Saying a fond farewell

To all followers of Trot: Wish you good luck, health, wealth and happiness for the New Year.

We say a fond farewell to 2013 with a brief overview of what the year has held in equestrian terms.

In January, the BREEF (Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation) held its first Dressage event of the year, and to complement this Twin Palms Riding Centre, held a mock dressage event in the preceding week.  The kingdom also witnessed the skills of Ian Wright – international show jumping/dressage trainer - and Genevive Joyce - equine manual therapist - who made their first visit to Bahrain. Both are extremely popular in the equestrian world.

Show jumping events were held across the island hosted by the BREEF, Dilmun Riding Stables and Twin Palms Riding Centre.

February continued the abundance of show jumping events with Sahara Riding Stables holding their first event. The BREEF announced the introduction of the ‘H.H. Sh. Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa Show Jumping Challenge 2013’, a competition which awarded riders points and these were accumulated at each of their events with the final show giving double points.

Dressage played its part in March, with the BREEF holding events in Saar, alongside their show jumping challenges. Twin Palms Riding Centre hosted a charity event in memory of Chrissie Parker, a well-known member of many societies in Bahrain, who lost her battle with cancer. The show raised more than BD2,000 for cancer research at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
 
In April came the Easter holidays and usually glorious riding weather. To keep away boredom pony camps were run by local stables, keeping children happy, giving parents some well-deserved time off.   The month also saw the long-awaited departure of Rangerino and Spirit, owned by Amelia Boyd and Katheryn Spink, respectively. Moving from Bahrain to the UK they swopped sand for snow! The BREEF held their Challenge final, and claiming top prizes in these events for the juniors was Kate Addison, while for the adults in the Northern area it was Fahad Taqi and for the Southern area it was Khalid Hilal Al Khatiri. 

May brought the season to a close in the kingdom as the heat moved rapidly upwards. Rounding off their season Twin Palms Riding Centre held their final Twixstead event – three disciplines rolled into one day, show jumping, dressage and cross country. A first for 2013 was Bahrain’s appearance at the prestigious Royal Windsor Horse Show held at the Great Park in Windsor, England. Bahrain impressed Windsor with folkloric bands, dancers, traditional potters and weavers, beautiful Arabian horses, and talented show jumping and endurance teams.

After a typically long, hot summer, the season started again at the end of October, with fun show jumping alongside more serious show jumping events.
 
November brought to our shores equine dentist Tara Bishop, while torrential rain thwarted the first of the 2013/2014 season’s show jumping events for the BREEF.
 
The BREEF held their inaugural show jumping event on December 7. All events for the 2013/14 season will now be held at the BDF Equestrian grounds in Sakhir with all horses from north and south now competing at this venue. National Day on December 16 always brings with it numerous celebrations, and this was true within the equestrian world with National Day races, show jumping and endurance events across the island. These celebrations moved us into Christmas and then to the end of the year.

So we bid farewell to 2013, and welcome 2014 to kick start the year with an abundance of events. The first of these are at Twin Palms Riding Centre and Dilmun Stables who will be hosting show jumping events on Friday, January 10. This will be followed on Saturday with the BREEF holding their inaugural 2014 show jumping event in Sakhir.

This is just the start to what promises to be an exciting equestrian calendar for 2014.
Good luck to all!

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