Thrilling league action begins

THE Dilmun Riding Stables held the first of its seven show jumping events. Riders secured valued points on the long journey to success in the highly-competitive league.

The Friday afternoon session started off with a Green Class with fences set at 60/70cms. This was a nice gentle start for newcomers, although there was a devilish double to contend with for these up and coming riders and their mounts. 

Young Natalie Gunby took her new steed Magnum into the fray to participate for the first time in this class. Another inauguration came for Georgia Sims riding her newly- leased horse Tutu and the pair took the event by storm. 

Florence Tinsley rode a beautiful round on Dilmun Nelson, only thwarted by an unfortunate refusal.   Jawad Ali rode the lovely Fire Two in his first show too and the pair completed a lovely clear round.

Junior 1 followed, a two round class, the second round being a timed jump-off, with fences raised up to 70/80cms .

It was now the turn of Natalie’s teenage sister Charlotte Gunby, to ride Magnum and what a brilliant round they performed. But an unfortunate refusal in the first round put them into fourth place. 

Champion Aimee Keen was riding her new horse Rio. They worked together exceptionally well at first, but after a faultless first round they amassed four faults in the second, in a very good time of 26.57secs, taking home third prize. 

Ma’oof Al Rumaihi, another rider taking a new mount into the arena, executed two lovely clear rounds on Zain Al Butal, with a time of 21.86 in the second round, clinching second place.
 
However, it was the talents of young Hannah van der Eyken astride the equally talented Billy that stole this class. With a natural ease the pair went clear in both rounds, hitting the time scales at 21.01 and securing their first placing of the day.

The next class of the afternoon was Adult 1, a speed class with faults added to time. This saw some great riding especially from Sharon Nicklin and Sam Bicknell. 

Sam, riding Kismet, back in the ring for the first time after a period out of the saddle, suffered an extremely unfortunate elimination at one of the ‘scarier’ fences, the new wall. The pair did not make it into the jump-off.  

Sharon Nicklin rode a total of three horses in this class and took each one on to the winners’ podium. Tashan got a total of eight faults in the first round, which meant he did not make it to the jump-off either, though he did secure third place overall. 

Sharon, went clear in the first round on two of her horses Tayar and Kuwait, Tayar in a time of 45.47seconds, Kuwait in a time of 47.50. Sharon decided to forgo jump off, which was her prerogative as the only rider clear in both rounds.

Next up was Junior 2, a speed class with fences up to 80/90cms. Ma’oof Al Rumaihi with Zain Al Butal managed a magnificent round, but fence six thwarted the pair which led to their eliminated. 

Aimee Keen and Rio deftly executed a lovely round, claiming third position, with Charlotte Gunby and Magnum coming second.

Hannah van der Eyken came once again to the fore in this class claiming the second of her wins of the day on her favourite horse, Billy. These wins will put Hannah firmly up at the top of the league ratings.

The final class of the day, the Adult Two, saw a further speed class with fences up to 110cms. This tested the mettle of riders involved. After a tough battle Basel Al Dossari riding Kismet took third place and Sharon claimed both first and second position with Tashan and Tayar respectively, putting her firmly at the top of the league leaderboard in the adult section.

The Dilmun also held its half-term pony camp during the holiday. It will be followed up with a Halloween-style gymkhana tomorrow. All the students from the camp will be entered into the gymkhana.

Twin Palms Riding Centre will stage the first of this season’s Show Jumping Events on Saturday starting at 3pm. There will be three clear round classes, followed by an accumulator with a joker to finish off the afternoon.

And, just a reminder, the racing season starts this Friday ... race on down to the track to catch the action!

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