Success just goes on and on for Jill

10:34am Tuesday 1st July 2008

CHISELDON rider Jilly Kent is celebrating after making into into the Great Britain endurance team.

Supported by Aquamax, the Swindon-based provider of horse bedding, Jill and her pure bred Arabian endurance horse, Bitterwell Spirit, were successful in their bid to complete 100 miles in one day.

The race was the top class in Sherwood Forest, at an international endurance event organised by EnduranceGB, the governing body for endurance in England and Wales.

Jill and Spirit came seventh, and as a result, qualified for selection for the Great Britain endurance team, who will be competing at the European Championships in 2009, and the World Championships in Kentucky in 2010.

"It was a pretty good result because we were up against professionals," said Jill.

"But we have now qualified for the European and World Championships, which is very good.

"I was taking it easy after the ride, but then I had to keep on moving so I didn't stiffen up."

Jill and Spirit have just returned from Sangatte in France where they competed in an international 119km race, including a 16km section along the beach, finishing in a creditable sixth place.

That was their first trip abroad, and they were part of the Great Britain senior development squad, in training for future selection.

Jill Kent has been competing in endurance rides for over a decade, so is a highly experienced rider.

She lives with her husband on the Wiltshire Downs, between Marlborough and Swindon, where they run an IT consultancy business.

Bitterwell Spirit is a 14-year-old Crabbet Arab. Owned by Jill for 10 years, Spirit has progressed steadily up through the junior grades to become a consistent national ranking winner over the last two years.

In 2006 he was the National and Supreme champion for England and Wales, and has successfully completed over 4,000 competitive kilometres during his career.

Aquamax provided Jill with enough bedding to take with them to France - easy to transport in its new form - which provided a superb bed for the stable, rather than the traditional dusty straw.

The new bedding is biodegradable.

This revolutionary product is produced from clean pine wood fibres which have been highly densified and the moisture extracted.

On completion of the complex manufacturing programme, the end product contains only four per cent moisture, is sterile and extremely absorbent.

Aquamax absorbs urine and, at the same time, eliminates ammonia odour, and expands to form a fluffy wood fibre, four times its own volume.

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