Triple Tinsley triumph

Beautiful weather prevailed to herald the Dilmun Riding Stables seventh In-House Show Jumping event on Friday.
 
To start the morning’s events a pre-green class was held, a little course of five cross-pole fences. Two brave new Pony Club riders rode superstar Duke successfully around the course and were awarded their first rosettes for getting a clear round.

The smiles on the faces of young Fabi Mattias and Dalma Orosz set the mood for the rest of the morning – a lovely start, these two are undoubtedly the next generation of show jumpers.

Green Horse class came  next, with fences up to 70cms. There was a sneaky combination placed in the deep sand to challenge the eight competitors, who all did exceptionally well, with only one not making a clear round.

It was a triple win for the Tinsley family as mother Anne, with daughters Maud and Florence all managed to achieve a clear round. Another mother/daughter combination of Mel and Kathryn Spink also claimed fabulous clear rounds.

Junior /Adult 1 class was next on the agenda with nine fences standing firm to challenge the entrants with the same sneaky combinations. These were imposing fences for a Junior 1 class standing at 90cms and coupled with the fact this was a speed class just added to the tension.
 
Seven juniors were entered. Although each horse/rider combination rode magnificently, it was another win for the day as Florence Tinsley, astride Skippy, claimed 4th position in 49.98 seconds.
 
Now back into her stride, Kathryn Spink on her beloved Spirit, delivered an excellent round coming home in third position.
 
A battle was fought out between Sammy Mendes riding TuTu and Aimee Keen determined to keep her top league position with Sedona.

Sammy triumphed this week, as TuTu put in a precise and fast round of 37.31 secs, Aimee had to settle for the runners-up in a time of 40.94 – just pipped at the post.

Adult 1 class hosted two HC rounds this week with Ann Tinsley alongside Melanie Spink not quite ready to brave the heights of Adult 1, though equally not quite ready to be outdone by the juniors.

They both had a go and achieved their aim of completing the course. By doing so, they  both felt empowered enough to set themselves the challenge of actually competing in this class in the next show, watch out!
 
The Adults in class 1 were Dani Shaw riding Rangerino and Sharon Nicklin riding both MiaVita and Tayar – double trouble! Also on course were Andrew Scopes with Porphyry and Fran Downes with LollyPopMann.

An intense battle ensued, with Andrew emerging victorious astride the trusty Porphyry in a time of 42.45 secs. It was so very, very close – yet just not close enough. Rangerino brought Dani home in a time of 42.47 secs!

Fran rode LollyPopMann into third with a time of 46.71 secs and Tayar did a delightful round in a time of 49.28 secs bringing Sharon into fourth place.

Junior / Adult 2 was the final class for last week’s event, an Accumulator with Joker. Each rider was allowed one refusal which lost them four points, each fence was worth a total of four points if cleared, no points if knocked down, the Joker was worth 20 points at the end, though only if cleared, minus 20 points if it was knocked down.

A nasty flu virus meant there were only two junior riders in this class, Aimee Keen with Sedona and Ma’oof Al Rumaihi astride Kuwait. They went head to head, both rode magnificent rounds with Kuwait coming into his own over the bigger fences putting Ma’oof into pole position.

The adult riders found the course challenging but were equally as determined, Fran Downes knocked a couple of fences during her round, but undeterred superbly went on to clear the Joker.
 
 If riders were clear throughout the round gaining maximum points there was no need to take the Joker, Dani Shaw astride Rangerino took this option and clinched first place.
 
A fantastic day and everyone had a lot of fun, with competitor Fran saying later: 'Although I didn’t get a placing in the bigger class – I cleared the Joker and my son Charlie came flying up to me saying ‘Mummy, mummy that was totally AWESOME!’ which was better than a rosette any day!'

I couldn’t agree more.

The eighth Dilmun Riding Stables In-House Show Jumping League event will be held in two weeks’ time on Friday, March 23.

Send your equine news to Helen Blake at helen2blake@hotmail.com

SHAKHOORA Riding Stable owner Samia held a riding theory lecture on Saturday at the stables in Saar. It covered aspects such as rider’s position, starting off with the aids for basic riding before moving on to more advanced levels of riding, such as shoulder-in, travers, half pass, counter canter, demi-pirouette and lengthening strides in the different gaits.

Samia sat astride her metallic horse and demonstrated the various aids and manoeuvres and there was participant interaction too.
 
Samir is a British Horse Society Intermediate instructor who also holds an Advanced National Equine Business Management Diploma.

THE second Twin Palms Twixstead One Day Event featuring three disciplines will be taking place on Friday starting at 10am.

Firstly, Show Jumping will be staged for all participants with two class levels - A and B. In A class, the jumps will be up to heights of 50cms and in the B class the fences will be 70cms. 

Once all entrants have completed these clear round classes in an optimum time (any knock downs or refusals gain penalty points) they will move onto their dressage challenge. 

For class A the dressage is a Preliminary test, and for B the dressage is a Novice test. After the calm, comes the storm, namely the cross-country. The cross- country fences are in two halves – one side of the fence is to be jumped by class A and the other is to be jumped by class B, the B side being harder and higher than for A.
 
This event promises to hold a few surprises – especially as Lydia Martin was seen furtively bringing some very strange looking objects into the stable recently. Thanks Lydia!
It is well worth coming along to watch on Friday - the Twin Palms version of Hickstead / Badminton!

Refreshments will be available.