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Team GB come calling on para carriage driver Lucy
Lucy Barclay with her horse, Golly Gosh, and back-step Susie Day at Great Britain trials in Sandringham earlier this year.
FORMER Para World Championship Dressage rider Lucy Barclay has received a call up to represent Team GB in the Para World Carriage Driving Championships in Holland this month.
Following a selection trial at Sanderingham in July, Lucy, from Stixwould, and her horse, Golly Gosh, were selected as part of the team which will start competing tomorrow, Thursday Augst 30.
After a serious accident in 2001 left Lucy paralysed from the waist down, she was undettered and back riding again within a few years, firstly astride and then side saddle.
“It’s absolutely fantastic to have been selected,” said Lucy, “particularly during this Olympic year.
“Para Carriage Driving is not a Paralympic event unfortunately, but these Championships in Holland are the equivalent.”
In 2009, after another accident, she was again eager to get back in the saddle and start riding.
While in hospital in Sheffield for two months, Lucy, 49, had Golly Gosh trained to harness, and they started competing in local carriage driving trials.
“We had three selection competitions and it was wittled down to a shortlist of four.
“Three of us would be picked for the team event and one for the individual.”
Similar to the Olympic Equestrian event, the three-day Carriage Driving Championships has three disciplines: dressage, a cross country marathon, and a cone driving competition.
Lucy said the marathon was a test for both horse and rider as it is split in to three sections.
She added: “First there’s an eight kilometre section, and you need to cover a kilometre ever four minutes.
“Then there’s a kilometre walk which needs to be completed within eight minutes 34 seconds.
“We then have a rest for 10 minutes while the horse is checked out by doctors, and a final nine kilometre section at a pace of four minutes 30 seconds per kilometre.
Although Golly, as she is called by Lucy, is 17 years old, she is “fit and raring to go.”
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Weather for Horncastle
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 8 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 14 C
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