Bridging the Gap Scholarship winner announced

Tim Cheffings, The Mark Todd Bridging the Gap Winner, with Sir Mark Todd and last year’s winner, Zoe Wilkinson

The winner of the 2015/16 Mark Todd Bridging the Gap Scholarship has been announced by the judges following the final selection day.

This exclusive scholarship is part of the Mark Todd Bridging The Gap programme and sponsored by The Mark Todd Collection and Keyflow Feeds. The course and scholarship have been specifically designed to support event riders aiming to move into Advanced/2* as well as those working to a more established 3* level.

The six finalists gathered at a private venue in Wiltshire where they were put through their paces in the saddle by Sir Mark Todd and lead MTBTG Coaches, Lizzel Winter and Gill Watson, before being interviewed by representatives from The Mark Todd Collection and Keyflow Feeds.

The unanimous winner was Tim Cheffings who is 32 years old and from Tiverton in Devon. In addition to running a string of horses ranging from up and coming youngsters through to several horses now at 3* level, Tim is also a UKCC Level 2 Eventing Coach. Tim follows in the footsteps of former Scholarship winners Franky Reid-Warrilow and Zoe Wilkinson in this, its third year and will receive generous support from Sir Mark Todd and a fabulous support package including:

1. Three individual training sessions, plus mentoring, from Sir Mark Todd.

2. Clothing, tack and horse wear from the Mark Todd Collection to the value of £1500

3. One year’s worth of Mark Todd Keyflow feed for one horse to the value of £1500

4. Free Keyflow nutritional advice 

The two runners up were Mary Edmundson and Sam Dempsey.  The second placed rider will receive £250 worth of Keyflow Feed and all 6 finalists, Sam Dempsey (age 27), Wiltshire, Louise Bradley (age 26), Buckinghamshire, Tim Cheffings (age 32), Devon, Mary Edmundson (age 23), Suffolk, Judith Barker (age 33), Norfolk and Sara Horrell (age 23), Cambridgeshire were presented with a rug, jacket and saddlepad from The Mark Todd Collection, along with a bag of Keyflow feed.

Mark Todd commented: “Firstly, I would like to say thank you to Gill and Lizzel who do such a fantastic job of Coaching all riders on the Bridging the Gap training days, and also to British Eventing for organising the scheme.

“We all need to have training and, although it takes time and money, you have to make that effort if you want to improve. Unfortunately we could only pick one winner today but I must congratulate all of our finalists. They really impressed us with the way they have performed and conducted themselves, both in the ridden and interview situations.” 

Huge congratulations to Tim and to all the finalists. We look forward to following your journey.

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