Manx Equestrian star Yasmin Ingham continued her good run of form at the Burgham International Horse Trials in Morpeth last weekend.

She was riding Sue Davies and Janette Chinn’s Banzai Du Loir and Rehy DJ in the hotly contested 4* classes, with over 70 competitors in each section of the event.

After their outstanding second place in the Land Rover Kentucky Horse Trials 5* during the spring, Banzai had a short holiday in the field. He was brought back to fitness for his autumn campaign, where sights are set on selection for the world championships to be held in Pratoni Del Vivaro in Italy from September 14-18.

The Northumberland event, 10 miles north of Newcastle, was a targeted final selection trial for many of the longlisted horse and rider combinations, who were out in force to impress the British team selectors - Captain Mark Phillips, Nigel Taylor and Sarah Bullen - so the pressure was firmly on to put in a good result for the Manx woman.

Of her two rides, only Banzai Du Loir is on the longlist, but Rehy DJ, who recently returned from the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen Germany with a team win for Great Britain in the Nations Cup, performed a stunning dressage test scoring a personal best of 23.7 penalties. This left them in third position going into the jumping phases.

Banzai Du Loir, normally the higher scoring of the two horses in this phase, was rather too happy to be back at an event, making two mistakes in the dressage test, but still was awarded a competitive score of 26.5 penalties, leaving them in seventh place after dressage in the other section.

The showjumping course the following day was technical and up to height, with the optimum time proving difficult to achieve, along with very few clear rounds.

Both Rehy DJ and Banzai Du Loir were clear and within the optimum time, a feat very few combinations achieved.

The cross-country, later that afternoon, was again causing it’s share of problems, with many faulting at the second water combination, a large log drop into water, with a curving four-stride distance to a brush corner in the water, then a skinny fence out.

Ingham and her two horses stormed round the course, both finishing easily within the optimum time, Banzai being the fastest round of the day. Only six combinations from the 140 total competitors finished without adding any penalties to their dressage score, with Ingham being the rider for two of them.

This lifted Rehy DJ to a final second place in his section, close behind Oliver Townend riding one of his two longlisted horses, Swallow Springs, with Sarah Bullimore riding Coruet, her Aachen and Kentucky mount, also longlisted.

Banzai’s clean sheet also lifted him up the leaderboard to fourth, finishing closely behind Ros Canter, Townend riding Ballaghmor Class, his Olympic team gold medal winner, and Sarah Bullimore aboard her experienced 5* horse Reve De Rouet.

This result puts Yaz well in the frame for a spot on the squad for the world championships, selection for which takes place on August 16.

l Yasmin would like to thank the British Equestrian World Class programme and Isle of Man Sport for the continued support.