YOUNG British Showjumping rider Lucy Carver, 15, from Weaverthorpe, and a pupil at Norton College, has had fantastic start to 2014 by qualifying her two ponies for the BSJA jumping rounds at the Royal International Show, Hickstead, in July.

The first to qualify was the talented, coloured eight-year-old Powerstation, at Southview Equestrian Centre, near Manchester, where the pair finished third after jumping three clear rounds.

Lucy then had a second outing to the same venue, this time taking Carnalecka Quickstep, a seven-yearold gelding. Once again she had three clear rounds to finish third in almost copybook rounds to Powerstation.

The courses start off with round one at around 1.15m, the second around 1.25m and the third round standing at around 1.30m, with some big spreads – no mean feat for ponies under 14.2hh high.

Lucy said: “I am delighted with both the ponies. They are showing such maturity and competitiveness at this level and to qualify so early just takes off a bit of pressure.”

Lucy will still be kept busy with preparing an exciting five-year-old pony prospect and making the transition from ponies to horses, which gives a totally different feel as they obviously are bigger and don’t tend to be as nippy or turn as quickly and sharply as ponies can.