Borderers ride into the sunset with trio of awards

The ceremony was held at the Doubletree Dunblane Hydro, where the prestigious awards celebrated and honoured the outstanding contributions within Scottish equestrianism.

The occasion provided a chance to acknowledge and congratulate the success, performance, effort and sheer determination shown by so many throughout the year.

Individually and collectively, it was a very satisfying evening for the Borders.

Hawick rider Rosa Onslow was named Youth Performer Of The Year and Hawick journalist Hilary Mactaggart was Equestrian Writer Of The Year, while Kelso High Schools’s Senior Equestrian squad carried off the Team Of The Year prize.

Nominated in other categories were Scottish Racing, based in Oxnam, plus Stacey McPherson and Henry Johnstone Smith, from Scottish Equestrian Vaulting in Selkirk.

Nearly 300 guests were welcomed by horsescotland chairman Grant Turnbull, while Bill Gray, chairman of event sponsor the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS), said its charitable remit was to support rural Scotland. These valuable awards helped achieve this by celebrating and recognising the achievements of those involved in the Scottish equestrian sector.

Rosa Onslow is a member of the Lottery-funded horsescotland elite performance squad and represented GB at Young Riders and Senior Nations Cup Level in 2019.

She and her top two horses, RLE Limbo Kaiser and Diamond Sundance, have been accredited for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She finished the season as the highest-placed Scottish rider on FEI World Rankings and the highest ranked Scottish U25 rider on points.

The highlights of her 2019 season were to represent GB on Diamond Sundance in the U21 Young Riders Eventing Championships at Maarsbergen, Holland, coming 12th out of 66 competitors with a double clear round. She was also the fourth-placed GB rider.

She was additionally selected on RLE Limbo Kaiser to represent GB in the Senior Nations Cup Team at Camphire International.

Rosa also had a podium finish of third in the Nations Cup out of 120 competitors at Houghton International, finishing as the top GB rider. On board Diamond Sundance, she also finished second in the CCI4* L at Blair Castle International Horse Trials.

Diamond Sundance was the top-rated horse in Scotland in 2019 and the 34 th top horse in the country, accumulating 178 BE points during

the season. RLE Limbo Kaiser is qualified for Badminton and that was Rosa’s main aim for 2020.

Rosa finished seventh in the BE 4* League on Diamond Sundance, and sixth in the Under 21 Rider League.

Kelso High School’s Senior Equestrian Team – composed of Vicky Edgar, Alex Edgar, Katie Edgar and Katy McFadyen – have ridden together for nearly seven years, since they were in P5 at Morebattle Primary School.

They have qualified for the National Schools Equestrian Association Championships in Buckinghamshire every year since 2014 and have won at least one Championship every year since 2015, in both Showjumping and Jumping With Style.

In the last five years, they have won 10 Championships, including two as part of showjumping Nations Cup teams representing Scotland.

The four are great ambassadors for equestrianism within schools and have helped not only the younger riders at Kelso High School but also those from other schools too .

They have made very professional presentations to both Scottish Borders Council education committee and Kelso High School Parents Council to promote equestrianism in schools.

The girls were supported on the night by family, friends, Nicola Cowe (class teacher from Morebattle Primary School) and Jill Lothian (head teacher at Kelso High School).

The girls devote huge amounts of their time developing and producing young horses to a very high level. They display the utmost dedication and maturity in all aspects of their riding, and their commitment and consistency over the years was commented on by horsescotland chairman Grant Turnbull.

Hilary Mactaggart has been providing equestrian media coverage for some 40 years now. She covered a range of equestrian events over some 30 years with the Southern Reporter newspaper, including Kelso races and all the local point-to-point meetings.

She spent around 15 years travelling the country as Horse and Hound’s Scottish showing correspondent and also reported on dressage for the magazine for over a decade.

For many years, Hilary also produced weekly racing reports for the Scottish Farmer and was often heard on Radio Borders, promoting Kelso races. She regularly provides racing reports to BBC Selkirk and has also contributed horse-related articles in the national press.

As well as her writing, Hilary has fulfilled a number of PR roles – for the Barratt-sponsored series of Scottish horse trials, Thirlestane Castle Scottish Championships and the Northern Area Point-to-Point Association. Additionally, she has been press officer for the Borders branch of the British Horse Society for 30 years.

During the evening, the ever-popular raffle, which offered some excellent prizes donated by various supporters of horsescotland, raised a fantastic £1717. This will be added to funds which help member groups carry out projects through the Member Body Support Programme.

Event rider Jonty Evans took centre stage and, within minutes, had totally captivated his audience with a hearfelt story of success, injury and setbacks, followed by his battle to return to fitness and his plans for the future.

He and Bill Gray presented the awards, while Mr Gray praised the nominees, saying: “Congratulations to all the very worthy finalists and winners, all of whom are helping to further the success of Scottish equestrianism.”

Afterwards, Grant Turnbull said: “The success of the horsescotland National Equestrian Awards 2020 was phenomenal. The nominations presented and the quality of nominees was remarkable. On behalf of our organisation, I would like to extend huge congratulations to all of our nominees and to the very well deserved winners.”