Competitors mount up

IT was action stations over the weekend as stables set about staging some serious competition for riders with two in-house events.

The first event on Friday featured the Twin Palms Riding Centre/Al Jazira Stables inaugural show jumping competition of the season and also the start to their in-house league.

The show started with a Training Class – sedate-looking exercises with trotting poles placed into a number of small crosses. However, the course then took a series of twists and turns to different types of jumps and the penultimate fences sent the riders into a final four line-up allowing only one stride in-between.

It proved to be a brilliant class for beginners and rusty riders alike.
 
Taking to the arena for the first time, Melinda Cranage skilfully guided Eid around the course, Jan Hodgson put Cash through his paces and Laura Bradley, back in the saddle after many months, did an exceptional round on Banjo.

The second class put the training into practice. The Clear Round Class, however, was no easy ride. Although the fences weren’t very high, it was a technically-challenging course that saw 20 riders participating. Clear rounds went to Rania Hanbali/Bingo, Dawood Salman/Luna, Manon Cote/Sirocco, Rania AlRashoodi/Nafa, Lucy Lunt-Bell/Rakard, Dawood Salman/Sky, Anina Bernhardt/Onyx, Hebe Lanyon/Mandella, Helen Blake/Loki, Sadek/Luca, Idraq AlAquel/Ecco and Sayeed/Murphy

The final class – a Mixed Open – saw more than a dozen riders battle it out. With eight riders going clear, it was Muslim Ali who triumphed with Mr Buttons and literally a nanosecond behind was Rania Al Rashoodi, astride the talented Nafa.

There was some really fabulous jumping in this competition. A special mention has to go to Rania Hanbali with Bingo – their round had to be as perfect as anyone has seen. Unfortunately Rania was unable to go into the jump off, but her name is one to watch out for this season.

Currently the Twin Palms Riding Centre League has top places for Rania Al Rashoodi in the Juniors and Idraq Alaquel for the Adults. However, with many more shows to go this season this could all change, especially as Rania is not a lover of dressage and this week sees the start of the dressage events at Twin Palms on Friday at 9am.
 
Shaikhoora Riding Centre will also host its first event of the season on Friday too with a Pony Club Event from 9.30am to 11am.

The Dilmun Riding Stables, held the second of its league shows, preferring to wait until the afternoon to get started. This week’s event was sponsored by Al Dar Islands.

The Green Horse/Rider class, started the day as it was meant to go on. With seven entrants there were just two clear rounds – Aimee Keen and Sami Mendes now with two clears each. Only one more to go and they will be promoted to the league!
 
It was fabulous to see Melanie Spink back in action. Also, Hamza Saleem made his debut into show jumping this week and loves it.

Junior 1 saw a shake-up with Tamara Alomari taking first place on Skippy and second place going to Charlotte Gunby with Magnum. This is Charlotte’s first ever placing in this class, a well-deserved success as she has been working extremely hard with her horse since May.

Charlotte,12, aims to keep Aimee on her toes (or hooves) this season. Charlotte beat Aimee by half a second in this class – phew that was close – definitely the pair to keep your eye on!

Junior 2, saw another of Basel’s challenging courses, with only two winners in this class, Hannah van der Eyken and Aimee Keen.
 
The adult competitions were tough. The first class saw the unstoppable Kuwait cruise into victory, with Manaal Fakhrawi at the helm. Fahad Aldosseri, who has taken over the reins for Tayar on a full lease basis now that Lisa has left our shores, took second placing and Andrew Scopes took third place with Porphyry.
 
Eliminated, but not defeated, were Fran Downes and Mohammed Al Hassan riding Tashan and making their debut, but they will be back!

Adult 2 really sorted out the men from the boys. Once again Kuwait and Manaal triumphed in style, with Fahad and Tayar just piped at the post.