A mild yet damp morning saw the showjumpers headed for the Ecclesville Centre for the annual DIC show. This year we had entries in 3 classes.
Oliwia Muras and Fonya were in the Class 3 (60-70cm) Individuals, so were the first to go for ERGS. The duo entered the arena and with great confidence and competence, they jumped beautifully together. Not one fault – super double clear.
After a while, our Class 4 ( 75-85cm) Team were ready to go. 1st to ride in their class. Tess Wallace and Rusty got them started with a strong round. Jumping superbly the whole way round incurring just 4 faults in the first phase and a lovely, fast 2nd phase. Next in was Tori Lilly on William. These two were on fine form, jumping wonderfully in both phases and clocking up an even speedier time in the second phase. Chloe Cathcart and Tara hotfooted it into the arena next. These two were quite graceful in their jumping with a jot of determination thrown in. Once again, a double clear for the pair and a great time also. To complete the team, Molly and Maggie trotted in. The pairing had a solid round, just clipping a pole in each phase incurring 8 faults. This was a shame, as they also put up a speedy round. The girls waited for each of the other teams to jump, knowing that they had a reasonable chance of finishing well. Lo and behold, they were right… 2nd place! They each received a rosette, cup and … a bale of shavings for the ponies. What else could you wish for! Congratulations to the four of them on this success.
Cloe wasn’t finished with this class yet as she had brought her other horse – Queenie – with her. We watched as the other riders completed their rounds with some alacrity. Super speedy times being posted. Chloe was determined to do her very best to get into the top scorers. She and Queenie went into the arena and flew round the course. Fabulous tight turns allowing her to shave precious milliseconds off the time. Despite a superb round, she didn’t quite make it into first place. She did however come 3rd with an excellent time of 23.60. she wasn’t even a second behind the winning time. Amazing to watch the speed and skill of all these young riders. Congratulations to Chloe.
The final entry was in the 1m class. These jumps looked huge! Tess Wallace and Rusty were the duo ready to give it a go. Quite a number of riders had already received faults for poles down, refusals or forgetting the course. This shows that it wasn’t a walk in the park. Tess and Rusty took all in their stride. They were jumping so comfortably together and then Rusty suddenly refused one jump. Undeterred, Tess turned him round and went for it again – no problems. Unfortunately, this had thrown her off track a little, but she soon regained her composure and completed the course with just one pole down. A super round for Tess, one that she should be quite pleased with.
A huge well done to all the girls and a massive thank-you to the parents, grandparents and aunts too for their unfailing support of the girls.
