Finally, the Meadows Tri-Equestrian Inter schools League has come to an end. Today was the rescheduled Week 6 of the competition. Due to last week’s horrendous weather, Leg 6 was postponed for a week.
As far as we as a school were concerned, this meant that we had to withdraw our 85cm Team, our 75cm Individual rider and reshuffle our 75cm team due to other commitments.
At the end of week 5, we were sitting in 4th position in the League, so it was important for the team to ensure we were represented in the final week.
The 75cm team comprised Sophie Johnston on Ben, Molly Lee on George, Imogen Heap on Chico and Tori Veitch on Ballyerk Canyon (aka Louie). We were Team 9 – the last team to jump. This meant that we could see how well (or otherwise) schools performed. Personally, I found this nerve wracking, never mind the girls and parents!!
Sophie and Ben were the first to go, what a ride! The pair zoomed round the course in just over 25 seconds with no faults in either the 1st phase or the timed phase. Excellent riding! Next were Molly and George. How far this pair have come since the start of the competition when George was shying at the radio in Arena 2! Lovely jumping, but just clipping 2 poles in the first phase. The 2nd timed phase was clear in a time of just over 35 seconds. The 3rd rider in was Imogen on Chico. Like Sophie, this pair flew round the course with a clear 1st and 2nd phase. Super riding! Finally into the Arena came Tori and Ballyerk Canyon. A great start from this laidback horse, putting us all in a hopeful mood. Unfortunately, his stubbornness came through despite Tori’s excellent handling of him. He refused two fences and took some poles in others, however… he completed the round and Tori was smiling the whole time.
Despite achieving a final overall time of 88secs, as we had 8 faults, we didn’t feature in the placings for this week.
Was this the end of our story?? Absolutely not!
All the points from the 6 weeks were added together with the worst score being dropped for each school, if they completed all 6 weeks. This left the final table looking like this:
A 2nd place finish for ERGS!
A fabulous achievement. Congratulations to all the girls who played a part in the weeks leading up to this final Leg and especially to those who held their nerve and rode today.
The following girls all contributed to make this a real Team effort for ERGS over the 6 weeks:
Emma McCaldin on Katman
Isabelle Wallace on Bess
Molly Lee on George
Tori Veitch on Ballyerk Canyon
Lily Moore on Izzy
Ruby Moore on Izzy
Sophie Johnston on Ben and Bess
Congratulations again and thank-you for all your hard work and dedication to the long days away on a Saturday.
Thanks to all parents, grandparents and aunts for their support of the entire ERGS squad as usual, without you, none of this would happen.
