Team GBR is sending two individuals to compete in the reining at the 2018 World Equestrian Games (WEG).
Alison Bucknell, who made her senior team debut at last year’s European Championships, will ride her own Jac Barbee Dream.
The Gloucestershire-based rider has a host of top-10 international results with the nine-year-old stallion, who she has been competing on the European circuit for the past two years.
She is joined by seasoned campaigner Francesca Sternberg, for whom this will be a sixth senior championship appearance.
Francesca, from Kent, is selected on her own Chic Filay or Rosanne Sternberg’s Spook N Sparkle.
Francesca picked up a host of top results at the Bodiam CRI3* in May, including a win as well as second and fourth placings aboard horses not listed for WEG.
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British Reining does not receive funding from the British Equestrian Federation. But Tryon International Equestrian Center will pay a trucking allowance for all horses resident in North America and qualified to compete at the Games.
Jac Barbee Dream will fly out to the States, while both horses that Francesca has been selected on are based in the US — Spook N Sparkle, an eight-year-old palomino, has not yet been campaigned internationally by Francesca, but has finished in the top 10 at all bar one of his 11 international starts.
Chic Filay has competed at one international, in Texas in April 2017 with Francesca in the saddle.
“Although we don’t have a full team this year, I am really excited about the riders we are sending to WEG in Tryon,” said reining chef d’equipe Doug Allen.
“Francesca has been to every WEG since 2002 so has a great wealth of experience and Alison competed in Switzerland last year on the British team at the European Reining Championships.
“They are both riding tried, tested and talented horses, so I feel Great Britain will be well represented.”
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Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.
