Bertram Allen takes all in the Christmas Masters at Olympia

Bertram Allen rode nine year old stallion High Valley to victory in The Christmas Masters to huge cheers from the crowd this evening at Olympia.

The class features the best seven riders from the show’s Leading Rider table. Set over a potential five rounds, the riders must indicate which fence they wish to increase in height as they ride into the arena. A knock down results in immediate elimination. Should there be two or more riders left in the competition after four rounds they go forward the fifth round, which is a timed jump-off.

Only three of the seven starters went through to the jump-off. Laura Renwick, riding Nancy Pinchen’s Dominant H, was first to go and steered the impressive eight year old around the arena just clipping the last fence resulting in elimination.

Flying around the course on High Valley, Bertram Allen produced the first clear in a time of 24.79 seconds. Last to go was Malin Baryard-Johnsson on H&M Indiana who, despite being under the pressure of Allen’s round, also produced an effective clear, but galloping through the finish in a time of 25.32sec just couldn’t clinch the €14,000 prize money this time.

In our video above, Allen explains how he selected which fences he wanted to increase in height and reveals what makes High Valley so suited to this type of class.