Lucky rider put through her paces by international eventer
An international eventer gave a masterclass on Sunday 6 December to one lucky rider who put in the highest bid as part of an online auction to raise funds to send the British Team to the World Equestrian Games in 2010.
Samantha Bowman from Tamworth was the lucky recipient of a lesson with Oliver Townend at his base in Ellesmere, Shropshire. Oliver is on the British Equestrian Federation’s World Class Performance Programme and won both Burghley and Badminton this year. He was also part of the British Eventing Gold medal winning team at the European Championships in September.
Oliver said: ‘We did a lot of work on the flat getting Samantha’s horse moving in the first part of the session and then we progressed onto some jumping and working on her lines in the second half.’
Samantha rode her six-year-old horse Cardonagh Lass who has been competing successfully in British Show Jumping competitions and is hoping to take part in British Eventing competitions next year. She said: ‘I was over the moon when I found out I was the successful bidder; it’s not often you get the chance to have one on one tuition with a British Eventing team European gold medalist! It was a fantastic opportunity and I really feel like I benefited from Oliver’s expertise.’
The Olympic and Paralympic teams are generously supported by lottery funding via UK Sport, but the non-Olympic sports of driving, endurance, reining and vaulting do not receive funding of any kind. £500,000 is needed to support all the teams and fund their trip to Kentucky next year.
The auction site has been launched with the support of the John Lewis Partnership who joined forces with the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) as part of the British Olympic Association FTSE 100 partnership scheme. There are still a number of lots available in the auction so for more details log onto http://auction.equestrianteamgbr.co.uk/
