IWMT 2015: We have a winner!

This year's Ian White Memorial Trophy competition at Smiths Lawn Horse Trials was a great success! And it was a close contest with only 3.3 penalties dividing the top three places.

Winner Jessie Vanassche - winner of IWMT 2015 (Photo courtesy of Uptown Eventing)

Congratulations to our winner, Jessie Vanassche and Da Vinci II. They posted an invincible dressage score of 25.5 and held their nerve to hold onto their lead after a super double clear. Not only that, but a brilliantly timed cross country round meant Jessie also clinched the Moose trophy having completed just 1 second over the optimum time. She was also shortlisted to win the Willow Trophy too as she and Da Vinci were immaculately turned out in all three phases. Hot on their heels was Alyson Parker on Jollie II who were runners up finishing on another impressive dressage score of 28.0, while Rachel Harris and Manor Mayhem took 3rd place on 28.8.

Mole deep in concentration - sev-ern!

The standard of turnout was very high this year. So, my fellow judge, Mole, and I found it tricky to whittle it down to one, but we thought Hannah Horton and Carib were worthy winners of the Willow Trophy. Quarter marks and smiley riders who give their horse lots of pats always catch my eye - top tip for next year!

Willow Trophy winner, Hannah Horton (Photo courtesy of Uptown Eventing)

All top10 riders stayed to support the prize giving. It's a lovely feeling to handout  goodie bags to all 10 riders especially as I know firsthand how difficult it is to achieve a top 10 place! This year we had a bonus prize for the rider completing on the highest score. Emily Ferris and Tara Stan won the Chester prize of a box of brownies for this accomplishment which shows there really are no losers in the IWMT section.

Ian and his beloved Moose

I am so proud of how this competition has developed over the years, and it wouldn't be what it was without the tremendous support of our generous sponsors, who this year alongside Cathean Ltd Writing Services were: Protexin Equine Premium, Equilibrium Products, coach extraordinaire Gill Watson, neurolinguistic coach Elizabeth Hough of Your Great Mind Ltd,  Crisy Salmon of Feel Good Forever aloe vera products, and Chester the Eventer owned by Cala and Garry Russell. Thank you also to Uptown Eventing for the photos, and Tissie Reason, organiser of Smiths Lawn Horse Trials and her team.  You can read all about our fabulous supporters here on Cathean's Myrtle Musings and the Frog Blog. To find out more about the Ian White Memorial Trophy go to www.catheanwriting.co.uk

Have a great rest of the season, and see you next year!

Kathryn White is owner and director of Cathean Ltd Medical Writing and Cathean Ltd Copy Writing Services. She is a published medical and copy writer and equestrian journalist with a passion for creating high quality content for her clients. Her customers include pharmaceutical, healthcare and equestrian businesses across the world.