Passionate competition

What a difference a week makes! The sun was back with a vengeance on Friday, bringing with it a host of riders and horses ready to compete at their first Twin Palms Riding Centre dressage event of the season.

Two arenas were being run for the event, the Working Equitation classes, held in the shaded back paddocks, and the Preliminary and Novice classes in the front arena.

The Working Equitation class is an excellent introduction to the world of dressage. The competition was divided into phases designed to test horses and riders through a range of activities. It combined flatwork movements and obstacle tests, inviting competitors to deal with a number of situations.

This season Twin Palms introduced new Working Equitation tests, which required riders to navigate their horses around barrels, over trotting poles and small cavaletti-type jumps, manoeuvre their horses into and out of designated areas, as well as demonstrating, walk, trot and canter skills. 

Although these classes require dexterity and skill they are also a really fun and relatively stress-free way of introducing dressage to younger riders and beginners. In the Working Equitation B test, which is the harder of the two, the competition amongst all riders was passionate.

Anae Dreyer astride her horse Calypso took home first prize in this class with a truly beautiful round, starting off the morning with a bang for the Dreyer family.

Aimee Keen and Rio won the second of the Working Equitation class with a stunning round, a brilliant feat considering it was their first-ever Working Equitation competition. Following her inaugural win of the morning, Aimee and Rio proceeded to take first place in the Preliminary test for Juniors, followed by Luna Dreyer riding Calypso.

In the adult section of the Preliminary test, Kat Rushton riding Duke and Katariina Balet with Bluey tied for first place.

In the final class of the morning, the Novice, Kat Rushton, riding Duke, scored her double of the day, taking first place, followed by Yvonne Addison who tied with herself in second position with her two horses of the morning The Chief and West Wind.

It was a fabulous morning and all horses and riders are eagerly looking forward to the next dressage event.
The dressage event was followed with a fun show jumping event the next day.
 
This event consisted of three classes, two of which were clear round, at differing heights. Riders participated in these classes as a precursor to the forthcoming BREEF show jumping events.

The final class for this morning was a clear round with jump-off. Aimee Keen won astride the very talented Soda.