The Winter Classic Show at Addington Equestrian took place over the back end of last week and the venue played host to a number of qualifiers including the SEIB Winter Novice Qualifier held on Saturday morning. A large field of seventy-two competitors came forward with hopes of claiming one of two qualifying tickets available for the Championship Final at the Longines Royal International Horse Show, Hickstead next summer.
Course Designer Phil Ashworth built a fair track for the first round with twenty-seven of the initial starters producing a first round clear. The jump-off whittled the clears down to seven and the top of the leaderboard proved to be very tight with the first six placings separated by less than two seconds.
Brentwood based Michael Fursedonn took the win on board his own Cevins Pleasure, a 5-year-old British bred chestnut gelding by Cevin Z. They topped the leaderboard with a double clear in a time of 38.04 seconds. Just 0.06 of a second separated the top two placings with Helen Rees and her own 6 -ear-old British bred mare, Bianca Du Rouet, picking up the second qualifying ticket on offer after they crossed the finish line in 38.10 seconds.
Photo: Hoofprints Photography