Becky gets a leg up from the Whitakers

Now a strip to the Stoneleigh Park nationals beckon with Moncrieff admitting she could never have envisaged such 2013 success.

Beckwithshaw Community Primary School pupil Moncrieff was crowned prelim champion at the Under-25 BYRDs Championships, which attracted over 900 entries to Sheepgate Equestrian near Boston and included riders from all over the UK.

After finishing their semi-final in third place, Moncrieff rode her own British-bred five-year-old pony DST Don’t Panic, or Ollie as he is known at home, to first place in the Ballie Haylage Preliminary Championship final with a score of 71.97 per cent in a strong field of 30 riders.

The youngster also won the trophy as the highest placed fledgling rider (aged 11 and under) and, in the separate team championship, Moncrieff’s Northern Jacob team finished third overall.

The success did not end there. Before the Under-25 Championships, Moncrieff rode DST Don’t Panic at the PetPlan Area Festival at Port Royal ECC, where she won the Novice Restricted class with 70.6 per cent.

That effort qualified her for the Winter Championships at Hartpury in April, 2014 – a competition open to riders of all ages.

Then, to finish off her fantastic two weeks, the Harrogate star was awarded a wild-card to the National Dressage Championships at Stoneleigh to ride in the Prelim class against the best riders in the UK. By competing in qualifiers from December to June, riders can qualify for one of seven summer regional finals.

Moncrieff rode at Frys near Beverley, finishing fourth overall with a score of 70.15 per cent and, subsequently, a trip to the nationals awaits.

All of this has come from a partnership only put together in February with Moncrieff admitting she has been overwhelmed by the success.

“I never dreamt when we did our first test in February that we would be going to the Nationals in September,” Moncrieff told the Yorkshire Post. “Ollie is from a German Pony Stallion FS Don’t Worry but British-bred and before we bought him he’d never been inside a dressage arena and only lightly schooled since the summer. We only bought him last December.”

Eight months on, Moncrieff and her equine friend have much to celebrate with the youngster admitting her dressage pride and joy is something of a character.

“Ollie shows his age in the warm-up sometimes because he’s only five years old,” she said. “He can be very cheeky, but when he goes into the arena he always ups his game for me and rises to the occasion.

“If he was a person, I’m sure he would be a surfer with his wild mane, he’s a real lads lad and not afraid to be a mucky pup but every morning I get a welcome whinny as if to say it’s field time!”

The duo can now look towards Stoneleigh where Moncrieff hopes to be placed but says anything would be a bonus. “He has exceeded all my expectations this year and more!”

A HUDDERSFIELD-based show-jumping enthusiast has hailed an apprenticeship scheme that helped land a “dream job” with William and George Whitaker.

Becky Pickles, 16, has benefited from an equine apprenticeship with Chesterfield-based Stubbing Court Training Ltd (SCT).

The scheme matches keen young people with the right employers and offers both sides considerable support.

Pickles now works for William and George Whitaker in their highly successful show-jumping yard in Huddersfield – travelling with their horses to shows all over Europe. The teenager has recently been to Millstreet in Ireland with forays to Spain and Germany next on the agenda. George Whitaker was formerly an SCT apprentice, and a former ‘Apprentice of the Year ‘winner.

Pickles beamed: “Because I am young, it would have been very hard to get a job like this and I wouldn’t have achieved it without being part of SCT’s.

“I’ve always found it much easier to learn in a practical way, rather than just being handed a bit of paper at school, so an apprenticeship – where I learn on the job while getting amazing help and guidance from both the Whitaker family and SCT – is perfect.”

For more information on SCT’s apprenticeships visit www.stubbingcourttraining.com