Sponsored rider review of the year
It’s been a whirlwind of a year here at the Horse Bit Bank, not least because our founder Jodie has had her first baby! Her little boy Max arrived back in early November and since then life’s been a bit of a whirlwind. We’re pleased to say that both mum and baby are thriving, and we’re so excited to share more baby pictures with you next year.
Our sponsored riders have had some amazing results in 2023, so we thought what better way to end the year than with a review from them? We’re proud to support these amazing women as they work toward their riding goals and ensure they can always find the perfect bit for every horse they ride. So, without further ado, let’s dive into how their year went.
Melissa Chapman
Mel is a dressage rider and coach who heads up the highly successful Team Chapman Equestrian in Richmond, North Yorkshire. As well as keeping very busy training and competing her string, Mel also breeds and produces sports horses and coaches riders across the North of England. Some have private lessons, while others visit TCE for coffee and cake club (a genius combination of a lesson followed by amazing homemade cake!) or a multi-day riding camp. It’s safe to say Mel is one of the busiest people we know, and just following her on social media makes us feel tired!
This year Mel’s been on her usual excellent form in the ring, racking up win after win. It’s common to see Mel load up a lorry with her horses and ride multiple tests at competitions, coming away with lots of wins and placings in the same day. We’re very impressed that she can remember so many dressage tests at the same time… when we mere mortals can easily get lost riding just one! Mel scored excellent results in the regionals and qualified Mind over Matter, Koning II and TCE Jubilant Al Sno for the nationals. Sadly, the National Championships didn’t go quite to plan, with her star Mattie presenting with a sore spot under the saddle on arrival so they headed home. As Mel says, the horses are more important and there’s always next year.
Mel also ticked off some amazing achievements outside of the dressage arena this year, including fronting up a dressage demo at Bramham Horse Trials. This took place during the lunch break of the 4* dressage tests and the ring was surrounded by people interested to see what a pure dressage horse can do – Mel absolutely smashed it! Mel also had another ‘win’ in the eventing work when a horse started for DHI Event Horses, Izilot DHI, went on to win the 4* at Blenheim International Horse Trials and then the 5* at Pau with Ros Canter.
Holly Richardson
Our sponsored rider Holly Richardson is also based in the north east and works closely with Mel Chapman - in fact, eagle eyed spectators will have spotted Holly helping Mel with her dressage demo at Bramham! Holly is mainly an event rider but dabbles in some show jumping and dressage in the off season to bring on her string and Mel’s young sports horses, so let’s have a look at how the year has gone.
Holly spent months gearing up for her five-star debut at Burghley Horse Trials with her top ride Bally Louis. As many of you will know, the road to a five-star starts years before a horse and rider step into the dressage arena together, and we feel very privileged to have followed them as they worked their way up through the levels. After a superb dressage test for his top-level debut, Louis jumped clear in both the cross-country and show jumping phases which meant he and Holly finished 22nd. What an amazing result for their first five-star together and we can’t wait to see what they do next year.
We know this result meant the world to Holly and was the cherry on top of a super year, which also saw Holly taking her exciting ride Ginny (Madame Revolution TCE) up through the ranks to compete in 6-year-old two-star classes. Holly has also done a sterling job bringing on Mel’s homebred six-year-old Maverick both eventing and in the show jumping ring, and this exciting future star is now show jumping in Europe - watch this space!
Sara Bowe
Last but by no means least, our sponsored event rider Sara Bowe has also had a very busy season. Competing no less than seven horses on and off throughout the year, Sara has scored in the top ten so many times this year! She won the CCI-S 1* at Belsay International Horse Trials back in May with her ride MHS Global Cooley, and then this combination made their international debut at Blair in August - all this in the horse’s first season of eventing. They were sixth out of 70 starters after dressage, seventh after show jumping and then just a couple of time faults in a competitive class dropped them to tenth place overall. We know this duo is going to be set for exciting things in 2024 so make sure you give them a follow.
Just like all our sponsored riders, Sara works incredibly hard. She juggles coaching , schooling and sales livery alongside training and competing her string and with such a disrupted start to the season with cancelled events and terrible weather, we know this year wasn’t the easiest. We’ve got so much respect for our sponsored riders who juggle so much and still take the time to spread the word about what we do!