Endurance GB Young Rider Champion sets sights on British team for 2020 European Championships
Endurance GB’s new Young Rider Champion, Suffolk-based Madison (Maddie) Pomroy, has spoken of her dream of representing her Team GB at next year’s Young Rider European Championships.
The teenager landed the title after a strong performance riding Roz Plail’s horse Odie in the 120km class at The King’s Forest Ridenear Thetford.
Maddie, 17, has been competing in the sport for the past six years after completing her first endurance ride, covering 64km in two days with her pony Milky Way, aged just 11.
My grandmother Jane Girling got me involved as she has been competing in endurance for a long time. I was slightly thrown in at the deep end doing a two-day ride and I kept saying, ‘I’m really tired’, but my grandma wouldn’t let me give up. It was a real eye-opener and I hooked.”
The King’s Forest is a happy hunting ground for Maddie as she completed her first 120km ride there the day before her 16th birthday with her grandmother Jane’s horse Zaferan back in 2017.
We train over similar countryside around the forest tracks near the Suffolk coast so Odie has got used to the going in East Anglia having moved here from Devon last autumn,” she says.
Katie Bedwin, 21, from Rudgwick in West Sussex was named Reserve National Young Rider Champion with Aberllwyd Ibn Phariz, owned by Welshpool-based Sue Higgins.
Katie is currently in her final year of a paediatric nursing degree from the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton. She has represented Great Britain in Young Rider teams previously is aiming for the Young Rider World Championships in Italy this year. She was also introduced to the sport by her grandmother Rosemary Attfield, a renowned trainer and former team selector and coach.
Rebecca Kinnarney, Chair of Endurance GB said:
This was a brilliant achievement by both Maddie and Katie, who are both talented endurance riders with a great future ahead of them.”
About Endurance GB
Endurance GB is the National Governing Body for the sport of Endurance Riding. It encompasses 23 local Groups throughout England and Wales who organise social events and rides from 8km (5miles) which are non-competitive or social/training rides, right up to 160km competitive rides (100 miles) for the most advanced horse and rider. EGB’s core objective is the promotion of a safe sport bringing health and wellbeing benefits to horse and rider through National and Local endurance competition and training based on a foundation of inclusivity with goals and ambitions achievable for every level and ambition of rider and breed and type of horse.
As well as staging a variety of endurance rides, including International (FEI) rides, EGB aims to provide education in the form of lectures, training sessions, conferences, demonstrations on all aspects of the sport, including the general welfare of horses, for both members and all interested in endurance riding.
It aims to encourage horsemanship among junior riders and to promote research into the best methods of caring for horses before, during and after endurance rides and to share the knowledge gained both within and outside the sport.
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.