Arena Eventing 9/10/22

What a fantastic day! Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in running today, Mike and Corin who are the owners of Colraine Equestrian centre, Jane and Steve for judging and being at the end of the phone in the run up to the day for all my queries and questions.Helena Ellery is one of our supported instructors and today she designed and build the course. Holly from Colraine Capture for taking the most wonderful photos of all the competitors. Beth who ran the cafe like clock work and kept you all filled with scrummy bacon sandwiches and cheesy chips.

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The course was designed very well by Helena lots of thought went in for it to be an encouraging yet competitive course to ride, it consisted of 10 showjumps, 11 cross country elements and a joker to finish. The first two jumps heading back towards the gate to encourage horses to get into the flow 3-5 not asking too many questions, 6 was a double across the middle followed by 7 & 8 on a related distance, a loop back to 9 and a change of direction and another loop back for 10 allowing people to take it tight or ride wide if they needed to. Up a gear and out of the arena for a roll top and a sleeper fence followed by a brush lead the competitors to the top of the steps. A few stops were had here but all of the horses came down and carried on to the gate and across the table top. There was then an arrow head just before the water complex. Back into the arena with a chance to gallop to the other end, up the steps back over the brush and down the slope to a black pipe fence into the arena, 7 strides to a joker fence of 3 white planks that are 10cm bigger than the other fences, As you can imagine many horses tapped this causing it to fall. But there were some fantastic combinations that tackled the joker and flew it. There is a great level of skill involved bringing your horse from a forward often flat XC canter to a bouncy showjumping canter needed to approach a fence of this style.

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The 70cm started us off, this class was kindly sponsored by Skyes Sport Horses. many riders at this level do not get a chance to compete for money so the atmosphere was buzzing and every one was very excited about getting their hands on the 1st place £50.00.

Our very lucky winner was Paula Smith on her own Brownville Bobby, Paula jumped a clear round. As did our 2nd place rider Penny Redford on her Grey horse Pedro, 2nd place took home £20.00 prize money today. 3rd place rider Abi Richards with Shane & 4th place Alice Lamming with Spirit both jumped super clear rounds until they met the joker at the very end of their rounds with the planks falling for both riders. Abi still takes home prize money in her 3rd place. 5th was Stephanie McLoughlin with her homebred Kings Firecracker, 6th place Emma Bray and her horse Soldier.

Our prize winners from the Skyes Sport Horses 70cm.

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The 80cm was kindly sponsored by Vorvashill Stud. The biggest class of the day with 17 competitors there was a great sense of competition in this class, great to see so many people supporting each other and having such a great time. The winner of the class was Joanne Benny with Yanto, not only did they ride a clear they were 1 of only 2 combinations of the whole day to get a clear with zero time penalties. 2nd place was Stephanie McLoughlin with homebred Kings Firecracker. 3rd place Sandra Hood and horse Hugo, 4th place junior rider Mia Major on her pony Damson Wine. Sandra and Mia also both rode clear rounds. 5th Emily Dunstan and Silverwings Aphrodite. 6th place Jacky Jones and Celynnen Top of the Pops. 1st-3rd places all taking home prize money.

Emma Pill and her horse My Malachy - This combination rode a double clear round and was fantastic to watch, unfortunately too many speeding points for a placing.

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The 90cm class Sponsored by Tremayne Irish Draughts was another busy class with some classy combinations out putting their training to the test. 1st-5th place all jumped a clear round, however the only one with zero time penalties was our winner Julie Darnell with her horse Casa Fina. 2nd place Junior rider Mia Major and her pony Damson Wine. 3rd place Janet Jones and I Found Nemo, 4th place Sarah Higman and Hello Ditto. 5th place Rosa Lawer and Henessy Valient Viktor. Our 6th place rider unfortunately caught out by the joker was Katelyn Fletcher and MHS 33, although Katelyn had Zero time penalties.

90cm winner Julie Darnell

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To end the day we had the 100cm which was sponsored by Rosewarne Sports Horses. This was a very competitive class, looking at the start list you wouldn't know who would be taking home the £50 top prize! 1st place was taken by local showjumper Jade couch with her absolutely mega horse Shirley, everyone watched this round with jaws on the floor as they sailed round the course. 2nd place was another local rider Mary Gwennap who was riding her super cob Snac-A-Tac, this horse just cruises round with the biggest smile on his face. 3rd place Tina Wallace and Banksy had a great time riding an extremely competitive round. 4th place Morwenna Barnicoat and her new ride Orange took part in their first 100cm as a combination. 5th place Florrie Ball and Polmark Jay Walk, 6th place Sophie Clarke and King Harry. Not forgetting the joker fence was a whopping 110cm!!

100cm winners with myself and Bahram Haeri who trains both 1st and 2nd place riders.

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Thankyou to all of our sponsors who not only donated the prize money today they also provided the amazing 3 tier rosettes which were very appreciated by the competitors, pop over to the sponsors page of our website to find out full details of all of the sponsors, If you would like to sponsor or support Sport Horse SW in any way do not hesitate to get in touch.

I am super grateful to everyone for supporting today, from competitors to spectators it all makes the day what it is. The next event is the Halloween show and unaffiliated showjumping more details on our events page, Looking forward to seeing you all there!

All photos in the blog are taken by Colraine Capture, to view all of the days pictures please click here.

Have a great week

Becky

Leaving you all with the image of our 100cm winner Jade and her horse Shirley, who I am just in awe of!