BHS Hunter trials

Hill Top Fruit Farm was the setting of one of the first BHS hunter trials of the season.

Set in Ledbury, Herefordshire, it was doubtful for a while whether the rain in the weeks coming up to the hunter trials would permit the event to run, but thanks to a well built and well managed course, the going turned out to be rideable.

It had been decided by the new hunter trials team to abandon the old rule of having a timed section on the course. Instead the whole course had to be ridden at an optimum time, which was posted before each event.

As the course turned out to ride quite slowly, nearly everybody in the pairs was over the optimum time. Owever, the best judges of the course were winners Lisa Pain and Ali Small.

Lisa Pain andTittle Tattle also claimed victory in the novice individual class, with a well paced clear round. Second place went to Ali Small (pairs winner), and in third place was Ali Tate who came second in the pairs.

In the open individual, the pace picked up, as competitors knew that they had to ride faster if they wanted to finish the course near to the optimum time.

The Hilltop Hollow fence proved fairly tricky at a faster speed, and caused problems for quite a few competitors.

Sue Knight had abad fall from her horse Ben and was airlifted out by the County Air Ambulance and taken to Cheltenham Hospital.

Final Result

Pairs:

1, Lisa Pain and Ali Small

2, Ali Tata andJo Thatcher

3, Jane Langdon andLaura Griffiths.

Novice Individual:

1, Lisa Pain

2, Ali Small

3, Ali Tate.

Open Individual

1, Lea Ryder

2, Darren Lewis

3, Deborah Merrick.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now