Eleven members of the Queen’s equestrian eventing team spent a day recently enjoying flatwork and jumping lessons with Olympian Mary King. She watched the riders’ techniques and gave useful tips on how to improve their eventing skills.
Mary represented Great Britain at six Olympics between 1992 and 2012 winning two silver medals and one bronze in team eventing. She has also won two gold medals in team eventing at the World Equestrian Games, four gold medals at the European Eventing Championships and has three times been named British Open Champion.
The Queen’s College equestrian teams are going from strength to strength and frequently receive top rankings at show jumping events. They won the King’s Bruton Class 4 event and the King’s Hall Class 1 event in late 2013, in addition to the earlier Stonar Inter-Schools One Day Event where they beat competition from all over England and qualified for two classes at the National Schools’ Equestrian Association Championships. Another keen rider at Queen’s College, Romilly Simmons, buys and trains horses from Ireland and in 2012 she qualified two horses for the Horse of the Year Show. Romilly has jumped at the British Open at the NEC, came second in the 2012 Scope Showjumping Festival and has won speed classes at the Blue Chip Finals where riders come from all over Europe. She is aiming to ride in the Olympic Games in the future.
The school will be hosting its own Eventers’ Show jumping event at Kings Sedgemoor Equestrian Centre on Sunday 1st June 2014. For further details, please contact 01823 272559 or email contact@queenscollege.org.uk.