A classy course

The BREEF – Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation – held its inaugural event of the 2012/2013 Show Jumping season on Friday at Al Zubarah Riding Centre in Saar. This was also the penultimate show jumping event of this year, the final event of 2012 will be BREEF’s second show of the season this Friday starting at 1.30pm.

This event certainly kept all its promises, with the showground ready to go, for the first Junior One class, the fences 80cm with jump-off height up to 90cm. Twenty-five young hopefuls entered this class, some more experienced than others, with the youngest rider was aged just nine. So, to all youngsters, don’t be put off it’s all great experience, as well as fun.

The course had been well thought out, with no really scary fences it required focus on the turns. There were quite a few in the first class who successfully completed their first round and moved onto the jump-off.

The results: 1 Gabby Chakkos riding Dilmun Tashan, 2 Lucy Lunt Bell /Rakard, 3 Kate Addison /Onyx, 4 Kate Addison /The Chief, 5 Abdulla Al Hashel /Mambareno, 6 Rania Hanbali /Bingo, 7 Aimee Keen /Rio, 8 Hanah Van Der Eyken /Billy, 9 Fahad Ahmed /Wagbah.

The second class was the Junior Two, in which the fences were at 80/100cm. Usually the first round heights are approximately 80/90cm with the jump-off fences being raised to 100cm.

Whilst there were less riders in this class it was still substantial with 17 in the fray. The course was altered and incorporated an extra fence, once again due to the size of the arena, it required optimum attention of both horse and rider. Certainly, this course was more challenging as only four riders that made it round and into the jump-off. So, with everything to go for, Ali Abdul Rasool, Kate Addison, Tamara Al Omari and Abdulla Al Hashel determinedly took to the arena. The jump-off’s in all classes were timed, and just pipping everyone to the post was Ali riding Ghoroob in a time of 19.16 seconds.

The results: 1 Ali Abdul Rasool riding Ghoroob, 2 Kate Addison /The Chief, 3 Tamara Al Omari /Dilmun Tess, 4 Abdulla Al Hashel /Mambareno, 5 Aimee Keen /Rio, 6 Kate Addison /Onyx, 7 Rania Hanbali /Bingo, 8 Hannah Van Der Eyken /Billy, 9 Gabbie Chakkos /Dilmun Tashan, 10 Charlotte Gunby /Magnum.

This class brought the morning to a close for the juniors, however, for the adults it was the start of theirs. Class 3, the first one for adults, was enormous with 44 entries. It was in the same context as the junior classes – if you went clear in round one you moved onto the jump-off. With fences between 80cm and 115cm in height, it was, once again, a good course that meant horse and rider needed to be attentive.

The course certainly tested the mettle of some of the contenders and after an excellent first round the jump-off sorted the victorious in the following order: 1 Saber Salman Faraj riding Little Foal 21.43sec, 2 Bassim Mahdi /Al Jazeer UFO 22.35, 3 Abbas Al Ghuraifi /Champagne with four faults, 20.10, 4 Ahmed Al Alawi /Wanted, 5 Debbie Kamal /Aztec, 6 Jerry Taylor /Airforce One, 8 Basil Al Dosssary /Kuwait, 9 Yahya Ahmed /Magror, 10 Yasser Al Sheikh /Twister.

In the last class of the morning, the final adult competition, with fences being raised up to 115cm it was certainly a test of dexterity and horsemanship. Although the fences were not enormous, once again it was a tactical course requiring utmost concentration and focus. There were 32 contestants in this class, meaning overall there more than 100 entries – a phenomenal start to the season, and proving to everyone how much these competitions have been missed, and how important it is to everyone of the equestrian community to be able to interact and simply enjoy their horses.

Results for the final class were: 1 Muslim Ali riding Al Jazeera Pascal, 2 Bassim Mahdi /Al Jazeera UFO, 3 Sara Al Mutawa /Bart, 4 Muslim Ali /Al Jazeera Osina, 5 Ahmed Al Alawi /Wanted, 6 Yasser Al Shaikh /Grefen, 7 Fahad Jamal Taqi /Al Jazeera Reyca.

As I mentioned earlier, BREEF will be hosting the second of their events this coming Friday. For more information and entry forms, contact the BREEF’s office at Bahrain International Endurance Village by fax no. 17836067 or email to breef@batelco.com.bh/breefshowjumping@gmail.