A THRILLED Rachelle Bownes has been crowned national pairs champion for the second time.

Bownes and her two bay ponies Ovington Hermes and Marbon M’lord beat some of the top pairs of horses and ponies in the UK to capture the pairs and tandem class title at the Osborne Refrigerator National Carriage Driving Championships in the grounds of Burghley Castle at Stamford.

Bownes, who qualified at the Jersey Horse Driving Society’s Spring Show in May, last won the title in 2002.

Her class at Burghley was the last of the day with seven entries, three of which had already qualified for Horse of the Year Show.

And Bownes, Hermes and Lordi worked well to produce a faultless show for the two judges.

This small pair of ponies also won the pair class at the British Driving Society’s Annual Show earlier in June.

Bownes is now back in the Island preparing Hermes for his next trip to the UK in October after also qualifying him, as a single, for the Horse of the Year Show at Birmingham NEC in October.