Blenheim Eventers’ Challenge- 20th September 2024

Our report from Sophie Jinks on the Blenheim Eventers Challenge- 20th September 2024.

Following on from last years success in the 90, this year we fielded a team in the 100 eventers challenge, made up of Molly, Tabby, Jacky and Sophie.

We competed in a small arena in the middle of the trade stand area. The course was made up of 7 showjumps, followed by 11 XC efforts, with lots of tricky lines, undulations and a water splash and finally the joker (a decent sized plank) to finish. The competition is based on scoring as few penalties as possible as well as being as close to the optimum time as possible, there’s a five second window where you don’t score any time penalties, and the closest to the optimum times wins! We were lucky enough to walk the course with Jonty Evans who gave us some tips and pointers about how the course had ridden the previous day and how to get as close to the optimum time as possible!

Everybody put in accurate and well ridden rounds where we were all really close to the optimum time, however the joker caught us all out which was a costly 6 penalties! We finished 10th/24 teams but really enjoyed the experience of competing at such a prestigious venue! Hopefully we get more opportunities to go and do this again next year!