Six hour drive to Aintree pays off for Cupar’s Emma

The event was held on the opening day of the British Showjumping Indoor Championship Show, which runs until this weekend, at the Aintree Equestrian Centre.

Emma Crawford put in a superb last minute performance to take the title as her own.

Riding Gina Gold, a nine-year-old bay mare owned by Louise Davies, she came forward as the penultimate rider in the jump off to put in an incredibly fast clear to take pole position in the line-up with a clear in a time of 34.29 seconds.

Her time resulted in earlier leader Richard Howley with Matrone vd Donkhoeve being relegated to second place with his time of 35.02 seconds whilst Mark Edwards took third with Ede Peasy in a time of 35.10 seconds.

Emma, speaking after her win, said preparation for the event had been tough.

She said: “It’s been difficult for us in Scotland as lockdown came much later than in England.

“So we have just been working the horses a lot at home and to be honest I think Gina has really benefitted from it. She can be quite sharp in the ring and then very confident at home so we have been able to do a lot of work with her and it’s paid off.

“It has been a six hour drive to get here and it has been so worth it.

“I was the first rider in on my own horse and I think my mind was on the prize too much as I wasn’t that happy with the way I had ridden it.

“I felt I had put in too many strides.

“So when I came into the jump off on Gina, I said to her owner Louise, that I would let her flow forward more and let her take me to fences.

“It’s how she likes to go, it suits her and after we had jumped the first two fences I just let her keep flowing.”