Wilson riding high after victory in first competitive outing of 2013

Embarking on her first competitive eventing outing of the year, Olympic silver medallist Wilson partnered Beltane Queen to win her Intermediate section, with new ride Watermill Vision also winning the Open Novice section.

Youngster Hero Motivator was also second in his BE100 section with London 2012 hero Opposition Buzz jumping a double clear to finish third in his Open Intermediate section.

Annie Clover was also third in her Open Intermediate section.

The successful start to Huddersfield eventer Oliver Townend’s season also continued with Imperial Master and Harthill Percy both taking runners-up spots at Tweseldown in the Open Intermediate and Intermediate respectively. Both jumped double clears.

From there, it was onwards to Oasby where ODT Sonas Rovatio matched his stablemates’ performances in the Open Intermediate. Both Black Tie II and ODT Ghareeb also finished in the ribbons with all three Oasby success stories posting double-clears.

Townend now moves on to the Lincolnshire trials on Friday.

Meanwhile, British Eventing have unveiled their selected squad of nine riders who will represent Great Britain during the FEI Nations Cup Series.

The squad aim is to give those riders who do not have a depth of senior team experience the opportunity to compete in a team environment.

Representing Great Britain will be Sarah Bullimore, Laura Collett, Kitty King, Emily Llewellyn, Tom McEwen, Gemma Tattersall, Izzy Taylor, Francis Whittington and Lucy Wiegersma.

Of the nine, a team of four plus a travelling reserve will be selected by team manager Philip Surl in consultation with performance manager Yogi Breisner to represent Great Britain at seven Nations Cup competitions.

The first of those will be the CICO three-star event at Fontainebleau which begins a week tomorrow and ends a week on Sunday.

At the French event, King will partner Zidante while Llewellyn will team up with Pardon Me II.

Tattersall will be on board Arctic Soul while Taylor will partner KBIS Starchaser. Collett will ride Allora 3 as a reserve.

The next Nations Cup event for the squad will be at Houghton Hall from May 23 until May 25 followed by the competition at Strzegom in Poland from May 30 until June 2.

Next up will be the event at Aachen in Germany from June 25 until June 30 which may also be used to test other GB riders.

From Aachen it will be onwards to Montelibretti in Italy between September 21 and 23 followed by the event at Waregem in Belgium from September 26 until September 29.

And the septet of competitions will be completed at Boekelo in the Netherlands between October 11 and October 14.

Students at Askham Bryan College will be dreaming of competing at such events in the long-term future and the college’s academy has announced a sponsorship deal with North Yorkshire horse feed manufacturer Fulmart Feeds.

The Fulmart Feeds Grooms Academy operates alongside the college’s equestrian courses and is designed to recognise the college’s top equestrian pupils.

Students are put through their paces throughout the year-long process with early starts, long days and challenging environments, all in the name of going the extra mile in achievement.

The Grooms Academy has been devised and is run by the college’s equestrian director, Kay Lamb, who said: “The aim of the academy is to help employers get the very best student who is not only competent but understands the rigours of being employed in this environment.

“Students will be expected to stand out over and above the requirements of their chosen courses.”

She added: “It’ll be tough – I anticipate starting with 20 students and finishing with around five or ten as some will drop out over the year.”