Equestrian People: Hannah Cash
by Linda Torgoose, LincsMag Equestrian Writer.
Date: 01 July 2014
After a horrible day of heavy rain showers it was with some relief, that when we arrived at Hannah’s home, blue sky was starting to show through the dark clouds as we went to meet Mountain Warrior, or Alfie, in his stable.
Mountain Warrior - Alfie
Alfie is a 16.2h Bay Sports Horse, now 12 years old, he has been competing at affiliated eventing for 8 years, the last 6 being with Hannah, herself having been competing at an International level for 12 years.
Hannah got Alfie from Tina Canton when he was competing mainly at pre-novice level. She has worked with him to get to the level they are now, entering a CIC3* for the first time at Bramham International Horse Trials in June 2014, where they attained a very respectable 38th place and got the first qualification they needed to progress to CCI.
Hannah said of Bramham “I was quite nervous there because there’s a lot of atmosphere, but we went round, it was brilliant, I was so happy”.
The next events for Hannah and Alfie are the open intermediate at Aston followed by the CIC3* at Hartpury International.
Hannah competes at intermediate to take the pressure off and keep her eye in whilst still gaining valuable experience and increasing confidence for them both. However the goal for Hartpury is to achieve the second qualification she needs to then be able to enter a CCI3* and ultimately a CCI4*.
Holly Blue Curtis - Meg
Prior to Mountain Warrior Hannah owned Holly Blue Curtis, stable name Meg, for 6 years and entered Young Rider classes, again competing at Bramham where she finished 20th in the under 25 Championships CCI3*.
The following year Hannah sold Meg to Piggy French, so she could concentrate on her studies at De Montfort University, which then led to a gap in her equestrian pursuits when she started work. Hannah gave it all up and sold everything, but enjoyed keeping up with Meg’s progress and going to watch her compete. After a year; however, she really missed having a horse and so bought Mountain Warrior never thinking she would ever get to 3* level again.
Hannah first started affiliated competing at novice level with Wizard of Oz VII but his show jumping wasn’t very good and once he achieved his maximum potential Hannah sold him on.
Hannah had been introduced to horses at a very young age with her parents both being involved with the Blankney Hunt where she then became a member of the Pony Club. She was about 3 years old when she had her first pony and Hannah says “he was blind in one eye and about forty!”
Hobby
Even though she is competing at 3* level, eventing is just a hobby for Hannah as she is a full time Prison Officer. Based at Peterborough, which is the country's only dual purpose-built prison for men and women, for nearly ten years Hannah describes this as a job which she absolutely loves.
Working shifts Hannah has the opportunity to put a lot of time into working with Alfie, although he doesn’t get ridden every day.
Winter Competitive Spirit
During the winter she keeps the competitive spirit alive with some local unaffiliated dressage competitions, where she has won some championships and has also joined the British Show Jumping Association (BSJA).
Hannah admits that show jumping is her weakest element in the sport of eventing which is partly due to confidence; however she is working hard with trainer Kate Walls to improve and also has dressage lessons from trainer Tracy Woodhead.
Having just recently managed to gain some sponsorship from Animalife, which she secured after writing to them, Hannah would still like other sponsorship as she says “although money isn’t everything it does help”.
Hannah also has a great deal of support from her Mum and Dad; with Mum and their dog, Cracker, going on “a little holiday” to all the events with her.
Hannah says she “couldn’t do it without their help”. We hope that one “holiday” Hannah, her Mum and Cracker will be taking, in the not too distant future, will be a long weekend at Burghley for the International CCI4*.
