 October 2020
.jpg "Tim Davies & Nielson claim the prestigious Equitop GLME Senior Foxhunter Championship")
A field of thirty-three starters was whittled down to an eight way jump off for the historic Senior Foxhunter Championship Title sponsored by Equitop GLME this evening at the British Showjumping Indoor Championships at Aintree Equestrian Centre. For Tim Davies from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk with Lisa Volk’s 7 year-old chestnut gelding Nielson (Bentley van de Kapel x Indecis des Six Censes) it was a well-deserved victory when they jumped clear to stop the clock a second ahead of the previous leader to claim the title as theirs.
The course, designed by international course designer Mark McGowan, asked just the right number of questions of those that came forward with many being caught out by the related distances early on in the course. For the eight that then came forward for the second and final timed round the focus was very much on keeping the turns as tight as possible before the final tight turn back to the final stretch down the arena to a large green and red oxer.
Four managed to jump a second round clear with the first coming from Emma Crawford with Gina Gold when she posted a time of 42.60 seconds to set the standard for others to follow. It was Tim as the third rider to come forward that then edged ahead of her with his time of 40.69 seconds, almost two seconds faster. With five riders left to come behind him he had certainly applied some pressure for those to follow and it paid off with none of them managing to get close to his time. It was only two further combinations that posted a clear, the next some coming from Danielle Ryder with the big striding Sam van de Tojophoeve Z but their turns just weren’t tight enough though to catch Tim with them stopping the clock at 41.71 seconds. The final double clear came from the last combination to come forward, Faye Adams and Gladiator VI when they broke the finish line clear, despite their martingale breaking midway round, in a time of 42.13 seconds.
Keeping the rhythm going on the turns was what, without doubt, delivered the win which winner Tim Davies explained after the presentation by saying “I think we can push horses out of their natural rhythm sometimes against the clock and I work hard to make sure that I don’t do that as I think once you lose the rhythm that’s when you start losing time. I knew that I could turn back tight to the double and to the final line, so I just tried to do that and keep him in rhythm as I knew he could jump them.
“I really liked the track today as I think it got it right, it was won on the turns and big jumping and not a jump off where you needed to gallop against each other. He’s such a great horse, I have high hopes for him as I think he’s really special and I’m so pleased he has done this as he deserves the recognition it brings.”
Talking about Nielson and also the plans for the future he said “I have to thank his owner Lisa Volk as she found him as a skinny 2 year-old and obviously saw something in him and I couldn’t be more delighted that he’s come out and done this for her as well. Lisa helps on the yard and she is supportive no matter how they go. To have an owner like Lisa that supports in this way and helps with them is also something I really enjoy and I’m so happy for her. Nielson was ridden by her daughter originally and then I took him over about 18 months ago. Our plans now are that we will probably do some international shows with him. As everyone knows, I usually do all the county shows, but with the way things are and not knowing whether we will even have any next year I’ll take him abroad and let him gain some experience from competing in different environments.”
The British Showjumping Indoor Championships runs between the 7 – 11 October at Aintree Equestrian Centre with a number of the major British Showjumping national titles being run across the event. Further information on the show can be found at www.aintreeequestriancentre.org and livestream from the event is available at www.britishequestriansport.tv powered by Clip My Horse TV.
RESULTS:
1 Tim Davies / Nielson (0/0 40.69)
2 Danielle Ryder / Sam vd Tojopehoeve Z (0/0 41.71)
3 Faye Adams / Gladiator VI (0/0 42.13)
4 Emma Crawford / Gina Gold (0/0 42.60)
5 Lorraine Lock / Artisan (0/0 43.80)
6 Annabel Shields / Cartender (0/4 43.89)
Image courtesy of Majestic Photography
