Thursday 5th October – a wet, yet warm grey day for the Omagh High School Show.
A super turn-out from Enniskillen Royal Grammar School saw us entering four of the 6 classes available to us. Those being Class 3 – 60cm, Class 6 Novice Teams 65-75cm, Class 6a – Novice Individuals, Class 7 Open Teams 85-95cm and Class 8 Open Individuals – 1m. I think we may have had a sneaky entry into Class 4 – the Run and Ride – by Jasmine Greaves and a friend too ????.
After a very long wait – due to the sheer amount of numbers entering the first 2 classes ( over 50 riders/class), Jasmine Greaves and Speedy entered the Arena. The duo had a super round with a double clear and a very happy smile in Class 3. Well done to them, potential here for future competitions!
Class 6 got under way approx. 2 hours behind schedule. We were Team 8 out of 13. Lily Moore and Izzy were in first, followed by Isabelle Wallace on Bess, Oliwia Muras on Rambo and Molly Lee on Amy. All four had to jump 2 ‘rounds’ – part 1 off the clock and part 2 against the clock. Combined, the top 3 riders made up the Team score. For various reasons, we had some ups and downs. Some refusals (a common occurrence for the majority of riders yesterday) and a few poles knocked down in a bid to do as well as possible. Our team total was 8 faults in phase 1 ( of the clock) and 8 faults in phase 2 (timed). In reality, that is 2 errors in each phase as each ‘fault’ is 4 points. A strong team effort on what proved to be a troubling course for many schools and their riders.
We had 3 Individual entries after this – Imogen Heap on Star, Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe on Pyper ( first appearance for ERGS) and Molly Lee on Amy. Both Imogen and Maeve had clear rounds and Molly just tipped a pole. Super riding from the 3 girls. Maeve’s time was also just fast enough to place 6th and win a Rosette. Congratulations to her on this achievement.
Our last team was finally ready to start their Class at around 7pm. We were 4th to ride out of 8 Teams. The jumps were high and as such, un-nerved the girls a little. First in was Chloe Cathcart on Queenie followed by Tess on Rusty, Erin on Georgie and Molly on Mouse. Chloe had a super double clear, zooming comfortably around the course. Tess was equally comfortable, just had a refusal to deal with. Erin had a mixture of refusals and poles down as did Molly. A few frustrated faces as they really want to get the best from themselves and their ponies. Sometimes, the best is getting the course completed safely and for me, that’s a win every time.
This Class progressed into the final one of the night, the 1m – 3 of the team were already entered and Molly, at the last minute decided to give it a go for the first time! Well… fabulous is all I can say! Chloe and Queenie had a very comfortable round – double clear and a speedy time. Tess was jumping well but unfortunately clipped a few poles and Erin and a tired Georgie had a mix of refusals and poles down. Molly and Mouse had a super round with a couple of poles down but looking quite at home at this height.
Chloe’s time was fast enough to place her in the top 6, in 5th place. So, more Rosettes for ERGS. Congratulations to her for this fab achievement.
This was a very long day ( finishing around 9pm) with a lot of standing about waiting for both girls and their ponies. I am incredibly proud of them all and very grateful to their parents for all their support.
Next event is Week 3 of the Meadows on Saturday 14th October.
