Jaymee Savill names seventh place at the junior Europeans as the highlight of her 2022 season. The 18-year-old was at her first championship, riding the nine-year-old grey Grange Ash Sparrow.
“I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was a really good experience,” she says of the championship, which was held at Hartpury with juniors and young riders competing concurrently. “We were all together as juniors and young riders and everyone was there for each other.”
Jaymee and “Ash” finished the event on their dressage score of 32.2.
“I was pleased with our dressage – we were in a transitioning stage with our flatwork and there’s a lot more to come from him, but I was really happy with what he gave me,” she remembers. “He was amazing across country as usual and flew round – we somehow managed to produce the fastest round of the day. Showjumping is probably our weakest phase and I was quite nervous, but it was one of the best rounds we’ve jumped.”
Jaymee Savill is based at her parents’ house near Cirencester, where Ash heads up the eight horses in the yard. She finished school in the summer of 2022 after taking her A levels and is hoping to make a full-time career in horses, with university a “back-up plan” which is currently on hold while she gives horses a go.
The rider has had Ash for nearly five years.
“When we got him, he was a bolshy five-year-old, but he’s got a lot better over the years although he’s still quite a character and knows he’s special,” she says. “He can be opinionated, but he has a really good brain, loves the job and is always willing to work.
“He loves to jump and will go off any stride. He finds flatwork more difficult, being built slightly downhill, but he’ll try to do anything you ask as best as he can – he’s really trainable.”
As well as their success at the Europeans, the pair also won two under-21 open intermediates in 2022, at Richmond and Rockingham, and were third in the young rider CCI3*-S at Cornbury. In 2023, Jaymee will aim for the young rider Europeans and possibly step up to advanced.
Also in Jaymee’s string is Fernhill Candy Crush, who is the same age as Grange Ash Sparrow (10 in 2023), but has had some time out of work with a mystery illness which surfaced in the middle of 2021.
Jaymee Savill explains: “We tried a lot of medications and he had some bad reactions. There weren’t any signs of infection, but as a last resort we put him on some antibiotics and that was a turning point.”
The son of Sligo Candy Boy is back in work now and strengthening up ready to hopefully compete again.
“He’s a very special horse and I hope he’ll go up the levels,” says Jaymee. “I do need my wits about me across country because I need to keep his confidence up and not drop him at the last minute, whereas Ash is always going, but if I do that, he flies over them all.”
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