Williams sees off rivals for Bordeaux title

He was among some of the world’s top riders who were competing at Bordeaux in France in the CSI five-star International competition.

Williams got off to a great start on the first day of the show by winning the 6,000 Euro prize class with his 15-year-old chestnut mare, Orage.

A clear round in a time of 23.17 seconds proved to be just fast enough to relegate Brazilian rider, Alvara de Miranda, to second place with a fractionally slower time of 23.81 seconds.

Williams went on to take second place in the 10,000 Euro class with Titus 11.

Britain’s second win at the show came from the in-form Michael Whitaker, riding Simon 11, in the 25,000 Euro class.

Whitaker jumped clear in a time of 54.32 seconds to take the lead from the French rider, Simon Delestre.

n Showjumping was on the agenda at Bishop Burton College recently when a number of our up-and-coming young riders gathered for a training weekend.

The riders came from as far afield as the north of Scotland, Surrey and Suffolk and a total of 77 horses were stabled at the college over the course of the weekend.

Corinne Bracken, British Showjumping’s children, junior and young rider coach and manager along with Peter Murphy, the showjumping coach for British Eventing’s senior international squad, put the riders through their paces.

The young riders were able to take more than one horse with them for the training weekend and the coaches did their best to give them all one-to-one attention.

The training weekends are held twice a year, in the spring and autumn.

n The British Masters, now in its fourth year, has been selected by the FEI (the International Equestrian Federation) as an Olympic qualifying competition for those riders hoping to be considered for national selection in 2012.

The event will take place from July 1-3 at South View Equestrian Centre in Cheshire.

Alongside the two meetings at Hickstead, Sussex, this will make up the three qualifying competitions to be staged in Great Britain.

It is expected to attract a very strong field with riders expected to be competing for a total prize fund of £100,000.

Iain Graham, chief executive of British Showjumping, said such .event were crucial to the team’s success on the international stage.

“Events like this are pivotal to our international success,” he said. “Not only by allowing the development of horses and riders but also developing officials with international experience.

“We are extremely pleased that we are in a position to ensure the event’s continuity.”

Meanwhile the Yorkshire International Showjumping Event, scheduled to be held at the Sheffield Arena over Easter, will also prove to be an important boost for Britain’s showjumping hopefuls.

Organisers announced this week that one of the top attractions, the International Puissance competition, is to be sponsored by stockbrokers Charles Stanley.

The company’s origins date back to a banking partnership in Sheffield in 1792.

The equestrian store R&R Country at Hemingbrough, near Selby, is in the finals of the 2011 British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA) Business Awards.

The store is in the running for the BETA/SEIB Retailer of the Year award which will be presented at BETA’s gala dinner in Birmingham on February 20.

More than 6,000 nominations were received for the award. Stores are nominated by customers and now trade suppliers will add their votes and mystery shoppers will also visit the short listed stores before a winner is chosen.