Exceptional year sees success at all levels for Yorkshire

With the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games just seven months away, this puts them on an excellent footing for the challenge to come. Only Britain and Germany won medals in all four disciplines – eventing, showjumping, dressage and para-equestrian dressage.

Britain’s dressage team of Laura Bechtolsheimer, Charlotte Dujardin, Emile Faurie and Carl Hester were on terrific form in Rotterdam to win team gold. Hester also won two individual medals and Bechtolsheimer took individual bronze in the Grand Prix Special.

Our eventing team, including Northallerton’s Nicola Wilson, won team bronze in Luhmuhlen, while in showjumping, the team of Ben Maher, Nick Skelton, Guy Williams and Huddersfield’s John Whitaker fought hard to secure a bronze medal – our first team medal since 2007. Skelton also won bronze in the individual contest.

At the para-equestrian dressage championships in Belgium, Britain’s female squad took not only team gold, but a further seven individual golds and three silvers.

Closer to home, there were many successes to celebrate in Yorkshire, but some disappointments too. There was much excitement when it was announced that top class showjumping would be returning to Sheffield. The new Yorkshire International Showjumping Event was to have been held at the Sheffield Arena at Easter. But only a couple of months after the official launch came news that the event was being cancelled, due to a lack of sponsorship and advance ticket sales.

There was good news, however, in another part of the county, with the revival of the Hull Show after a gap of nearly 30 years. After a trial run in East Park last year, British Showjumping’s Area 15A committee decided to run a bigger event in August. This resulted in a great response from both competitors and spectators, with over 20,000 people visiting the park on the day of the show.

Hull Show was voted one of the top three shows in the country this year by British Showjumping members – quite an accolade considering the other two were major players in Hickstead and the Scope Festival.

Bramham International Horse Trials always provides its fair share of excitement and this year was no exception. A combination of good weather, increased TV coverage and a testing cross-country course designed by the former Olympic rider, Ian Stark, saw 59,000 people attend the four-day event.

The title went to a German rider for the first time in the event’s history. Kai Rueder was in the lead after the cross-country and jumped faultlessly in the final showjumping phase to finish ahead of Polly Stockton, with Oliver Townend in third.

Rueder’s victory was in part due to Yorkshireman Chris Bartle – the national coach for the German three-day event squad and who originally hails from the Yorkshire Riding Centre at Markington.

One of the highlights of this year’s Great Yorkshire Show was watching father and son – John and Robert Whitaker – battling it out in the final jump-off in the Cock o’ the North Championship.

It was John who took the title – on Peppermill – and the crowd gave him a standing ovation as he took a victory lap of honour, 36 years after he first won the competition.

It is always a thrill for any rider or owner to have their first big win at the Great Yorkshire and Mafra Smithers, from near Leyburn, had plenty of reason to celebrate.

She breeds horses for eventing but one youngster, Stanhopes Mr Macoy, rather swept the board at the Great Yorkshire on his first outing, where he was supreme champion in the three-year-old hunter section

He was also a champion at Bramham and at both the Scottish Show and at Supreme Hunter Championships.

It was also an exceptional season for another three-year-old hunter – Hawlmark Classic Twlight – bred in Yorkshire by Nigel and Sue Cowgill, winning a total of 11 in-hand classes, 10 championships and two supreme championships.

In an exceptional year for Yorkshire people in the equestrian world, credit must also go to North Yorkshire farrier, Steven Beane, for his victory at the Calgary Stampede in Canada, which sealed a third straight world title.

The year ended on a thrilling note for the team from Eldwick Riding Club, who on their first attempt, won the British Riding Clubs/South Essex Insurance Brokers quadrille of the year title. It was the first time a Yorkshire club have won the competition.