Equestrian Life Magazine September Issue 220 | Page 66

2013 Seib Search
For A Star And
Racehorse To Riding
Horse – Vale View

Vasco & Emma McPhail
Workers Winner

Photos by SMR Photos
The Search for a Star series
has been created by SEIB to
encourage amateur riders to
produce their horses to a high
standard in the show ring and
giving them the opportunity
to compete at the prestigious
finals at the Horse Of The Year
Show (HOYS). Each qualifying
competition follows the
same format, with classes for
Working Hunters, Riding Club
Show Horses, Show Hunters,
Show Ponies & Show Hunter
Ponies, Riding Horse/Hacks and
Cobs.
The final qualifier for the 2013
South Essex Insurance Brokers
Search For A Star championship
took place at Vale View Equestrian
Centre on Sunday 11th August
and 146 entries gave judges,
Richard Ramsay (conformation),
David Bartram (ride) and
Samantha Osbourne (assistant
ride) plenty to think about.

Working hunter
The course proved to be spooky
for no apparent reason and
caused several problems for the
9 entries, resulting in just 1 clear
and 2 with only 1 pole down to
go forward to the final judging.
First place went to Vasco, owned
and ridden by Emma McPhail, 21,
from Chesterfield. Emma has
owned the 11-year-old KWPN
gelding, known as Alfie at home,
for 6 years and has previously
focussed only on show jumping.
The pair now jump at Foxhunter
level and have qualified for the
Scope Show Jumping finals.
“This is our first attempt at
showing”, said a surprised Emma.
“The Scope final is on grass, so
we went to a local show and did
the working hunter to practice
jumping on grass. The judge
suggested that we give this a go,
but I never thought we would
get to HOYS”, she explained.
After a crash course in showing,
Emma took Alfie to Vale View
and their jumping experience
paid off, giving them the only
clear round. Emma is a 4th year
medical student at Birmingham
University and is only able to ride
at the weekends. During the
week, Alfie is looked after by her
mum, Margaret, who does all the

66

chores but does not ride, and dad,
Andy, who helps on show days
by doing the driving. “I have
really enjoyed it. I will continue
show jumping but now we will
do some more working hunter
classes as well and focus on
the preparation for HOYS. It’s
brilliant to have qualified! There
will be lots of medics present to
give support”, said Emma.
Second place went to Hannah
Carpenter from Worksop riding
her own Paulien. Hannah, 38, has
owned the 16-year-old chestnut
mare since she was 7, having
bought her through a friend. She
was living in Scotland at the time
and did some novice working
hunter and ridden hunter classes
at county level. “We had a
foal from her, which is now a
2-year-old and came second in
a young event prospect class”,
said Hannah. Paulien and Hannah
have been placed in several
novice classes, finishing 5th in the
novice working hunter at Derby
County Show, 6th in the novice
hunters at Notts County Show
and 5th in the Amateur hunter
class at the Festival of Hunting. “I
have been on a HOYS campaign
and thought we should try SFAS
as there are no professionals
and it has paid off. My daughter,
Megan, got me into showing.
She has been showing her
Welsh section D and doing well
and she persuaded me to give
it a go!” said Hannah, whose
partner, Carl, is also involved
as groom on show days. “She
jumped really well today. She
is strong, so she is not easy,
but she loves jumping. She is
by the stallion, Burggraaf, who
was known for his jumping. I
am so happy with this result,
it’s fabulous. You put in a lot of
work and it is just so nice when
something good comes out of
it!” said a delighted Hannah.

Riding club show
horse
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poles and two fences which
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