Amy Small in the stable of champions (From Gazette & Herald)

Amy Small in the stable of champions

9:30am Wednesday 10th October 2012 in Equestrian

IT turned out to be a good omen for Amy Small when she was offered the stable of three-times Grand National winner Red Rum at Aintree Racecourse as she went on to become a national titleholder at the British Riding Clubs Dressage to Music Championships.

The party atmosphere was already in full swing as Amy, from Stocktonon- the-Forest, celebrated her 14th birthday just a few days previously but the icing on the cake was to come at the prestigious national championships last weekend.

Riding her five-year-old black gelding Piper, Amy delivered a top-class performance to lift the Preliminary Championship title by an impressive margin, finishing seven per cent ahead of her nearest rival.

Amy, representing Malton and District Riding Club, was rewarded with a silver salver, a sash, a rosette and some dressage boots for Piper.

“The facilities at Aintree really are state of the art and the atmosphere was incredible,” said local instructor, Nicky Lyons, trainer for Malton Riding Club.

“The stable manager showed us to Red Rum’s stable and said ‘I hope this box brings Area 4 some good luck’ and it certainly did. I am so proud of Amy; she pulled off the performance of a lifetime to clinch this deserving victory.”

This was not the end of Amy’s equestrian action for the weekend.

After leaving Aintree at 7am on Sunday and stopping off at home to pick up her brother Callum and his horse Java, the family headed straight to Bishop Burton for the National Schools’ Equestrian Association show jumping competition.

Amy and Callum joined forces with Katherine Holmes and Georgie Cutt to finish third in the 90cm showjumping championship representing Huntington School. Emily Green took the place of Georgie to finish runner-up in the one metre team contest.