'No atmosphere was lost'

Ronnie Lee Jones on the importance of good sportsmanship

- Ronnie Lee Jones

THE new-look Blue Chip Winter Showjumping Championships, held at Addington Equestrian last week, give everyone something to aim for.

The amateurs have a goal to work towards over the winter and people with younger horses can produce them through the qualifiers. Then for riders jumping grands prix, it marks the end of the winter season and a chance to see how they’re upping their game ready for the summer ahead.

My partner Alex and I have a really good group of 10 kids we’re training at the moment, so it was nice to have the horses and ponies together at the same show. I was able to walk the grand prix course with some of them, which gave them an opportunity to get a feel for the track and for distances.

The kids had their own finals to ride in – we had three in the novice and three in the discovery, and Daisy Newman and Pip Loveman came first and second in the Pikeur pony novice final. I was a bit sad that one of them had to lose to the other, as I wanted them both to win!