Summer arrived in time for the annual Shakhoora Riding Centre Show Jumping Competition with glorious sunshine over the weekend.
Friday’s event started with Class 1 – Green horse/rider – with fences between 60 to 80cm. Open to both adults and juniors it attracted more than 20 entrants, a lovely way to introduce a horse to show jumping.
The second class Junior and Adult 1 had fences raised to a height of 80/90cm and those who went clear took part in a timed jump-off.
This challenge was split with the juniors jumping their round and then the adults. The jump-offs followed with the juniors first and then the adults.
This particular class proved to be the most popular of the day with 17 juniors in the fray and 30 adults.
The course proved to be a challenge for some, a set of planks thwarted riders, and some interesting fillers had the horses more interested in having a look than jumping the actual fence, but at the end of the first round there were just three juniors left for the jump-off and 11 adults.
Claiming a superb victory for the juniors was Rania Hanbali astride the talented Bingo who took the first place trophy. Young Aimee Keen took runners-up, third and fourth positions.
In the adult section, after some excellent riding, it was Idrak Alaquel on her lovely horse Ecco, along with Ashraf Atabani riding Bart, who took joint first, both with a clear round in the same time.
Taking third position was yours truly riding the handsome Loki.
The next class was an amalgamation of Junior 2 and Adult 2. It was a power and speed round with fences raised once again to 100/110cm and made even more interesting with brush features, rustic challenges and even chickens adorning the fillers.
The riders in this class were timed from the outset. A fabulous round by Salman Faraj astride Precious saw him take home the trophy, runner-up was Jerri Taylor on Airforce One and in third place was Abbas Al Ghuraifi with Champagne.
The final class was an accumulator with fences standing at 110/120cm. The round finished with the option of a ‘joker’ (this particular one stood at 130cm). Winning this class with an exquisite round was Jerri and her talented boy Airforce One. Salman Faraj took runners-up position.
A fantastic day. A big thank you to stable manager Samia Al Saffar for organising the competition and sponsors Blue Dawn and American Augeirs.
