Suffolk young rider leads the way at Barefoot Estates Burnham Market

This weekend’s Barefoot Estates Burnham Market Horse Trials isn’t all about the big international classes in which many of the world’s top horses and riders are fighting for the spoils; the first day of competition was for less advanced combinations taking on the smaller jumps.

Leading the way was Bury St Edmunds based Bubby Upton who won the Novice Under 18 class on her new ride, Cannavaro. Already an experienced jockey having been part of last year’s British Junior team, Bubby’s partnership with Cannavaro is only three weeks old, but looks set to be exciting.

“He’s done a fair bit of show jumping before but only a few horse trials, so I had no idea how today would go, but he was a machine around the cross country course,” said a delighted Bubby. The Stowe School A level student was looking good to win the class on her other ride Cola III but she was a little behind the clock and incurred time penalties, finishing sixth in the same class. “Cola just went a little bit babyish out there, but having won at Lincolnshire Horse Trials last month I didn’t want to push him too hard.”

Other East Anglian riders in the ribbons included Leilia Paske from Ipswich, who finished third behind Bubby, Sedgeford’s Lucy Mason, seventh in the Open BE100 and Norwich rider Ben Westgate, fifth in a BE100.

Novice, Intermediate and Advanced competitors compete today (Friday), with the International combinations jumping on Saturday – interspersed with a couple of sessions of camel racing!