On Monday 26th March, 8 ERGS pupils attended the Drumragh Inter-Schools Showjumping Competition, held at the Ecclesville Centre in Fintona.
We entered a novelty competition as a little warm-up – the Run-Ride. Out of all the teams that entered, Tiana-Grace Abbott and her sister Lucie-Ann won the event in a mixed school pairing, narrowly beating into second place, our own school pairing of… Tiana-Grace Abbott and Hannah Jones. Well done to those girls and to Louie who was ridden by both the pairing! A good start to what was to be a long, but fruitful day.
Our next event was the Intermediate Class – the jumps in this class were set between 75cm-85cm. Our team consisted:-
Mairead Gartland on Cruise on Sahara
Natalie Somerville on Beauty
Sophia Williams on Clonlee Red River
Patrick Williams on Rossfad Runaway
To begin the Class, the team won 1st place in Tack and Turnout! They then went on to very well in the actual jumping event. Mairead started them off with a double clear round in a strong time; Natalie followed with a second double clear and a faster time, then Sophia with a third double clear and an equally fast time. Patrick was the final jumper – he had a fantasic time, with unfortunately one fence down at the end. In total, the combined efforts of the team won them a deserved 1st place for this Class, and as a result, The McGinn
Family Perpetual Cup. Due to her fast time, Natalie was also placed top 5th individual jumper in this class.
A superb achievement from the whole team and their horses.
The next class we entered was the Open. This was a class in which the jumps went up to between 95cm and 1m. a very popular class, with 12 teams entered. In this class, our team consisted:-
Adrianna Hurst on Cody
Sophia Williams on Clonlee Red River
Patrick Williams on Rossfad Runaway
We watched many of the other schools jumping ahead of us and saw that the course was going to be tricky. Only a few riders managed to get clear rounds. The team performed very well with Adrianna jumping first and doing so very well indeed. She completed her round with one fence down and a refusal. Patrick was next up – this was to be his first time jumping competitively at this height. He performed extremely well, with one refusal which, on his second, he almost cleared. Another strong round. Finally, we had Sophia. She also jumped well, again with one refusal and one fence down.
The whole team performed very well indeed and should be proud of themselves.
Thanks, as ever, to the wonderful support the riders have from their families. Without them, the teams wouldn’t be able to compete.
