The organisers of Bramham Park horse trials breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the last competitor finish in the show jumping phase on Sunday with the weather conditions veering from one extreme to the other.

After having a very wet start earlier on in the week while getting the trade stands in place, leaving much of the trade stand walkways with a good covering of mud.

Thursdays showing classes had their fair share of heavy showers earlier in the day, leaving the organisers much work to do overnight in order to keep the rings and arenas up to scratch for the horses and riders by rolling, levelling and adding top soil.

Fridays classes of the British Young Event Horses, dawned bright and sunny and drew in thousands of spectators to watch these popular classes for four and five year old potential event horses where each combination does a dressage test in front of two judges, then moves on to a show jumping round judged on style, performance and faults, to finish on a trot up in front of another judge for movement and conformation. The three scores are then added together for the final result, with the top three from each class qualifying for the final at Burghley horse trials in September.

The competitors entered in the three day event saw Saturdays cross country day pouring down with rain, leaving much of the course knee deep in mud, particularly for those later on in the day. Spectators turned up in droves to watch this three star event with many of the United Kingdoms best riders in action.

The day proved to be action packed with some great performances of the horses and riders and some unfortunate ones with falls and refusals, none of which were seriously hurt. Typicially of the British weather, as the last horse finished at 5.30pm, the sun came out.

The final day for the show jumping, once again saw the organisers rolling and filling in hoof marks in readiness for the final phase of the three day event. Of the sixty five starters, forty two completed the event.

Our local Olympic rider, Nicola Wilson based near Thirsk finished fourth on her Mothers horse, Annie Clover, finishing on her dressage score of forty nine, having gone clear in the cross country and show jumping.

As Nicola and Annie cantered round in the lap of honour, Nicola gave a wave to her home crowds, to which she got a roar of approval from her supporters. Nicola said, “I am so thrilled with her, particularly on the cross country as it was a testing course along with the weather conditions, she just gave me everything she had”.

Charlotte Lawson fresh back from her Badminton Grass Roots achievement with Obsidian III where the pair finished third in the 90 section of the final, had entered Obsidians foal, Foxtrot, in the three year old potential young event horse in hand.

Charlotte was delighted when called up to take first place in the highly contested line up.

Sophie Blades from Newton upon Ouse gained her ticket to the Burghley young event horse final in the five year old class with Figment after finishing fourth. With the first three having already qualified, the tickets were passed down to fourth, fifth and sixth.

Last but not least, the Middleton pony club sent out a team to contest the inter pony club show jumping team of four competition.

The Middleton team comprising of Lois Teal riding Fleck, Martha Headley riding Belinda III, Emily Easterby riding Scrumpy Jack and Bethany Shipley riding Coedfryn Top Notch as usual kept up their winning performances by being the only team to get four clear rounds from the twenty three teams that took part, making them the outright winners with no need for a jump off .

The girls who had the biggest smiles on their faces despite being soaked through to the skin from the rain, opted to do the lap of honour on their own two feet rather than get their ponies wet again.