News | 3 February 2026
Area Spring Festival SJ Qualifiers
The day started bright and early with an 8am course walk for the 70cm teams. This was a huge class with 19 teams entered and a very strong and beautiful dressed 70cm track. Flamstead’s relatively inexperienced teams rose to the occasion, producing 7 beautiful double clear rounds.
Riding an exceptionally quick time for 3rd place and an individual qualification spot was Nicole, riding her sister’s lovely grey pony Freckles. Also stealing his sister’s pony for a lovely quick round was Hugo, with a well deserved 8th place. They were joined on the Flamstead Bluebells team by Frank, returning from injury, to also jump clear and put the team in an excellent 3rd place.
STOP PRESS Hugo has since also been awarded a Qualification place!
The Flamstead Primroses of Euan, Violet and Flora finished a slightly slower but very respectable 6th with 3 super clear rounds. Violet had a busy morning as she also produced a lovely clear on new pony Hugo.
Moving on to the 80cm and, after a quick course walk, the Flamstead riders were first in to jump. First rider Zoe set the standard with a blisteringly fast round on Tom, leading the class for much of the morning to eventually finish 2nd and take a well deserved qualification spot. Jemima also jumped a fabulous fast clear for 7th.
With 17 teams entered it was always going to be tough to take the single team qualification spot. The Flamstead Irises team of Zoe, Leila and Chloe came very close with just an unlucky 4 faults for Chloe, when taking on a super tight turn, putting the team in (a still very respectable) 4th. The Flamstead Lilacs of Frank, Sienna and Jemima were close behind in 8th with Frank and Sienna just adding a pole on otherwise lovely rounds.
There was a lot to look at for Zoe, Rory, Chloe, Leila and Jemima H as they took on the colourful 90cms course . Not only were the fences full on and up to height, the course included some meaty 95cms oxers and daunting fillers as well.
However, this was no problem for Zoe and Tom who rode a fast and clever clear to 4th place in the class and earned them an individual spot at Spring Festival Champs. Massive well done to them!
Rory and Roxy’s recent hard work paid off as they rode a super steady careful CLEAR 90 (Woo Hoo says his mum! 😂) to be Flamstead’s second highest round scorer at 14th place.
Then we had three girls on three greys riding their second round of the day – Jemima H and Chloe I and Leila C. All rode their talented ponies fast and beautifully but had an unlucky pole during their rounds.
Scores were added up and the Flamstead Daffodils 90cms Team comprising of Zoe, Leila and Chloe came a super respectable 4th in the Teams section. Massive well done to all our 90 riders for supporting their club at this qualifier, trying their hardest and jumping their collective socks off.
Next up, we had three talented teen riders, Maya, Millie and Molly making up the Flamstead Tulips 1m team and boy did they show everybody how to take on the colourful course!
Maya and Kadier exploded into the arena and proceeded to show off their combined athleticism and grab a beautiful clear enabling them to come an individual 5th.
Even faster was Millie on her small but mighty Poppy who flew round making it look easy and scooping up another clear for Flamstead and accelerating them into individual 2nd place.
Molly and her amazing Percy did brilliantly, took it a little steadier with their time and jumped a really beautiful round with only one unlucky pole.
Their combined scores meant that the Flamstead Tulips WON the 1m class and are through to the Spring Festival Championships!
In the last class of the day, Flamstead was simply superb. There were 7 clear rounds out of the 20 riders in the class – and 4 of them were Flamstead! Maya, Millie, Federica and Josie then went into the jump off, with Maya and Millie going fast and clear again! It was a resounding win for the Flamstead Alliums team, with all 4 girls qualifying for the Spring Festival AND – the sugar on top – the top 4 individuals in this class also qualified for the Royal Windsor Horse Show – so very many congratulations to Maya and Millie, who will be competing there on behalf of Area 12 in May.
Huge well done to our amazing riders and their clever horses and we wish them the best of luck at Champs🔥
