Annan teenager rubs shoulders with equestrian world's elite
The teenager has produced a string of impressive results recently, including successfully completing clear rounds at Badminton Horse Trials in 2024 and 2025.Widely considered the pinnacle of the eventing world, Badminton was an event that Tara watched on television growing up. However, she is now competing alongside world-class eventers, tackling the three disciplines of dressage, showjumping and cross-country.
"I feel like it's quite unbelievable really," she said."I'll be in the warm-up ring looking over to competitors like Ros Canter, who's one of the best in the world, and here I am on my little Connemara pony."I bought Anna as a four-year-old and I've home produced her, so everything that we have achieved together has been through sheer hard work."Tara recently beat one of her heroes in a dressage test, when she scored higher than Olympic gold medallist, Oliver Townend. As a teenager competing in adult and horse classes, most of the fences tower over both jockey and pony.Her achievements have not gone unnoticed.
"Tara is one of the youngest riders competing at this level and to have completed a clear round at Badminton aged just 14 is both rare and extremely impressive," said a British Eventing spokesman."Her selection to represent Scotland at the upcoming championships is a well-deserved recognition of her talent and composure under pressure."She's certainly one to watch."Competing at international level requires a significant amount of training and dedication, with Tara riding every morning before attending school at Lockerbie Academy.
In order to compete at Badminton this year, she had to sit her school exams on Monday before a six-hour drive south to compete on the Tuesday, with British Eventing making special allowances in order for her to participate.Tara's parents, Margaret and Edi, work full-time to support their daughter in following her dream.However, competing at this level is expensive and Margaret has to work overtime to cover the cost of entry fees, travel and accommodation.
"It's surreal for us as a family to see Tara's name on the entry list alongside riders who we watch competing all over the world and to have royalty arriving in helicopters to spectate," she said."We do everything ourselves and we don't have any sponsors."Some of Tara's competitors have the pick of the best horses and teams of people around them to cater to horse and rider."I think it makes it even more special when Tara achieves the results she does, and we'd like to thank her coaches who work so hard."The dream is to reach the top of the sport, perhaps even a future Olympics Games.Both Margaret and Tara are working as hard as they can to realise those ambitions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
7 minutes ago
- BBC News
Kilmarnock's Ndaba 'to have Lecce medical'
Kilmarnock centre-half Corrie Ndaba is close to finalising a transfer to Lecce, the Serie A club have have posted a photograph of the 25-year-old Irishman with a club scarf on their X account,, external saying he arrived on Saturday afternoon for a medical, which "will be completed on Monday".That explained Ndaba's absence from Kilmarnock's matchday squad as Stuart Kettlewell's side defeated East Fife 4-0 to secure top spot in their Premier Sports Cup group and progress to the last defender signed a three-year contract with the Scottish Premiership club last summer after leaving Ipswich Town following a season on loan at Kilmarnock. He made 39 appearances, all but two of them starts, last season as the Ayrshire side finished ninth in the Scottish top he appears likely to complete a move to the club who have just brought Eusebio Di Francesco back for a second spell as head coach after leaving relegated themselves finished 17th in the Italian top flight, one place above the relegation who played for the Republic of Ireland at Under-18 level, failed to break into Ipswich's first team after coming through the Championship club's youth ranks and had loan spells with Hemel Hempstead Town, Chelmsford City, Ayr United, Salford City, Burton Albion and Fleetwood Town before joining Kilmarnock.
The Guardian
7 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Newcastle left with uncomfortable feeling that Isak wants more and romance is dead
Football is a market. It has always been a market and it is more of a market now than it has ever been before. Everybody is constantly looking for a better deal, and everybody has a price. Every club has its place in the ecosystem and those higher up the chain will always take from those below them, who in turn will take from those below them. All a club can ever hope to do is to inch their way higher and higher in the structure, to increase the number of clubs they can feed on while reducing the number of predators who can feed on them. It may be reassuring to think of the legendary servants, the one-club men of the past, but even the term 'servants' betrays an uncomfortable truth. From 1885, when professionalism was legalised and the great clubs of the industrial north and Midlands began to acquire talent from Scotland, footballers have been a product to be traded. From 1963, when the retain-and-transfer system was scrapped, and increasingly after the Bosman ruling of 1995, players have had agency, although even before that there were cases such as that of Wilf Mannion, who went on strike to try to force a move from Middlesbrough to Oldham. Since financial fair play rules began to be introduced 15 years ago, preventing an owner splurging a fortune on elevating his side, the clubs climbing the ladder most successfully are those who have accepted their position within the hierarchy and traded accordingly. Brighton's ascent to become a top-10 Premier League side has been based almost entirely on their ability to identify talent early and sell it at an enormous profit to Chelsea. There remains a reluctance to be seen as a selling club, but other than Real Madrid everybody is a selling club now. Far better to be a selling club than a letting-a-player-run-down-his-contract-and-leave-on-a-free club. Clubs who will have regarded themselves as the elite, as destination clubs, have to accept that almost everybody is a stepping stone . Perhaps for those who are battling to return to the elite, who are not confident in their status, that is a difficult adjustment to make. Which brings us to Alexander Isak. The dance of briefing and counter-briefing that has played out over the past couple of weeks has been fascinating and, frankly, a little baffling. If Isak wanted to leave Newcastle – and he was considering his future in the final weeks of last season – why wait until after Liverpool signed Hugo Ekitiké and Chelsea acquired Liam Delap and João Pedro, as well as for Arsenal's move for Viktor Gyökeres to be at an extremely advanced stage, to make that public? Does the scarcity of centre-forwards on the market push his price up? Or does the fact that potential suitors have no burning need for a striker reduce it? Understandably, Newcastle fans are reluctant to see the Swede go. He is, after all, probably the club's best player since Alan Shearer. He is only 25; once upon a time it would have been possible to dream of him staying for the best part of a decade, scoring 200 goalsb. Last season was the best Newcastle have known since the first Kevin Keegan era. They won the Carabao Cup, their first domestic silverware in 70 years, qualified for the Champions League and their line was led by one of the world's most coveted strikers. It was possible to imagine a future when Isak was joined by players of similar stature. But that is not how modern football works. Isak wants more: more money (and his £120,000-a-week salary does seem below the market rate) and a more consistent chance of winning trophies. Newcastle could hang on to him, hope he does not succumb to bitterness and try to add further stars. Or they could take £140m and invest it in strengthening the squad as a whole, accumulating more assets who can be sold at a profit so more can be bought, driving their ascent. It is cold and mercantile, it is far from the romance many would like to see in the game, but it is also the reality. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion There are two problems. First, the sense of loss if Isak goes, which is particularly acute for a fanbase that still carries the collective memory of the departures of Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne in the 80s and the fear that the Saudi Public Investment Fund may essentially turn out to be the habitually beleaguered Stan Seymour in disguise. Isak is not the only Newcastle player pondering his future and there is a danger his departure is the start of a mini-exodus. Second, there is a lack of faith that the club is equipped to make the most of such a windfall. Paul Mitchell left this summer after a year as sporting director and although Jack Ross has been appointed as head of football strategy and Sudarshan Gopaladesikan as technical director, with Ross Wilson likely to be named as sporting director soon, it is unreasonable to expect anybody taking up a role in July to coordinate a coherent transfer strategy for a window that closes on 1 September, particularly with Darren Eales stepping down as chief executive because of illness. There has already been disquiet about a lack of incoming players, with Anthony Elanga the only senior signing to date as Newcastle have missed out on a number of targets, most recently James Trafford, who preferred to rejoin Manchester City. Although plans are being drawn up for a new stadium, there were fears last season that Newcastle might be the victims of a more general Saudi retrenchment. Meeting profitability and sustainability rules remains a check on expenditure, but with Champions League football this season there were reasons to expect the budget to be a little more generous. Instead, there is a sense of drift. In part that is misfortune, given the illnesses suffered by Eales and Amanda Staveley, who sold her stake in the club last summer. But the appointment of Mitchell never seemed a comfortable fit and the result is a vacuum. Last season was supposed to be the beginning of a glorious future for Newcastle; the fear within the frustrations of the past few weeks is that it was actually a summit.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Lochaber beat Inveraray to lift Ferguson Balliemore Cup
Lochaber won the Ferguson Balliemore Cup for shinty's intermediate championship thanks to a 2-0 triumph over Inveraray in the final at Spean Artemis Macaulay Cup final in Oban on 23 August will match holders Kingussie, 3-0 winners over local rivals Newtonmore in the north semi-final at Beauly, and Oban Camanachd who eliminated Glasgow Mid Argyll 3-1 in the south tie in Premiership relegation concerns increased for Lovat, who lost 2-0 to Kinlochshiel at Rearaig, and Kyles who went down 4-2 to visitors also unbeaten in the National Division and favourites for a Premiership return, went ahead through Martin Johnstone early in the first half. However, the destiny of this trophy, where top tier clubs are excluded, wasn't settled until late on when Ben MacDonald and man of the match Max Campbell secured a repeat of Lochaber's 2023 success.A week on from their 52-game unbeaten run ending, Kingussie wrapped up their Macaulay final place in the first half with a Savio Genini double which bookended a single from Dylan Borthwick. Daniel MacVicar scored for Oban either side of half-time, and Daniel MacCuish made it 3-0 before Scott Craig pulled one back for Mid MacRae and John MacRae grabbed both points for Kinlochshiel in the second Tighnabruich, Ethan Kerr drew first blood for Kyles, but Cabers went 3-1 up by half-time with two from Kevin Bartlett and one from Cameron Grant. Kerr pulled a goal back, before Bartlett completed his hat Beauly already relegated Kyles, who have a game in hand, just avoid the second relegation place on goal difference from Lovat, with the rest now three points clear of danger.
