THE county’s success continued in the three-week long National Pony Club Championships, which run at venues across England in a diverse range of disciplines.

Wiltshire’s latest success came at the five-day long Pony Club open and intermediate championships in Derbyshire, where the VWH Hunt club enhanced their excellent track record at national level.

They claimed the Champion Headwear Open Dressage team title, just seeing off a challenge from the Bucks based OBH Chilterns quartet by a one point margin.

“I was 16th on the day so it was a very nice birthday present,” said VWH’s Lydia Rogers, who finished second in her arena on 72.73 per cent.

“I went to the Championships last year and made the overall individual ride-off then too. I was ninth last year but this time I was delighted to finish second.”

Rogers, a boarder at St Mary’s School, Calne, rode her 14.2hh chestnut roan pony Little Jasper and was full of praise for the team trainer Jane Kidd.

Rogers' sister Lucy, just 13 and about to start at St Mary’s School, was also on the team with Jenny Jewitt’s retired advanced eventer Washington Wizard, who she has on loan. She was fourth in her arena on 65.61 per cent.

Harriet Quint, 17, was sixth in her arena on 65.65 per cent, riding her event horse Baluga II and fellow 17-year-old George Dibble completed the team on Fleet Action.

A VWH team, trained by Brian Hutton, also finished eighth in the Intermediate Show Jumping final, with Alice Bibby jumping a double clear on Summerhouse Coconut.

Joining her were Bradon Forest School’s Rosie Hutchins, 14, on her 14.2hh roan mare Sugar, Paddy Gilling, 15, on Ballybur Bart and Fernham’s Alice Edgedale on Cregboy Foy.

Their clubmates Pumbaa Goess-Saurau and Matilda Skelton were sixth in their sections of the Mitsubishi Motors Intermediate Eventing Championships. Goess-Saurau, whose ‘proper’ first name is Franziska, missed third place when she had one showjump down in an otherwise superb performance on Killacoran Blue and was one of the youngest contenders at just 12.

Skelton scored a fine mark of 29.29 in the opening dressage phase but eight showjumping penalties, including four for time, kept her out of second place.

The Beaufort Hunt Pony Club secured eighth place in the Intermediate Eventing Championship, with Poppy Ralph leading the way in her section on Lythill Rough Diamond. The 15 year old completed on her dressage score to move up four places from the opening dressage phase.

Ralph started eventing the 12-year-old gelding last autumn and they recently gained a fourth place in a BE90 Open section at Aston-le-Walls.

Beaufort teammates were Julia Fish on Tiggers Bounce, Persephone Rose on Tiny Tim and Gabriella Rose, on Abbas Love Knot.

Eliza Sangster has real cause for celebration after the announcement that she has made the GB team going to the Junior (18 & under) European three-day event Championships next month.

The 17-year-old Marlborough College student, grand-daughter of the late racehorse owner Robert Sangster, has been named with her dark bay 16.1hh gelding High Havoc.

The pair impressed when finishing fifth in the British Under 18 category at the Houghton Hall three-day event in Norfolk back in May.

That was enough to bring the duo to the selectors’ attention and they will now go to the European Junior Championships, due to be held in Waregem, Belgium (September 11-14).

“Eliza also took part in the Jardy International in France this season – she did a really good dressage test and cross country round but High Havoc then over-reached and couldn’t show jump,” said her mother and former model Mrs Lucy Sangster.

“The horse always showjumps well and hasn’t had a fence down all season.”

The pair will make their Junior team debut and have benefited from a strict training programme with world-class coaches.

“They had two days intensive training last week and will have four more days this week,” added her mum.

“She also gets help from Pammy Hutton and Jonelle Richards, a Kiwi event rider based locally.

The team, which includes 2008 gold medallists Sienna Myson-Davies, Giles Blanchard and Evie Paterson, will go out to Belgium on September 7.

Little Cheverell’s Clayton Fredericks came close to regaining the HSBC World Cup title he won in 2008, after making the trip out to Poland to contest this year’s title.

The FEI World Cup eventing series started in 2003, following on behind dressage and showjumping, and Fredericks also won the prestigious title in 2005. Both his wins came on Ben Along Time, who had again been carefully prepared for the challenge this time.

“We were third after dressage and stayed there – we just couldn’t get any higher,” said Clayton, winner of team silver at the Beijing Olympics with the great Ben Along Time.

“I was pleased with his performance but you do need a bit of luck at this level. The cross country was a decent track which caused enough problems and I didn’t think any one got home inside the time.”

The course accounted for 2009 Badminton winners Oliver Townend and Flint Curtis, who went down on the flat between fences on the slippery going.

Fredericks’ main aim is to qualify for the World(Equestrian Games) Championship next year, at Lexington in the USA, with Ben Along Time, now 14 and a winner of a world individual silver medal in 2006.

“I would like to do another World Cup and another Olympics with him, so I’ll be taking care of him and picking his runs,” he added.