BKRC Round of the day goes to Kay and Ava-May
- bkrcsecretary
- Apr 10
- 4 min read
On 5 April 2025, BKRC's team of 3 (Kay Francis, Kelly Logan and Jess Murray) represented Brent Knoll RC at the BRC Winter National 70/75cm Show Jumping Finals at Arena UK.
25 teams had qualified from all over the UK, as just one of two teams jumping with 3 members (and so no drop score) it was going to be a tough competition! Individuals had also been invited - giving a total class size of 127 competitors!!
However, our feisty trio had qualified on 16th Feb with just three horses, all jumping double clear. In the 70/75cm class - Kay Francis, Kelly Logan and Gillian Dosson all jumped double clear to qualify, and with an ever changing 80cm team, due to injury and saddle issues, our 80/85cm team of Gillian, Jess Murray and Ruth Caiger also all jumped double clear to qualify. However, whilst clubs are allowed to substitute reserves for the finals, 2 of the original team needs to attend so our 80cm team had to withdraw. Thankfully, we were able to add Jess Murray to the 70/75cm team for the finals.
How the day played out.......
Now, you may or may not know, but when we qualify a team for ANY finals, BRC REQUIRES the team to provide a victim, er sorry I mean volunteer, to help out for half a day as arena party, poo picking, stewarding etc etc.
Since - quite understandably - we didn't have someone who fancied at 10 hour round trip to poo pick, the jumpers of Team BKRC had to rotate arena party duties as well as jump Saturday morning. On the plus side it meant we got to be in the arena with our buddies to cheer them on loudly!
First to jump was Kay and Ava-May.
As Kelly headed off to pick up the yellow BRC helpers tabard, Kay and Ava-May were heading over to Arena 3 to start the competition. With a drawn order, they were 6th to go at 8.12am. And didn't they do us proud! Giving a beautiful clear to carry 0 for round 2!
Kelly was on duty pole picking in Arena 4 (where the second rounds were held) so was in the arena and got to cheer Kay through her second round.
Another cracking clear saw them over fence 8 and into the final 6 fences for the individual jump off.
Kay kept their mojo going by encouraging Ava at every fence saying "come on girl, we got this....." followed by "yes" as each fence was safely cleared. They pulled out all the turns set up in the jump off beautifully. AND They had done it! Clear. Clear. Clear! There was so much emotion from Kay, that quite a few watchers were in tears with joy on her behalf.
Next up was Fred....
Since life as a ginger, or a pony is always unpredictable, as a ginger pony, that's like double trouble, but he coped admirably this weekend. Having travelled quietly for 5 hours and been super chilled in his stable on arrival, overnight and with all the coming and going on the Saturday - he got a bit over sensitive when tacked up and was a bit of a space cadet in the first round, which was clear but not his normal smooth round, almost as if the fact there were jumps in the arena was a bit of a distraction for him trying to look around.
Even so, he jumped clear and the team still carried '0' and it was on to round 2. Jess was now tacking up, having done her stint as Arena party and Kay was now on duty, giving Kelly & Fred a big cheer to start. By now Fred had got his shizzle together and Kelly kicked on to get up a good canter ready for this.
All was going well, jumping smoothly and confidently. We popped fences 1-5 clear and turned for 6.... as we popped fence 6 there was the quietest of clinks from his back foot and then the unmistakable PLOP of pole on sand - which meant my individual Jump Off was over and our team was out of the jump off. I was absolutely gutted for us all! So close and yet so far.....
Jess and So Far So Good finish clear
It was then time for our final member to go - Jess & her youngster Glen (So Far So Good).
Giving team BKRC another clear in round one, they headed forward to Arena 4 for the final round.
Arena party duties now finished for our jumpers, team BKRC and their supporters crowded on the grass to watch Jess, jumping every fence with them.
Clearing fences 1 - 8, they added another clear to the TEAM BKRC tally - and were now into the individual jump off....
Giving TEAM BKRC watchers on the grass mound a couple of 'holding breath' moments - no finale is complete with out excitement - Jess and Glen cleared fences 9-14 making the turns to finish in 29th individually, (with Kay just behind in 33rd) and leaving the arena to a big cheer and applause from the TEAM on the Mound...
Team finish 15th on 4 faults
The final team score was 4 faults - with the top 6 teams on 0 all having to jump off for final placings. As the final competitors went, we watched our team slip from 7th - 15th - all on 4 faults.
HOWEVER, looking at the final team scores, it was good to note that as a team of 3 we did well to finish on 4 faults. ALL of those teams finishing clear had 4 riders and ALL had a drop score of 4 faults in one of their rounds. So TEAM BKRC of 3 did us proud.
And all came home with a lovely commemorative plaque......
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