MARLBOROUGH'S reigning Young Rider European three-day event champion Laura Collett was among the winners at the first round of the national Jumping and Style (JAS) series.

The series, which combines cross country and showjumping in an indoor arena and leads to a national final at the end of February, is considered an ideal pre-season warm-up by many event riders.

The first qualifying round fell foul of the weather so riders flocked up to Solihull Arena in the West Midlands for the second, where Collett won two of the four qualifiers on offer.

The 20 year old, considered one of the sport’s best prospects for the future, took two lorries with a total of seven horses up to the Midlands.

She dominated the Novice section, the third class of a packed day, taking three of the four top places.

New ride Noble Bestman, who is a brother to her Pony European gold medal winner Noble Springbok and will do Pony Trials with Grace Walker in the future, jumped a great double clear to win.

“He was a real star and was going well in the following Open qualifier too, until we had a minor mis-communication and turned too tight into one of the narrow fences,” said Collett.

“I was also second on Jitterburg who was on flying form, especially as it was her first time out since 2008 – she was on her best behaviour.”

Collett filled fourth spot on the rising eight-year-old Uno Di Landro, who was also 9th in the step lower BE100 qualifier.

Jitterbug, the chestnut mare who has evented successfully at Intermediate level in the past, went on to score an easy win in the Open section, completing on a style mark of just four.

Vancouver, who won the Hartpury CCI* international with Collett last summer, jumped a double clear to finish third. “Vancouver had got rather excited in the earlier Novice section and had a fence down – he thought he knew best and wasn’t really listening to me,” she added.

“He redeemed himself in the Open class.”

VWH Hunt Pony Club member Pumbaa Goess-Saurau led the BE90 qualifier that started the day, finishing on a style mark of 10 to win by a clear two marks.

The competition was a close one, with just one mark separating the next five riders.

Goess-Saurau’s partner was the mare Mayfair Daisy, a new ride in 2009 and also a winner in the JAS qualifying series last year, at West Wilts.

HUSBAND and wife international duo Alex and Alice Peternell were among the winners at Summerhouse Equitation Centre’s first affiliated dressage meeting of the year.

The couple, who are based at Hinton near Chippenham, scored a hat-trick between them at the Gloucester competition.

Alice, who has ridden internationally on both Young Rider and Senior dressage teams, produced a double on her up and coming ride Fanset.

The horse, who won the Shearwater International six year old class at the Wellington Premier League show in 2009, topped two Elementary open sections.

He scored an impressive 70.59% to leave his rivals a distance behind in the 53 qualifying test.

Alex, who was born in South Africa and is an international event rider, won the step higher Medium 75 restricted test on AP Uprising. The rising nine year old evented with great success at two star international level last year, finishing seventh at Barbury Castle and eighth at Osberton, and rarely finished out of the top 10 in one day events.

Bradford-on-Avon young rider Jess Acheson was also on double form.

She led the Novice 37 restricted test on the rising eight-year-old mare Nobless, who she evented at Novice level in 2009, and the Elementary 43 restricted test on Kimberley.

SOUTH Wiltshire Riding Club’s Dawn Slater-Bosley will be among a select group of riders making an appearance on Sky television.

The Oliver Townend Eventers Challenge Championship final, which was staged at Aintree racecourse in December, will be shown on the Sky 171/MY Channel TV schedule through February.

The competition, which combines show jumping and cross country, attracts riders from across the country in the qualifying rounds with only the best making the finals.

Slater-Bosley won the B2 2’9” Senior Championship which will be shown on Tuesday February 9 at 7pm, with repeats a day later at 7am and noon on the 13th at 1pm.

The A classes will be shown on February 2, the C classes on February 16 and the D sections on February 23, with repeats again on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

All the programmes can also be seen on www.countrychannel.tv, starting each Tuesday.

TWO Badminton based photographers are among a select group planning to offer their support to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Haiti Earthquake Appeal.

Tim Nicholls and David Sinclair are two of 20 top equestrian photographers who have donated stunning original equestrian images, which will be sold though an online auction commencing 28 January 2010.

All involved in the project are giving their time and resources free so every penny raised at the auction will go directly to the DEC Appeal.

The auction provides a rare chance for members of the public to get their hands on some amazing original images taken by a plethora of award winning photographers.

Each image will be signed, mounted and framed.

Nicholls runs ‘Optimal Photography’ with his wife Bev specialising in equine photography, primarily three-day events and polo, and has worked with several of the world’s top riders in a 25 year career.

Sinclair’s work can be seen on www.shootshorses.com, which covers everything from polo in the snow at St Moritz to candid shoots of life around the Badminton estate.

For further details visit the project at www.2020auction.co.uk