The ERGS Showjumping Teams were once again in the arena on Wednesday 6th March for the Omagh Academy show. A beautiful venue – Necarne Castle.
We fielded two teams in the 75cm-85cm class and one in the 1m Balmoral Qualifier.
Our first team in was ERGS Red. This comprised Lily Moore on Izzy, Sophie McCann on Casper, Isabelle Wallace on Bessand Molly Lee on Maggie.
For a couple of these riders, it had been a while since they had ridden competitively and for one – it was a different pony to their usual one. Expectations were – to get round the course safely and have a good time. Well – this was done and exceeded!
Lily jumped a double clear but incurred a time fault in the first phase. Sophie jumped 11 of the 12 jumps and then the pony went one way whilst she went the other resulting in her coming off the pony. A great shame as she was headed for a double clear. Isabelle had a great round, just clipping the last jump, incurring 4 faults. Finally, Molly and Maggie jumped the course but had 4 faults in the first phase and 2 in the second.
This sounds like a recipe for no rosettes, but…. The course was a hard one to ride for ponies as it had been set up to accommodate the larger stride length of the horses. Lots of schools ended up with refusals/faults etc. This meant that we achieved 6th position in this class. Congratulations to all the girls.
Our second team – ERGS yellow – hit a few snags. For one of the riders, the pony wasn’t quite ready to attempt this height in the bigger arena, so, in the interests of safety, we pulled the duo of Imogen Heap and Taz. The next snag was that Molly Lee’s new pony ( of 10 days) Lizzie. Despite having jumped well in Ecclesville, Lizzie saw the size of the arena and all ofthe other ponies outside and became quite skittish. The decision was again to pull the pony in the interests of safety. This left us with only two riders. We put Lily and Bess in to make a 3rd only to hear that she was deemed ineligible due to Bess having already ridden the course. Chloe Cathcart and Tara were in next and had an interesting ride. Tara slept-walked her way round the course, yet managed a double clear. Finally, Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe went in on Storm – her sister’s pony. The two rode really well, incurring just the one fault.
We were going to put Isabelle and Izzy in as a 4th, but after hearing about Bess’s ineligibility, we felt there was no point. So – Chloe and Maeve were allowed to keep their times as Individuals.
Our third team was ERGS Navy for the 1m Balmoral Qualifier. This was Chloe Cathcart on Queenie, Tori Lilly on William and Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe on Highstreet Yorkie.
As mentioned before, this course is very hard for ponies due to it being built to accommodate the horse’s striding. A number of schools were knocking down poles were normally, they wouldn’t. Unfortunately, this was no different for us. Despite all our riders having a strong ride, they still clipped poles with either their front or their back hooves. It wasn’t many, but it was enough that we didn’t place on this occasion.
So – a mixed day in regards to material success, but all the girls should be very happy with their achievements and the manner in which they represented the school and their parents.
Next show:
Drumragh Integrated Inter Schools – Monday 11th March @ Ecclesville.
