Blue Chip All Star Academy Contestants Announced
HORSE & COUNTRY TV’S BLUE CHIP ALL STAR ACADEMY FINALISTS REVEALED
The eight Blue Chip All Star Academy contestants who will attend the Blue Chip All Star Academy have been
selected.
Our panel of selectors went through nearly 130 videos and chose just eight finalists to attend the training camp at Talland School of Equitation in Gloucestershire.
“It was a very difficult decision, but ultimately we’re really pleased with the group of riders who will take part in this innovative new television series,” says H&C’s Head of Programming, Jonathan Rippon. “The finalists hail from all round the UK, practising various equestrian disciplines at different levels. We could easily have filled the show multiple times over, so making the final choices was a big task.”
There are two male riders taking part on the show, and six ladies.
Blue Chip All Star Academy Contestants
David Morris, 38, lives in Northumberland with his wife and their two children. He came to riding later in life, and started competing a couple of years ago with his gelding Bam Bam. They do lots of unaffiliated dressage and showjumping together, and have recently started competing in British Dressage competitions.
Issy Nami, 20, lives in Greater Manchester. She competes in dressage up to affiliated novice level, and hopes to move up to Elementary level this season. She dreams of becoming a professional dressage rider in the future. She’ll be bringing Gucci, her 13-year-old dressage horse.
Josh Noakes, 22, is an ambitious event rider from Staffordshire. He combines his eventing career with a degree in architecture – although he hopes to make a living from working with horses full time in the future. He has several horses, from young horses that he is producing for eventing up to his top horse, ‘Betty’, who has competed up to two-star level.
Kelly Jewell, 36, is from Somerset. She competed in affiliated eventing, dressage and showjumping, until the birth of her son four years ago. She specialises in retraining ex-racehorses, and she’ll be bringing her 10-year-old ex-racer Dave to the camp – she describes him as her ‘most difficult project to date’. Kelly shot to fame earlier this year when she released an equestrian parody video set to Adele’s song Hello.
Lucy Robinson, 24, lives in Berkshire and works as an equine events co-ordinator at an agricultural college. She is bringing her horse ‘Bagel’ to camp – they are competing at BE100 level and hope to move up to Novice this season.
Phoebe Ashenheim, 22, runs a livery yard in East Sussex, and is also studying a BSc in Equine Sports Performance. She competes her six-year-old Warmblood mare Ghost in showjumping up to Discovery level, and plans to start doing some dressage with her as well.
Rhianydd Lee-Jones, 27, comes from the Vale of Glamorgan. She has ridden all her life and competed internationally in the sport of polocrosse. When a hip injury ended her polocrosse career three years ago, it left her doubting whether she would continue riding at all – but then she discovered eventing and found she loved it. She’s bringing Lekker, a seven-year-old ex-racer who is starting her British Eventing career this season.
Stephanie Hill, 21, is from Derbyshire. She is currently studying for a degree in radiography and oncology, and is also the reigning Miss South Yorkshire 2015. Stephanie is bringing with her ‘Piggles’, a former showjumper who has gone on to compete in working hunter classes with much success. Together they have also done competed in cross-country, arena eventing and dressage to music.
Filming starts this Wednesday, with all eight Blue Chip All Star Academy contestants and their horses staying until Saturday night. They will be competing throughout the camp to win the top prize – the chance to co-host an episode of Rudall’s Round-Up on Horse & Country TV, and a year’s sponsorship from Blue Chip Feed.
It is very much not going to be a riding competition – while the finalists will get to have lessons with some of the leading names in the sport, they will also take part in a number of challenges that will test their horsemanship knowledge and their media skills.
The five-part series will premiere on the channel on Sunday 12th June.
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.