H&H Champs: 71-year-old Sally Pidsley takes the 70cm honours

Sally Pidsley proved she is still going strong in the saddle aged 71 after riding Tranwheal Tineth Moon to 70cm victory at the inaugural Horse & Hound Grassroots Eventing Championships.

The grandmother from West Devon steered her 13-year-old mare to the top of the leaderboard following yesterday’s cross-country (28 May) — they were the solo combination to go inside the optimum time in the 70cm class.

Sally travelled on her own from her base near Tavistock with ‘Storm’ — who she has owned for seven years.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Sally. “I would never have thought it was possible to win, I’m so happy.”

The pair had one fence in-hand going into today’s showjumping. After having one down, Sally held it together to finish 1.6 penalties ahead of eventual runner-up Shannon Stratton and Just Handy — the 17-year-old gelding was competing at his final competition before retiring.

Sally has affiliated at British Eventing and is also a regular competitor on the Riding Club circuit. The retired nurse impressively bounced back following a broken knee just 18 months ago.

“Riding at this age is great — it gives you something to live for!” she added. “You just have to keep doing it. As the saying goes ‘use it or lose it.”

Sally admitted to pre-competition nerves ahead of the H&H Championships and said she did get rather superstitious, particularly about not talking to H&H before finishing her showjumping.

“I think I walked the showjumping course about six times — I did get nervous,” she said.

Storm is the only horse Sally competes, although she does have her retired eventer at home too.

“Storm lives in the field 24/7 — even during the winter — I think it helps her. She is a typical mare, but is very nice to ride and certainly looks after me. She did have a bout of laminitis, so has had her ups and downs.”

It appears Sally has no plans to hang up her boots quite yet — this could just be the beginning.

Don’t miss the full report from the Horse & Hound Grassroots Eventing Championships in H&H — on sale Thursday, 8 June.

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