Bubby Upton, Richard Coney and Phoebe Locke were part of the bronze medal winning FEI European Eventing Championships British Junior team in 2016
British Eventing has announced the six combinations selected to represent Great Britain in the Racesafe Junior squad at the 2017 FEI Junior European Eventing Championships, this year hosted at Millstreet in Ireland from 19th – 23rd July.
The selected squad, in alphabetical order, are:
Richard Coney, 18 from Lincolnshire, with his own nine year old gelding Kananaskis
Sasha Hargreaves, 17 from Oxfordshire, and her own 14 year old gelding Playtime NZPH
Phoebe Locke, 17 from Somerset, with her own and Miss Jamie-lee Day’s nine year old gelding Union Fortunus
Holly Needham, 17 from Worcestershire, riding her own 14 year old gelding Strike A Pose
Bubby Upton, 18 from Suffolk, with Mrs Rachel Upton’s eight year old gelding Eros DHI
Imogen White, 18 from Warwickshire, with her own 13 year old gelding Emill
Reserve combinations in alphabetical order:
Heidi Coy, 17 from Leicestershire, riding her own seven year old gelding Royal Fury
Phoebe Locke and her own 10 year old gelding Cooley Challenger
Bubby Upton with Mrs Rachel Upton’s ten year old gelding Cannavaro
After Sasha Hargreaves’ impressive 2017 Racesafe National Championship title, the 17 year old receives her first call up to a European Championship squad along with Holly Needham who has picked up six top ten finishes this year with her Championship horse. Fellow first timer Imogen White caught the selectors eye this season with two top five finishes at 1* level.
2016 Junior European team members, Bubby Upton and Pheobe Locke, bring four Youth European Championship appearances between them, with Millstreet proving to be happy hunting ground for Bubby who took team and individual silver from the European Championships for Ponies back in 2014. Equally experienced Phoebe will be hoping to recreate her 2015 performance at the Pony European Championships where the team took home gold from Malmo in Sweden.
Along with Bubby and Phoebe, Richard Coney, is also back in the Junior squad for 2017 and will be looking to build on his result from last year where he was part of the bronze medal winning team.
Chairman of Selectors, Darrell Scaife, commented on the squad: “Many riders on the BE Junior Programme have put in some excellent performances over the last few months. I think that we have selected a squad who can really challenge for the medals in Millstreet. I’d like to thank all the event organisers who hosted our selection trials, and also a huge thank you to Racesafe for their continued support.”
Loyal sponsors of up and coming GB event riders, Racesafe not only support the 2017 Junior European Championship squad, but also the BE Junior Programme and the British National Junior CCIJ1* Championships, this year won by selected rider Sasha Hargreaves and Playtime NZPH.
