Tuesday June 6, 2023
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Gosling Cup
The Essex Hunt North Gosling Cup team in 1969!

The Essex Hunt North Gosling Cup team in 1969!

The Gosling Cup is a well-established and long-running competition, unique to Area 8. Mrs Gill Lyster, daughter of the late Mrs Gosling, presents the Cup annually.

It is open to teams in the southern Branches of Area 8, to participate in a competition that consists of:

  • Turnout of Pony & Rider: in which pony, rider and tack are all assessed individually (marks out of 20)
  • Individual Ride: a current dressage test
  • Team Ride: a special quadrille dressage test, in which all four ponies are in the arena together! See the test for yourself: Gosling Cup Team Ride
  • Handy Hunter Trial: using whatever cross-country course is available, this includes some simple challenges e.g. opening gates
  • Show Jumping

The Gosling Cup has a special scoring system: the GOSLING CUP RULES – 2022 . Each year, the competition is hosted by one of the participating Branches.  It is a brilliant day with spectators, who are also often previous Gosling Cup competitors themselves.

 

The History of The Gosling Cup

This competition was the brainchild in 1945 of the late Mrs MS Gosling, the then District Commissioner of the East Essex Hunt Pony Club, for her own branch and for teams from four adjacent branches.

Rachel Gosling and her contemporaries were concerned about varying standards within the Pony Club in the early years after the war, and the original competition included turnout to help raise those standards, individual ride – today’s dressage, showjumping and handy hunter – our cross country.  Gymkhana events rounded off the day but this was long ago dropped in favour of a team ride.

Truly a blueprint for the present form of a one-day event, the success of The Gosling Cup over the past seventy years has led to a refinement of the rules, and an expansion in the number of competitors, as it now involves up to twenty five teams of four members from invited Pony Club Branches in Essex, Suffolk, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

 

Tack & Turnout Table Score  PDF

Gosling Cup – 27th Aug 23 –  Stratford Hills  kindly hosted by Essex & Suffolk PC