YOUNG Craven horse riders triumphed at Skipton Horse Trials.

Katy Mousdale, 16, and Lydia Otulakowski, 17, who both go to Skipton Girls' High School, and Amber Coatsworth, 16, from Long Preston, were all placed in their sections.

All belong to the Pendle Forest and Craven Hunt Pony Club, and were competing in the BE100 section for the first time, tackling cross country, dressage and show jumps of more than three feet.

Katy, who has just completed ten GCSEs, to add to her other four, says she is having her best season so far.

She was fourth out of the 40 riders in her BE100 class on Saturday.

Katy, who lives at Hawkswick, has had 14.2hh Merlin for two years and stables him 20 miles away at West Marton.

And the 14-year-old bay is in the form of his life, she says.

Since March, the pair, who are sponsored by Nick Gill Photography, trialled - although unsuccessfully - for the GB pony event squad. She then went on to win at Northallerton, was fifth at Dalston Green, Cumbria, and fourth at Belsay, Northumberland - putting her in the top five at her last four outings.

Katy, who learned to ride at Kilnsey Trekking Centre, had her first pony when she was eight and will soon move onto horses, but for the time being is over the moon with Merlin.

"He really is a wonderful schoolmaster, I'm having a lot of fun with him at the moment," she said.

And even with GCSEs behind her and the prospect of A Levels looming, her dream is to become a professional rider.

Her friend and school colleague, Lydia, from Winterburn, was placed third in her section in just the second time she has ridden at Skipton.

She was riding nine-year-old 14.3hh coloured pony, Minstrel V, whom she has had for three years.

Lydia, who has just competed AS levels, started riding also at Kilnsey Trekking Centre and would also like to ride professionally.

Sixteen-year-old Amber has been riding Angela Murray's Pembroke's Double Diamond, for just two months. She would have won her BE100 class, if the nine-year-old had not 'run out' on the cross country.

Amber, who is also bringing on two young event horses, also wants to ride professionally and is due to start at Myerscough College in September.

Organiser, Mike Bower, said he was thrilled with the weekend, which saw perfect weather - despite a forecast of rain and wind on Sunday.

There were more than 600 competitors over the two days and those coming just to enjoy a day out were up by 50 per cent on last year.

"Yet again we received some fantastic feedback but will not be resting on our laurels and will continue to make improvements particularly to the cross country course," he said.

"We would love to have some new sponsors. Our course designer/builder, Tim Bennett, can also design purpose built/themed cross country fences to match a sponsor's needs which would also add to the interest of the course and provide great promotional opportunities."

The full results of the trials are available on the British Eventing website.

The next Skipton Horse Trials are due to be held on August 8 and 9 and visit skiptonhorsetrials.co.uk for more details.