NORTHALLERTON Riding Club overcame the foot-and-mouth restrictions by literally getting on their hobby horses.

Members dusted down old friends and found new mounts for the one day event at North Lodge, Londonderry, home of Phil and Janet Coupland, who instigated the event.

Seven teams started, performing the dressage test together, using the same formula as Rural Riders. The specially written test awarded marks for artistic impression and synchronisation of steps decided many of the places at the end of the phase.

Show jumping followed, with one team member jumping over a fairly technical, timed course. Although this phase did not have much effect on the final result, some horses and riders were left feeling rather breathless.

The cross country was most influential. The course was beautifully built and included many hazards, although it was the bank and water which caused most problems.

One competitor per team ran in this phase and had to don fancy dress, which was judged at the start. Those marks were added to the jumping faults and turned the leaderboard around.

Faults were forfeited for jumping style, loss of costume and lack of running speed - mostly the latter.

Rabbits, geisha girls, sub aqua divers and a groovy chick were among the entrants.

But the star performer was the scarecrow, whose brilliant run with a bold leap into the water clinched first place for the Femme Fatale team of Mary Kay, Hazel Campbell and Sue Butler.

Pete's Peaches and The I Don't Knows were in second and third place respectively