Norfolk rider’s victory at Blenheim

A Norfolk horse rider took a top title at the weekend.

Piggy French held onto her lead in a thrilling finale to the weekend's Fidelity Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials and scored her first senior three-star CCI win.

The Market Harborough-based British team member had endured the disappointment of not being able to complete on her overnight cross-country leader, Lemington Lett Dance, but was amply compensated when she stayed on top of the leader board with her second-placed horse, DHI Topper W, owned by her father Wally French and Michael Underwood.

The 11-year-old bay gelding by Optimaal, winner of the Olympic test event at Greenwich in July, knocked just one fence in the final jumping phase to secure Piggy's victory.