Sara Howe, daughter Phillipa Howe and Georgina Firths’’ team (driven by Boyd Excell) returned home from The British Horse Driving Trails Association National Championships with some impressive final placings. Held at Smith Lawn Windsor from 11th to 13th September 2009, Georgina’s team were fed on Re-Leve, whilst both Sara and Phillipa’s team excelled on Saracen Cooling Pencils and Equi-Jewel.

At 19 years old, Phillipa’s pony Priceless is nearly as old as 21 year old Phillipa and is still going strong, thanks for a combination of consistent training, good stable management and of course an excellent diet!

2009 has been quite a year for Georgina Frith - especially as she “technically” had a year off to have her first baby – whilst her team of horses won the National Championships – without her! Which goes to show that plenty of preparation, groundwork and good feeding courtesy of Saracen Horse Feeds kept this top flight driving team at the top of their game.

The early part of this year saw Georgina concentrating on the team’s basic flat work and methodical technical hazard driving until her pregnancy meant it was no longer comfortable driving the team. After that she moved onto pairs, single and tandem work which she could manage easily with her growing bump and then she sent them up to Boyd's for three days team training prior to Sandringham so that he could have a feel of them in hazards and check their fitness levels.

Winning Sandringham was impressive as it was their first competition of the year. Head lad Matthew Green took on more ground work individual training with help and encouragement from teacher Mary Bassett. Four weeks after the arrival baby daughter Sophie, Georgina was back in the driving seat – but due to her own level of fitness was unable to qualify for the National Championships.

When Boyd decided at the last minute to run his good team at Breda rather than Windsor it was a fantastic opportunity to supply him with horses for the Nationals.

"Georgina's team knows their job. They were well prepared and it saved my horses from competing back to back." said Boyd

"Fitness was never an issue - I had plenty of power and speed and had to drive a full speed marathon as we were only a penalty ahead of Dick Lane after the dressage. We lost some time in the first obstacle when the leaders didn't respond to me as I was expecting, but we made some adjustments and knew we would have to push the horses to the edge of their ability to keep Dick at bay. They responded brilliantly." he continued.

"They gave me an easy drive to win the cones - plenty of speed but level headed and responsive"

With the Championship under their belt they will now get their well deserved winter break - but not before Georgina has a few more weeks to enjoy them properly now that she is back to full fitness.