Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Carmen Lauri has always loved horses, she was riding almost before she could walk, and now has decided to go one step further as she expands her repertoire into the male-dominated world of horse racing.
She has been riding, successfully competing and working with horses since the age of five. She rode her first horse called Jellaby to many a first place, in both dressage and show jumping.
Success continued with her next horse named Mystery, who we mentioned a couple of weeks ago – a fantastic horse/rider combination that excelled competitively.
Her current horse is called Simply Joe, and he came straight from the racecourse. In order to understand him a bit better, Carmen spent time at the racing yard whenever she could, during weekends and holidays.
Carmen has brought this lovely horse to compete at Elementary level dressage and he will comfortably jump 120cms.
But Carmen’s time at the racing yard ignited a flame. She became infatuated with the whole racing industry scene and what it involved – the management, horse care, safety measures, breeding and training standards, not to mention the riding.
This flame became an absolute passion, and Carmen’s love of anything equestrian went further than just owning, training and riding horses.
She now wants to follow in the footsteps of her role model-cum-inspiration Haley Turner, one of the few great women in the field of horse racing, a sometimes ruthless and always extremely competitive world.
The 18-year-old Brit set her sights high and to this end started working as a trainee jockey in August 2011 with top trainer Allan Smith at The Royal Stable Racing Yard here in Bahrain.
She has had to prove that she was totally committed. One of the principal ideas behind Carmen working with Smith was to see if she REALLY did want to go down the incredibly tough racing route.
So, before the sun rose, while the rest of Bahrain slept, Carmen was riding racehorses in training, getting first-hand experience of the real life experiences of a trainee jockey.
She was riding anywhere between four and six horses a morning and quickly experienced highs and lows, thrills and some definite spills!
She had to very quickly build up her strength and stamina and the hard work appears to have paid off. According to her colleagues and trainer she has the potential to be the new female ‘Lester Piggott’ or possibly Bahrain’s answer to the great Turner.
Carmen has now been selected for a place in the UK’s renowned Northern Racing College in Doncaster to undertake a course that will allow her to obtain her jockey licence.
The course programmes will cover all aspects of the racing industry including breeding, training, racecourse management, stable management and horse care, amongst the many others. Many students diversify and move into other realms of the racing industry. One truly excellent feature of the college is that once you graduate from Doncaster, you are always welcome back to continue building your career in whatever segment of the industry you are in.
Carmen, fervent in her wish to promote the industry, has the intention of bringing her new found wealth of knowledge back to Bahrain to not only continue working as a jockey but also to encourage, advertise and market the ‘Sport of Kings’ to other young people, particularly women, enlightening them about the diverse and often little-known career possibilities in this huge industry.
The course Carmen will be undertaking is year-long and divided into sections. Sadly, there has been a glitch in her plans. Although the college offers its training courses ‘free’ to UK citizens, Carmen will miss out because she has not lived there for the past three years. She will have to pay for her course, plus living expenses, as well as the air fare!
Though this caused a setback, undeterred Carmen has continued with her plans. To help with the funding she has had to make the heart-breaking decision to sell her beloved Simply Joe. As we all know at the moment, buying and selling horses is extremely difficult due to the glanders situation, even excellent horses such as Joe.
So here is my plug to help a determined young lady to launch her newfound career. Simply Joe is FOR SALE. Perhaps a GulfWeekly reader is considering buying one, or knows of someone who may be looking for a super horse?
Simply Joe is a seven-year-old, beautiful, bay gelding, standing 16hh. So if you can help Carmen to raise some funding to fulfil her dream, the asking price is BD2,500, tack negotiable. Give her a call on 39340464, or email me and I will pass on the information.
Send your equine news to Helen Blake at helen2blake@hotmail.com
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ELLA Nicklin, Grace Bullman, Charlie Downes and Natalie Gunby did exceptionally well while making their debut in the Dilmun Riding Stables Show Jumping in the new Pre Green Class. All riders, with Natalie, the younger sister of jumping ace Charlotte, enjoyed a fantastic unaided round on Skippy. Well done to all these young riders.
There was a triple whammy for the Tinsley family in the Green Class with mum Anne and daughters Maud and Florence all completing super smooth clear rounds. Sharon Nicklin, astride Mia Vita, was another with a clear round.
Adult 1 was a very tricky course but posed no problems for the talented Rangerino manouvered excellently by Danielle Shaw, who flew onto the winner’s podium. Close on her hooves, though, were Fran Downes with LollypoppMan and Sharon Nicklin empowered from their clear round. Sharon’s second mount of the day, however, decided he didn’t like the course and the pair was eliminated!
In Junior, it was Hannah van der Eyken riding Billy that stormed to victory, beating Ma’oof Al Rumaihi riding Kuwait by a full three seconds, a lifetime in a speed class! Aimee Keen was narrowly piped into third place by a miniscule margin of 0.3seconds. Ma’oof was placed fourth riding Skippy, with Florence Tinsley completing the line-up, also riding Skippy.
The day started off with both Adult 1 and 2 being a real test for horse and rider alike. Fran Downes and Sharon Nicklin’s rounds ended with unfortunate eliminations. This left the way clear for that dynamic duo – Danielle with Rangerino – to take home the trophy.
Junior 2 saw Ma’oof Al Rumaihi beating Aimee Keen, following a clear round. Aimee had accumulated eight faults in her round.
Dilmun In-House Show Jumping League Top 3
Juniors: Aimee Keen 77 points, Hannah van der Eyken 42 and Charlotte Gunby 26.
Adult: Danielle Shaw 64, Fahad Al Dossari 42 and Hamad Fakhrawi 39.
