Text © World of Showjumping

Last weekend, Davenport Stables’ James Davenport and Angelie von Essen gave the jumping sport in the UK a little boost in post-lockdown times when organizing a very well received training show. With three courses running simultaneously in different rings – two on grass and one on sand – the riders could jump several horses in a short period of time.

“England has been in lockdown for quite long, so we haven’t been able to compete,” Angelie explains. “Our initial plan was to only have clear rounds, but then a few sponsors wanted to take part so we ended having a 1.30m Grand Prix on Saturday and a 1.40m Grand Prix on Sunday. Matt Millin was here to commentate the Grand Prix classes to make it an even better experience, and we had Sue Barret building the courses.”

“It is really expensive to compete here in England, so we decided to put the prices down,” Angelie says. “We charged £5 for the classes in the sand ring and £10 for the ones in the grass ring. In the end we had about 350 horses jumping over these two days. We made the show for the professionals and they brought their students along. Richard Howley was here with 18 horses as well as Matt Sampson and Will Whitaker.”

With masks, rubber gloves and disinfectants placed out everywhere at the show ground Angelie and James made sure to put safety first. “Everyone kept their distance and took great responsibility,” Angelie tells.

Angelie and James organised the show to give something back to the sport. “It was fantastic!” Angelie says. “It was such good riders and the classes turned out to be really competitive. We didn’t do this to earn money, we did it for the professionals and to bring people back together. We really worked hard to not make it an ordinary show where you have to wait forever. We wanted to give everyone a really nice start to the new show season. And ended up having a lot of fun doing so!”