Successful start to season for Caithness rider Sophia
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CAITHNESS Pony Club rider Sophia Ramsøy has enjoyed a successful start to the season after being part of the winning British team at the Student Rider Nations Cup in the Netherlands.
Sophia (22), of Moorcroft, Mid-Clyth, along with Laura Birley and Laura Simpson from England, took first place in the team dressage and then went on to secure gold in the combined dressage and showjumping competition. The local rider came sixth individually in the dressage.
A spokesperson from Great Britain Student Riders said: "Our girls absolutely pulled it out of the bag and rode their socks off to win."
Sophia joined the international university equestrian squad before graduating with a BSc (Hons) in geology from St Andrews University last year and has previously represented GB in Romania and Sweden, where she picked up the individual silver award in the showjumping.
Although now on a two-year graduate programme at Dounreay, the dedicated young rider is still managing to combine her passion for horses with her work.
Sophia freely admits that showjumping is where her aspiration truly lies and she was delighted to find out that she has been chosen to attend a special PC squad training camp after a recent selection day.
Along with her mother Linda Ramsøy, the district commissioner of the Caithness branch of the Pony Club, Sophia travelled to Morris Equestrian Centre, near Kilmarnock, in April to take part in the PC Talent Pathway Selection Day.
She will now take part in a camp at Solihull Riding Centre, West Midlands, during the last weekend of June, where hopefully she will be one of two showjumpers to be selected for the national squad. The squad will also be made up of two dressage riders and two eventers. If chosen she will also receive a £500 training bursary and be given a mentor.
The Dounreay worker said she was "really excited" to find out that she and her horse Patsy, a 14-year-old Dutch-bred Scottish sports horse registered mare by Ingliston Stryker, had been selected for the PC Talent Pathway Camp. "I have always wanted to do this," she said.
Coaching her at the camp will be Philippa Curry, who has more than 20 years' teaching experience, and was the British Showjumping coach of the year for 2013. She is also part of the BS youth team staff.
Next month will be a busy time for the Caithness rider as during the same week she will also take part in a PC A Test Coaching Camp at Lincomb Equestrian, Worcestershire, along with her sister Camilla Church, a former Caithness PC member.
To take part in this camp, participants must have first achieved the A Test, the highest PC qualification. A Test holders are encouraged to go on to train future candidates and it is hoped that many will assess the test in the future.
With all this travelling already on the cards, Sophia plans to take her HGV test. However, she doubts she'll have completed that before the end of June.
She had hoped to take Patsy and her other younger horse Hinkelien (Heidi), a seven-year-old KWPN bay mare by Chello III VDL, she produced herself to split the workload over the two camps. However, until she can drive herself to events she'll possibly only be able to make the trip with the one horse.
Sophia has been a regular winner at local events as well as further afield. On two occasions she has won the open showjumping class at the PC area competitions and has represented the club at the championships.
