Running and riding hard

Starting pistols and whistles were rife as Twin Palms Riding Centre’s first event of the weekend saw its running team take to the track. 
The runners, namely Idrak, Helen, Anina, Eathar, Vicky, Neale, Ebrahim, Adnan, Anwar, Ephraim, Chorie, Maria and Juanjo took on various sections of the Bahrain Marathon Relay and were the only riding stable team in the race!

Sponsored by the law firm of Ahmad Ali Mohammed Al Aql, the competitors thankfully revived sufficiently the next day to don their riding gear, hoofing it down to participate in the Show Jumping and Dressage Event held on Saturday afternoon.

Both Show Jumping and Dressage competitions started with only a small time-window between them so the riders had to juggle their dressage tests with jumping classes. As a result there were three arenas running simultaneously.

Paula Conseco, one of the many junior riders who signed up for several classes, found herself first in, starting in Working Equitation A, followed immediately by the Working Equitation B, and then up to the jumping paddock for her Clear Round jumping class. Paula, riding India, did well, winning her first dressage class and being placed in the second class.

Young Luna Dreyer is certainly making a name for herself as a promising and determined young rider. She was the youngest competitor of the day, took home first prize in the Working Equitation B, then in her first attempt at Preliminary A, deftly clinched third position.
 
Both Luna on MissPrint, and Paula on India followed their dressage classes with an excellent attempt at the Clear Round Jumping. In both cases very unfortunate faults acquired kept them just a fraction away from more prizes.

Junior rider Lucy Lunt Bell astride Rakard wowed spectators and judges alike, taking home top prizes in both dressage and jumping.

She also won Best Turned Out for the juniors. Lucy’s dressage saw her clinch first place in the Preliminary A class.

Quickly shifting from dressage mode to jumping, the pair then completed a superbly-executed Clear Round. 

Lucy with Rakard maintained their success by being one of the few to achieve a clear round in the second jumping class, earning them a place in the jump-off. The pair was just piped at the post and had to settle for second place.

Anina Bernhardt, one of the fabulous runners who had now swopped her trainers for riding boots, took Onyx into Preliminary B and the pair performed beautifully. Despite being the only junior in the class she secured the top podium position. 
 
On to the jumping, Anina manoeuvred Onyx beautifully around the two jumping courses. However, unlucky errors kept her off the winners’ list this time.

Another runner/rider doing some fabulous multi-tasking on Saturday was Idrak Alaquel, who had been spending her usual riding practice hours organising and training for the previous day’s marathon.

Undeterred, Idrak brought Ecco proficiently through the day’s events. The pair competed in the Novice and Elementary dressage tests, claiming third in both, then went on to compete in some serious jumping. 

Idrak, riding an exceptional round in the second class, went on to win after a jump-off. Now onto her fourth event of the day, the pair did the final jumping class to complete her quadruple win of the afternoon.

Yvonne Addison took Chief through his paces, taking top prize in Best Turned Out for the adults. She completed her winning streak in the Novice & Elementary classes claiming victory in both. 

Yvonne was up against, amongst others, Anne Koheji astride Fine Art. Anne secured second position in both her dressage classes and despite some precise and clever performances in the jumping arena, the pair were just marginally kept off any further winning line-ups.
 
The show Jumping itself started in the afternoon with the Clear Round class. Some other riders to mention that moved from dressage to jumping, taking home more prizes in their wake were Maggie Andersson astride Banjo and Lydia Martin on Woody.

Manon Cote had kept herself and Sirocco geared specifically for jumping on Saturday and completed a lovely clear round in the first class. Mariella Forward also took home a clear round rosette riding a very nimble Dollar.

The One Round with Jump Off class proved more challenging than expected with Manon/Sirocco, Mariella/Dollar, Laura riding Apollo, Ahmed Al Alawi with Marlboro and Jalal Jaffari with Wasim all getting an unbelievably unlucky four faults. 

A further two horses retiring prior to the jump-off left Idrak and Lucy facing the challenge. Both gave their all and Idrak managed to edge ahead to take first place.

The final show jumping class of the afternoon was the Accumulator class, this saw the fences raised considerably with a Joker single pole standing ominously awaiting its victims! 

Undaunted, nine riders took to the arena. The youngest of all, Manon Cote, who is only 13, brought Sirocco into the highest class the pair have ever jumped. They magnificently cleared the joker to claim 3rd place.

The winner of the final class was Fahad Taqi, who rode Reca effortlessly round the course, in a time of 1min 01seconds. The pair snatched the top prize from Muslim Ali, who had brought his mare Sondos out for the class. With only one second between them, Muslim and Sondos had to settle for the runner-up spot. The fourth rider to claim maximum points in this class was Idrak Alaquel astride Ecco.
 
It was an absolutely brilliant turbo-charged end to the day’s events.