JESSICA Mendoza is gearing up for her challenge at the 2010 Pony European Show Jumping Championships, which this year will have the added pressure of being held on home soil.

The Tockenham 14 year old is one of five British riders chosen for the GB squad which will compete at the Championships, for riders aged 16 or under on ponies, at Bishop Burton College, Yorkshire (July 27-August 1).

It is the second year running that Mendoza, a pupil at St Mary’s School, Calne, has made the team with her partner, the chestnut mare Tixylix.

The teenager admits she can’t wait to take up her team place in front of a partisan home crowd, who will be hoping Britain repeat the performance they achieved the last ‘Pony Europeans’ to be staged on home turf.

That was back in 1997, at Hartpury College, when their show jumpers secured both team and individual gold medals.

Mendoza made sure of her place this time after winning the final Viewing Trial in Cheshire, in a year where the selector’s decision has been a tricky one.

“We had a particularly strong squad of 13 ponies and riders to select from this year and, with the talent we had available to us, it was an incredibly hard decision to whittle them down to five,” said Clare Whitaker, chairman of the British Showjumping Performance Development Committee. “Having made the selection, we feel have a very strong team and that we have a good chance of being in the medal running.”

Also due to fly the flag for Britain are Wiltshire duo Laura Collett and Tom McEwen, who have both been named on the British squad to compete at the Young Rider European three-Day Event Championships.

Collett, based at Membury, is the reigning Young Rider team and individual champion and her selection his time came as no surprise. The 20 year old made doubly sure by winning the final trial at Barbury Castle this month, with new ride Fernhill Cristal.

The eight year old chestnut, owned by Sarah Walker, is the youngest horse on the team but has further proved his capabilities this season with an Open Intermediate U21 win at Belton Park and a fourth at the Burgie international in Scotland last month.

In a superb international event career, which started back in 2005, she has won a total of six gold medals at U21 European level.

Tom McEwen, 19, from Hodson will be making his first appearance on a Young Rider European team.

Hodson was on the gold medal winning team at the 2007 Pony European Championship and his partner, the ex-Rodney Powell ride Major Sweep, is also an ‘old hand’.

The 17 year old, who McEwen started riding back in 2008, has finished out of the top eight in just one of his six outings this year and is a superbly consistent cross country horse.

The Championships will take place at Pardubice in the Czech Republic from July 28 July-August 1.

MARLBOROUGH'S Angela Mace is through to the Lycetts British Eventing Young Horse Championships, due to be held at Osberton in the East Midlands this September.

The championships feature the country’s top titles for four, five and six year olds, with a new CIC** for seven-year olds this time, and are a true showcase of Britain's top young equine event talent.

Mace booked her ticket with a win in the Five Year Old qualifier at Upton House BE one day event in Oxfordshire, riding Trisha Rickards’ home-bred grey Faerie Dianimo.

The pair completed on an excellent dressage score of 23.5 to leave their nearest rivals close on two marks behind.

Chippenham-based Sam Humphreys won the BE 100 Junior section by less than one mark.

The Beaufort Hunt Pony Club member rode the mare Vinians Bravour, one of just two horses in the section to complete on her dressage score.

Laura Collett took second spot in the Open Novice section on Minimee, who has been having a run of seconds. Last month the pair qualified for the British Novice Championship at Gatcombe after finishing second in the qualifier at Great Tew and they were runners-up in the CIC* at the Burgie International in Scotland.

THE Bath Horse Show, due to take place at Bushey Norwood, Claverton Down, on August 29.

The show, organised by Bath Riding Club, will feature qualifiers for the 2011 South West Pony Association Championships, held at the David Broome Event Centre in Wales, the Veteran Horse and Pony riding club finals and the Veteran Horse Society Home Produced Showing Championship.

A host of other classes will be available across four rings including show jumping, where classes range from 40cms to 1m; in-hand and ridden showing, catering for everything from lead rein ponies to cobs; and working hunter and pony classes.

Schedule available on bathridingclub.co.uk or contact the secretary at 8 Berry Road, Edington, Westbury, Wiltshire, BA13 4PN.

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