Jumping into a spectrum of fun

Twin Palms Riding Centre’s staff, riders and supporters have recently spent long hours with paint brushes in hand, to produce the most magnificently funky and brilliantly-painted new fences. The course looked awesome for its showing jumping event on Friday.

The show set out to be a challenge in many ways, the fences were significantly higher than many riders had encountered previously, with stable owner and course designer Anki Holmstrom deciding on adding technical twists to the already imposing course.

First class was entitled One Round - if the horse/riders cleared the first 10 fences they went immediately to jump the next six jump-off fences.
 
The course was tricky but all horses and riders jumped magnificently. The course did get the better of Maggie Andersson and Banjo along with Baris Ural riding Prince and Lesley Taylor with Bailey. With eight faults each they didn’t make it to jump-off, though all were pleased with themselves and their horses for completing the course.  An unfortunate four faults kept the usually nifty Nafa with Rania Al Rashoodi out of the jump off as well.
 
An unfortunate parting of ways took Nina Owen and Otto out of the competition. Otto decided that he did not like the bright blue fence he was faced with and his sharp unexpected left after the fence found Nina still travelling in the other direction.

Thirteen on Friday the 13th started in this class, with only six managing clear rounds. Lydia Martin rode Woody into 6th position ecstatically with one of their best ever jumping classes, as these fences were some of the consistently highest the pair have encountered.

Melinda Cranage astride the lovely Eid, claimed 5th place, with Lucy Lunt Bell and Rackard taking home 4th position. Manon Cote with Sirocco strode ahead of Lucy by two seconds.

The winner of the class was Kate Addison riding the first of her two talented mounts of the day The Chief, completing an excellent jump off round in a time of 26.74 seconds, just pipping Rania Kamal, a guest rider at the show. Back in Bahrain on holiday from university, astride the lovely Aztec, Rania had to settle for the runner-up spot with a time of 27.22 secs.

The next class saw the fences raised to 100cms. The course was equally technical, though the twist was the fact it was a single timed round – fastest wins but with least penalty points.
 
Kate Addison, victorious from her previous class, went in first, giving everyone ‘the’ round to beat.

Nine fences were skilfully ridden in a time of 52.26secs and certainly set the standard for the day.

Anne Koheji riding the talented Fine Art decided she had nothing to lose and went for it, taking turns that had looked impossible.

The pair was doing amazingly well until a course fault meant an incredibly unfortunate elimination for the pair.
 
Kat Rushton rode Duke with determination. Lucy Lunt Bell decided on a cautious approach and a steady round with Rakard jumping beautifully.
 
Muslim Ali brought Pascal into the fray, along with his other mount in the class, Bailey. Rania Al Rashoodi and Nafa gave it everything they had.
 
The class had not been an easy one, but Kate Addison showcasing her riding skills once again got into the winners line-up claiming both 3rd and 4th position with The Chief and Onyx respectively. 

Muslim Ali won the class riding Bailey, claiming 6th position with Pascal. Sayeed Mohamed Al Alawi brought Mobiley nicely into 5th place. However, it was the youngest rider in this class that took the runners-up position, Manon Cote.

Having got off an aeroplane earlier that morning, and determined to ride her horse, she had dragged her exhausted parents out of bed to come to the show. She more than made up for the early morning wake-up calls with some excellent riding. Manon brought Sirocco onto the runners-up position.

Now, not only the youngest in this class but also the only female competing, Kate Addison took to the fray. Taking Onyx into this class, the pair flew round the course. Onyx simply loves jumping but he unfortunately accumulated faults so Kate didn’t get into the jump-off.

In fact there were only three clear rounds in this class, and the end result was Muslim Ali in first and third places on Pascal and Bailey respectively. Fahad Taqi rode his beautiful mare Rekka in this final class of the day, and she performed brilliantly for him. After going clear the pair deftly claimed second position.

The weather had decided to move up several notches, meaning that the end to this current season is in sight, with stables moving their shows to the afternoons. It’s a sure sign that summer is on its way.

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