IT was an early start for equine enthusiast Gracie Beck, 12, from Holsworthy Community College when she travelled all the way to Chard, Somerset, recently to attend a show jumping event.

She competed with her horse Harriet and was delighted with the results. Gaining a first place in the 70cm jump category.

Describing the day, Gracie said: “I had to get up at 6am as I had to muck out our three horses and turn them out into the paddock. I also had to brush my horse, Harriet, and put her travelling boots on (these are put on before a journey to stop any injuries whilst travelling) before we could leave at 9am. I was super excited to see how well I would do in the competition, but a bit nervous in case I messed up.

“This was only my second show on Harriet as I have only had her for about four months. She is only four years old and we have to do a lot of training together so we can both improve. This was also only my second event where I have jumped both 60cm and 70cm, although once a week I go to my trainer to practice jump.

“In the 60cm jumps we have to negotiate 12 jumps in total and we have to learn the order beforehand. If you do them in the wrong order you get disqualified! I was absolutely delighted as I was awarded first place out of 15. I won this as I had a double clear round (this means that Harriet and I jumped over all the jumps without penalty) and I did it in the fastest time.

“I then competed in the 70cm jumps. Again, there were 12 jumps to negotiate. Unfortunately, we knocked down two of the jumps because Harriet ran too fast so she messed up her striding and didn’t take off from the correct point. We will both learn from this and practice more for next time. I still came sixth out of 14, so that was still good and I was very pleased as this was my first time with the 70cm jumps.

“In the 60cm jump I was the fourth rider and in the 70cm jump I was the first rider and as these events were close together I only had about half an hour between the two events.

“Whilst I was waiting for my events I had to learn the courses, get Harriet ready, get myself ready and warm up. I did manage to watch a few of the other events too, which were interesting and enjoyable.”

She added: “We finally got home around 8.30pm that evening and both Harriet and I were exhausted!”