The University of Gloucestershire first started competing against their rivals from Worcestershire in 2006 but it was only in 2013 when Women’s Equestrian first started competing in the tournament.
This year’s event took place last Wednesday in what proved to be a tight contest between the two, as Gloucestershire came out on top as a result of Worcester’s rider penalties to secure consecutive victories.
WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!! #RatherBeACheese!!! pic.twitter.com/hy1JpxAQ7T
— UoG Equestrian Club (@UoG_Equestrian) April 11, 2018
Ella Ward is currently in her first season with the Equestrian team and although there wasn’t a place for in this year’s tournament, she was more than happy to go along to support and celebrate her fellow riders’ triumph.
“It was obviously still good to see them win and I didn’t mind being left out because we always want to put our best riders forward and it’s nice to know that they will do the job right because some of the girls from the lower team like me feel a lot more pressure because you know there are better riders that you could have put forward – so I really didn’t mind missing out.”
“It was definitely a closer win than it was last time. They put a really good show on this year (Worcester) but we still carried on and managed to pull the win.”
Next year will present the chance for UOG to make it three Varsity wins in a row as they look to assert their dominance in the competition and despite competition amongst the girls in the team being fierce, Ward is expecting it to be tough but will be pushing to be involved in the team for the competition in 2019.
“I’m two teams down at the moment. Obviously I’ll do my best, but we have about 25 riders in the whole team so we only ever put four people forward.
“It’ll be a tough one but I’ll do my best.”
