Dressage thrills

A Dressage Show was held at Shakhoora Riding Centre at its premises in Saar over the weekend.

This in-house event, sponsored by Petrolink, featured three classes, Beginner, Preliminary and Novice.

The Beginner class, an excellent introduction to dressage, was won by Cally Stephenson on her lovely horse Times Review, certainly this pair are to be watched in future challenges. Close on their hooves though was Nadia Tsveko, riding Shakhoora Soho.

The second class on Friday, the Preliminary, gave Jerri Taylor the first of her double victories of the morning. A beautiful round on the handsome Arko saw them taking home with the trophy.

Just pipped at the post was Liz Sinclair who rode an impressive test with Cortez. Liz was also on for her double of the day.

In the final class of the morning, Jerri again stole the show, this time on her stunning palomino Manni. The pair once again slid past Liz onto the winner’s podium, Liz and Cortez took home their second, second prize of the morning.

A big part of any dressage event is the turnout, the way the horse looks and the rider is dressed, along with the condition of the tack, any event takes a lot of preparation. So, as well as the ridden classes.

There is always a Best Turned Out Prize on which everyone is judged. On Friday that prize went to Yulia Frolova and her horse Dream.

It was a fabulous start to the dressage season for Shakhoora, the horses, spectators and riders, all of whom are looking forward to the next event.

In the afternoon there were 14 entries in the line-up for the Dilmun Riding Stables’ Show Jumping Eliminator Challenge 2013, which started at 4pm.

It featured Claire Walsh on Phantom, Carina Abdulrahim on Inca, Hannah Van der Eyken on Leon, Maud Tinsley on Tess, Ahmed on Tutu, Basel Aldossari on Tayar, Florence Tinsley on Nelson, Charlotte Gumby on Magnum, Georgia Sim on Luvly Jubbley, Sharon Nicklin on Bambam, Natalie Gumby on Phantom, Ahmed on Lulu, Mohamed on Mubailey, Muslim Ali on Shuma and Lulu. The exciting Eliminator, held over three rounds over the same course, involves fence height changes and starts with nine fences, including a double and an oxer.

The first round height was 70cms, riders in all rounds were eliminated for a dismount or three refusals and faults were carried forward into the next round.

The first round lost riders- Ahmed on Lulu, Natalie on Phantom and Carina chose to retire Inca.

The second round saw the fences raised to 80cms and this time it was against the clock (speed round) and faults added after both rounds determined who went into round three and in which order.

This round waved goodbye to Claire and Phantom, Hannah and Leon, Florence and Nelson, and Muslim retired his horses after this round. As riders headed into round three it was Maud riding Tess in prime position, followed by Ahmed on Tutu.

The final round started with fences at 90cm. In this challenge a fence of the rider’s choice was raised by 10cm each time. Therefore, the first rider in only had one higher fence at 1m to contend with while the last rider in potentially had seven fences at 1m or one fence at a great height, hence the coveted position of first rider in.
 
In this round riders were eliminated with a dismount, three refusals or twelve or more faults in one round. If riders knocked their chosen raised fence they incurred eight faults.
 
The first stage of this round lost Ahmed on Tutu, Mohamed on Mubailey and Georgia with Luvly Jubbley.
 
In the second round, with two fences now standing at 110cms saw the demise of Maud with Tess, Sharon and Bambam, and Charlotte with Magnum. This left Basel who’d had two clear rounds as the winner. Last year’s winner Danielle Shaw presented him with the trophy, left.

The Dilmun team said it was also very pleased to welcome riders from Muslim’s stable and everyone had a lot of fun. The judges were Julie MacDonald, Ian Powick and Danielle Shaw.

The Bahrain Royal Endurance and Equestrian Federation (BREEF) will host the first of this season’s show jumping events on Saturday, at the BDF Ground in Sakir, walking the course for the first class will commence at 8.30am.

There are five classes scheduled for this event, two junior and three adult classes, entries are required to be submitted by today.
 
TWIN Palms Riding Centre’s  Dressage Event will be held on Friday, November 29. Starting at 9am there will be four classes - Working Equitation A, Working Equitation B, British Dressage Preliminary 12, and British Dressage Novice 24.  Everyone is welcome and entry forms can be obtained by visiting the website at  www.twinpalmsridingcentre.com or calling 39566809.