Hundreds of young would be equestrian stars of the future competed over the weekend at Oxstalls Cross Country, near Minchinhampton.

The venue hosted the Schools Equestrian Games (SEG) Eventing national championship qualifier and saw many local and national riders representing their school perform strongly across the challenging Dressage, Show Jumping and Cross Country phases of the competition.

Katherine Lay, (15), riding for Katharine Lady Berkeley’s School at Wotton-under-Edge, put in a faultless performance and won her 90 cm class on her pony Miss Tiger Lucky. She also recorded one of the lowest final scores over three days of action, finishing her three disciplines on just 25.25 points, a decisive two full points ahead of the second place rider in her section.

She went clear through the show jumping round, and challenging 18 fence, 1940 meter cross country course, coming in just 12 seconds short of the optimum time of 4 minutes and 18 seconds.

The Charfield student who is also a member of the Berkeley Hunt South Pony Club, rides in British Dressage and British Eventing competitions throughout the year.

She has been working with her 14 hand, 14 year old chestnut British Connemara pony for two years and hopes to qualify for the Badminton Cup, one of the grassroots competitions which run alongside the world famous Badminton International Horse Trial three day event every May.