From 6am on Sunday the horse boxes rolled into the British Eventing Affiliated Horse Trials at Frenchfield, Penrith with 285 competitors arriving from across the region to enjoy the undulating terrain around Grant and Anna Rowley’s farm. Organisers of the event Lucinda and Douglas Weymouth from Bampton report the ground conditions proved perfect with many compliments coming from all quarters on the state of the going in the Show Jumping and Cross Country areas. By 8 o’clock all five dressage arenas were in action and 120 volunteers had arrived to help marshal and judge the three class levels throughout the day. The Frenchfield trials have become a popular grassroots competition in the national fixtures programme and although membership within the sport is under pressure in these difficult economic times, to ensure the two days were successful the organisers chose to provide an unaffiliated and complimentary fixture on Bank Holiday Monday which was attended by a further 175 entrants for a similar set of classes supplemented by a much smaller 70cm class. Local rider Lisa Shuttleworth from Appleby riding Athlone Fantasy enjoyed a second place in BE90 Section K in the British Eventing class by remaining on her dressage scores of 28.8. On Monday Amy Veitch from Newbiggin also took a 2nd Place in the 90cm unaffiliated class in Section D. Douglas Weymouth commented ‘we were so pleased with the two days and the support we’re getting to keep running these events and it was especially heartening to see the standard of horsemanship and turnout was as excellent as ever’. The next horse trial in the County organised by Cumbria Horse Trials takes place at Warwick Hall on 21st May again with a complimentary Eventer Derby event the following day.’
