Jess Johnson from Terrington and who is newly sponsored by Kruger Saddlery, had a fantastic start to her eventing season at the British Eventing horse trials at Bishop Burton College at the weekend.

Jess and her mount Mr Boyze were entered in the 90 open class, which is mainly for horses and rider with points but also open to any combination without points if the regular 90 classes are full which therefore gives you a slight disadvantage as you are up against some more experienced horses and riders.

Not to be deterred, Jess and Mr Boyze caught the judges eye in the dressage phase by completing a near foot perfect test finishing with a score of thirty one, putting them on the top of the leader board with Francesca Kennedy riding Wix Tula Magic and the Area 4 riding clubs chairman, Richard Thompson riding Musick Maker who all finished with the same dressage score.

There was all to play for with the show jumping phase with only fourteen of the thirty seven starters managing to go with a clear round in the up to height and technical track, again saw Jess, Francesca and Richard remain at the top of the leader board.

The start of the cross country phase saw a few riders worrying about the very wet and slippery conditions over the course, which later on in the day, after having had numerous horses go round ended up very muddy in places.

Jess and Mr Boyze who relish being out in the open countryside, tackling all manner of obstacles in their path, made the course and conditions look easy to finish clear and inside the optimum time, leaving them with a long wait to see if Francesca and Richard could do the same.

With the three of them finishing on their dressage scores of thirty one and all going double clear, the results finished on the time nearest the optimum for the cross country which ended up with one second between the top three, putting Francesca first, then Jess second, followed by Richard in third.

Jess and Mr Boyze who missed all of 2012 due to injury and only managed to compete in three BE competitions last year, now look set to have a great year ahead.

The pair regularly compete on the junior teams in all disciplines for Malton Riding Club and have had much success, having already been to the dressage championships at Hartpury College this year where the team finished ninth nationally.

The pair will now be busy packing for next weekend where they will be competing at the Festival of the Horse at Aston le Walls to take part in the open section of the British Riding Clubs championships open show cross class, having qualified at the qualifier at Epworth in March this year.

Jess said “hopefully this will set us up nicely for the championships next weekend, Boyze just gives me an amazing feeling out on the cross country, he loves it”.