Hi, we’re the Badsworth Hunt Pony Club Mounted Games Team and we need your help to get to the Prince Philip Cup at the HOYS 2015

If you have never seen Mounted Games they are often described as ‘war on horseback’. They are very fast, exciting relay races, where the riders vault on and off the ponies at gallop picking things up, putting things down, weaving the ponies through obstacles and generally displaying incredible levels of accuracy and skill.

It is a massive honour and achievement for a Yorkshire team to be there once again and we would be hugely appreciative of any help you can give us in raising funds for the competition.

Our team for this year’s Horse Of The Year Show in Birmingham is as follows:

Jay Kozaczek on Blue

Louis Winter on Maddie

Amy Hunt on Ditto

Anna Jessop on Bella

Harry Cooke on Pip

The non-riding reserve is Nicole Milner. The riders have to be under 15 years old on 1^st January 2015.

The teams have been trained for over 30 years by Miss Elaine Lodge a (now retired) lady blacksmith – the first ever registered lady blacksmith no less.

The team goes to the Horse of the Year Show for a week starting 5^th October 2015.  The hard work starts now as they have to raise around £6,000 to be able to compete.

Along with this Pledge Sports crowdfunding page, all the children and parents are doing as much as possible to raise funds. They are having cake sales, bag packing, running a raffle, collecting goods for an auction and doing as many other things that they can think of and time allows.

If you would like any more information please contact our team co-ordinator Mrs Anna Steel on 07714245236.

How Badsworth Qualified For Horse Of The Year Show

At the beginning of the year around 300 Pony Club teams start practising for the Prince Philip Cup Mounted Games competition.

They competes at friendly competitions run by other Pony Club branches and put on public displays at County Shows and International Horse Trials events.

At their Area Finals in May this year at Wetherby Racecourse the Badsworth Hunt Pony Club Mounted Games team came 2^nd, qualifying for the Zone finals.

At the Horse of the Year Show in Birmingham in October there are six places available for the top teams. There are four Zone finals nationally, the Central Zones 1 and 2 are held in June at Moreton Morrell College in Warwickshire, the Southern Zone at Taunton racecourse in July and the Northern Zone in Doune Scotland also in July.

The winners of these four Zones take the first four places at the Horse of the Year Show.  The remaining two places are taken by the winners and runners up at the Championship final at the Pony Club Championships at Cholmondeley Castle in August.

Badsworth Hunt competed at Central Zone 1 where they won their place at the Horse of the Year Show after a very exciting run off with Sir William Watkins Wynn Branch from Wales.