EVENTING

Cumbria’s Ruth Edge, who missed out on an Olympic’s eventing place, gained some consolation in the Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park.

Edge, from Brampton, riding the relatively inexperienced Mayhem III, had only 7.2 time faults on the Open cross country to add to her dressage score of 27.1 and clear round of show jumping.

It left her with a winning margin of six points over her nearest rival, Olympic reserve Nicola Wilson riding Opposition Buzz.

Edge said: “He jumped fabulously and has really come on in the past two weeks. This is his biggest win so far and it’s so lovely for the owners who are very supportive.”

Edge had won the same British Open in 2004 on Two Thyedge Me, at the time of the Athens Olympics.

In the Intermediate section Oliver Townend took first prize on ODT Land Vision, with Edge runner-up on Zakarius III.

Townend, riding Carousel Quest, also collected second prize in the Advanced section, which was won by Gloucestershire-based Australian Bill Levett on Hippolyte.

In the same class, Zara Phillips had her best finish of the week when eighth on Tsunami II. One place back in ninth came Harry Meade on Birthday Night.

Edge showed she has lots to look forward to in the future by taking both fourth and sixth place finishes in the Novice section on Kilkee and Carnaval Prince respectively.

Townend, not to be denied, split Ruth’s pair when coming home fifth on Mercator Dury.

Ruth Edge (neé Friend) has been riding as long as she can remember and had her first ride at Badminton when she was only 18, on Ice Dancer.

 In 2005, at still only 26, she took third place in British Eventing’s Premier League behind Badminton winner Andrew Hoy and Lucy Wiegersma.  

Eventing is her spoeciality and in 2006 she added the Scottish Open Champion title to her 2004 British Open title and was on the reserve list for the World Equestrian Games. She was also awarded the Jemima Johnson Memorial Trophy as the 'rider who has not been awarded a senior union flag and epitomizes the spirit of the sport.'
 

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