Twenty-nine-year-old Michael Fursedonn, from Brentwood, Essex on board his own 6 year-old bay gelding Darcode took the win in the last of the 2014 EquestrianClearance.com Senior Newcomers Second Rounds held at Patchetts Equestrian Centre in Watford, Hertfordshire on Sunday 3rd August. The class proved to be popular with eighty-one combinations turning out to compete ahead of theEquestrianClearance.com Senior Newcomers Masters which will be held at the Alexanders Horseboxes British Showjumping Scope Festival.
Up for grabs at this second round were two direct qualifying tickets for the EquestrianClearance.com Senior Newcomers Championship Final at the Horse of the Year Show and each competitor was hoping to take one of these tickets as their own.
From the eighty-one starters, twelve combinations went on to produce the two clear rounds needed to make it through into the final jump off. In the jump off itself, eight combinations went on to secure a third clear, which meant that the time became a crucial factor in deciding the order of results and the allocation of the qualification places.
Michael and Darcode were drawn eighth to go in the jump off and put another foot perfect round in to gain their treble clear in 36.71 seconds.
Michael said on his win “I am really pleased with Darcode’s performance; he deserved the win as he jumped his heart out. We narrowly missed out on a Horse of the Year Show place a couple of weeks ago so knew this was our last chance to get one.”
