Isle of Man Sportswoman of the Year for 2019, Yasmin Ingham has resumed her international eventing season.

Spending the lockdown time working on her and her horses’ weaknesses has paid dividends for Yaz, who returned to competition in July under British Eventing’s strict new Covid-19 measures.

She has hit the ground running with a very busy schedule of events during July and August, and her success in this short time, coupled with the two events pre-lockdown, has placed the Greeba woman in 10th place in British Eventing’s top rider league.

As well as this, her exciting young horse, Banzai Du Loir, owned by island resident Sue Davies, went top of the points’ league for horses with two months of the season remaining.

Yasmin is based at Davies’ Pewit Stud in Cheshire, which has enabled her to take advantage of the enviable range of facilities there to train horses for the top level in sport during the lockdown period, therefore keeping the horses ticking over ready for the resumption of competition.

Aston le Walls, in Northamptonshire, was the venue for the Manxwoman’s first win of the season in the middle of July when riding Banzai Du Loir, the nine-year-old French Bred Chestnut Gelding, who won his intermediate section. Her three other rides all finished in the top 10 in their sections.

Banzai repeated this win at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire on August 1, again in the intermediate class, with two of Ingham’s other rides featuring once again in the top-10 placings.

Another trip to Aston le Walls two weeks later saw the horses step up to advanced level, which is the highest national level of eventing. Banzai competed in the 8/9-year-old class and finished in fourth place, with a top-three placing for Buckle End Bertie in the open intermediate.

Ingham competed in her first international of the year at the Burgham International near Morpeth in Northumberland the weekend before last.

Yaz had four horses entered in the CCI4* S class in a star-studded field alongside the current British, European and world championship team horses and riders. These included current world champions Ros Canter and Allstar B, as well as Badminton winners Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class who headed two very competitive sections.

Again Banzai showed his class with a 27-penalty dressage, an excellent clear inside the time in the showjumping and a confident clear in the cross-country, picking up only two time penalties. This left them in ninth position which was, for his first time at this level, an incredible result in such top-class company.

Sandman 7, who was Yasmin’s Under-25 British Championship-winning ride last summer at Bramham, produced a 29-penalty dressage test which was marred by some early mistakes. They also performed well but clipped a pole in the showjumping, so was run more steadily in the cross-country as they were out of contention for a top placing.

Yasmin’s own horse, Night Line, on whom she finished 16th in the CCI5* at Pau two years ago, produced his best result at 4* level, finishing on a double clear in the showjumping and cross-country, but again being run more steadily picking up five time penalties for an eventual 18th place.

Rehy DJ - who Yasmin has brought on from the novice level and was her partner in winning the British Under-21 Championship title in 2018, going on to finish fourth for Britain in the Young Rider European Championships in Fontainebleau - showed his quality and potential for the very top of the sport at Burgham,

A fault-free dressage test with a score of 28 followed by a clear show jumping round, only .3 of a second over the optimum time, left the pair in ninth place going into the cross-country test.

The cross country optimum time was proving very hard to achieve as even Canter and Townend picked up time penalties, but Ingham and ’Piglet’ - as he is known - took all of the economical lines and sped round the course to finish five seconds under the optimum time, one of only five combinations in the 80-plus field to achieve this.

This catapulted them to fourth place just behind Townend, Laura Collett and Sarah Bullimore, finishing ahead of Kitty King and Vendredi Biats who were the British team’s top finisher at last year’s European Championships.

Speaking afterwards, Yasmin commented: ’I am just so proud of Piglet. He is such a trier, and we set out on the cross-country to mean business as I knew we were in a competitive position and he dug in for me.

’We have an amazing partnership, as I’ve produced him from novice, and we know each other inside out. To be placed so highly with the top riders in the UK is so exciting for the future!’

The team next head to Burnham Market International in Norfolk on September 17-20 for the 8/9-year-old British Championship.

Banzai Du Loir is entered and must be one of the favourites, while Sandman 7 and Rehy DJ both run in the CCI4*L three-day event, both classes being put on by the organisers of Burnham Market to replace the September International fixture at Blenheim Palace which was cancelled this year because of coronavirus.

Yaz is ever grateful to all of her sponsors, none more so than local backers Isle of Man Sport Aid for its help and support, Microgaming for sponsoring the Sportswoman of the Year Award and Equiporium who supply clothing and equipment, as well as Sue Davies and Janette Chinn who trust her to ride their horses.