Following the success of 2022, we are delighted to announce the new extended Northumberland Challenge for 2023 which will cover the CCI2*-S and CCI3*-S classes across Belsay, Alnwick Ford and Burgham International Horse Trials with a total potential prize pot of £45,000!

Sponsored by A.W. Jenkinson Forest Products, Encon Technical Solutions Ltd and N.I.S. Group Services Construction Ltd, the 2023 Northumberland Challenge offers horse and rider combinations entering the CCI2*-S and CCI3*-S at Belsay (31st May – 4th June 2023), Alnwick Ford (23rd -25th June 2023) and Burgham International Horse Trials (27th-31 July 2023) the opportunity to win cash bonuses of up to £20,000 (for the CCI2*-S) and £25,000 (for the CCI3*-S), as follows.

  • Horse and rider combinations who achieve a top 3 placing in the CC12*-S at all three events will win a £2,000 bonus. Those that achieve a top 3 placing in the CCI3*-S at all three events will win a £3,000 bonus.
  • A horse & rider combination who wins the CCI2*-S at two of the three events will win a further £6,000 bonus, so a total of £8,000. A horse & rider combination who wins the CCI3*-S at two of the three events will win a further £7,000 bonus, so a total of £10,000.
  • A horse & rider combination who wins the CCI2*-S at all three events will win a further bonus of £12,000, making an amazing total of £20,000. While a horse & rider combination who manages to win the CCI3*-S at all three events will win a further £15,000 bonus, making a fantastic total of £25,000.

Belsay Event Director, Laura de Wesselow said: “We are always trying to improve our offer for both professional and amateur riders and their owners and giving them and their horses tangible goals and decent prize money.  We hugely grateful to our sponsors as well as McClarron Sports Ltd who helped put this together for us.”

Oliver Townend, who won the CCI2*-S at Belsay in 2022, is extremely enthusiastic about the series: “We had a brilliant time at Belsay last year, winning the CCI2*-S and the first leg of the Northumberland Challenge.  It’s a special place, well worth the trip North and more people should make the effort to go there.  I’ll be back this year!”

A look back at 2022:

Results

The A. W. Jenkinson Forest Products CCI2*S, and the first leg of the Northumberland 2* Challenge is COMPLETE!
 
Congratulations to Oliver Townend (Official) on taking the all important win in this exciting section – by 0.1 penalties! Oliver will now have his sights firmly set on taking the fantastic grand prize of the Northumberland 2* Challenge, kindly supported by AW Jenkinson.
 
Phoebe Sykes (also pictured), was the winner of the Highest Placed Pony Award, kindly supported by Project Pony.

Scotland’s Wils Oakden took second place on Eluna, owned by Arianne Finley, with Amy Simpson joining them on the podium for third with her own Hero RHF.  

Yorkshire’s James Rushbrooke took fourth with Always on My Mind, while Holland’s Nina de Haas who is based in the UK with Dutch team trainer and rider Andrew Heffernan in Cheshire took fifth place with JVK Mr Maguire.  Oliver Townend was sixth with one of his other rides Dolmen Debenture, which led after the dressage phase.

NORTHUMBERLAND 2* CHALLENGE – LEG TWO RESULTS 
 
 
In a total shake up of the leaderboard following yesterday’s dressage, Samantha Jimmison SJ Elite Equine, took top honours in the A. W. Jenkinson Forest Products 2* Section at Alnwick Ford Equestrian, on her own Lenelaheleen W – an exciting first FEI win for Sam!
 
Our Belsay Leg One winners, Oliver Townend (Official) aboard Sir John Peace’s En Taro des Vernier took runner up spot by a single penalty, meaning that the £22K bonus can now not be won, however, the generous runner up bonuses are still all to play for 
 
Congratulations also to Elise Rae Eventing with her own Cara Touch, who claimed third place by a minimal 0.2 penalty point difference 
 
LEG 3 RESULTS:
The inaugural running of the Northumberland 2* Challenge came to a close at Hambro Sport Horses Burgham International Horse Trials! 
 
 With an unheard-of prize fund at stake across three venues over the last two months, we have been delighted to see bumper entries and competitive fields. These 2* sections have been hard fought and we are delighted that they have attracted riders from across the country to get involved.
 
Burgham’s 2* section was won by a third different rider – this time, Sarah Bullimore Eventing on Corimiro, owned by her husband, Brett, Bruce Saint and Christopher and Susan Gillespie – on an impressive score of 22.2, and with a pole in hand over her nearest rival, Oliver Townend (Official).
Oliver has been a consistent force to be reckoned with through the series, having won the opening leg with us at Belsay, and been 2nd at Alnwick Ford Equestrian. However, even with top 3 placings throughout, when not achieved on the same horse, the top prize fund remains an elusive challenge!
We are very grateful for A. W. Jenkinson Forest Products for their generous sponsorship of this series – and look forward to 2023 when we will see if it is possible for anyone to pull off the 3/3!
 

A.W. Jenkinson Forest Products was formed in the mid-1960s when founder, Allan Jenkinson, took the initiative to collect unwanted sawdust and wood shavings from the sawmills around Cumbria and the Borders using a single tractor and trailer. He then transported the timber co-product to the area’s farms where sawdust was, and still is, in great demand as livestock and pet bedding.

This innovative, original approach with its positive environmental drive, has characterised the work of Allan and his team in the intervening years and has remained an important part of the business ever since. Demand outstripped the locally available supply of sawdust needed to supply A.W. Jenkinson Forest Product’s growing customer base. This led to partnerships being formed further afield, rapidly growing the business which now supplies customers across the UK and northern Europe.

To better serve the targeted needs of its extensive third party customer base, as well as the ongoing and expanding transport requirements of the wider A.W. Jenkinson group, the logistics operation was incorporated in spring 2014 to create A.W. Jenkinson Transport Limited.

Today A.W. Jenkinson Forest Products and its associated businesses handle over 3 million tonnes of roundwood, chips, shavings, sawdust, bark, green waste and other timber co-products each year, collected from forestry sites, sawmills and other wood processing industries throughout the UK. A.W. Jenkinson’s services link forestry, sawmilling, wood processing, building and demolition sectors with the demands of pulp, paper and panel manufacture, energy generation, agriculture, horticulture and amenity markets in an environmentally responsible cycle that makes maximum use of one of the world’s dwindling resources.

McClarrons Sport is a specialist Sport Insurance broker.  Operating across all sports globally, they work closely with clients to build creative and robust insurance solutions from their headquarters in Malton, North Yorkshire.  Leaning on their inhouse sports data and analytics specialists, McClarrons Sport have a number of clients who recognise that insurance broking is an art and value the creativity and expertise that the team brings.