Jumping season at Glover

Glover Paddocks hosted their exhilarating showjumping training event on Sunday afternoon, February 2, to kick off the beginning of their season at their centre. The event catered for both junior and senior riders.

This is an annual event dedicated to the riders in the beginning of the year to train for the upcoming competitions and polish their skills. Head instructor Kerryn Maher said the juniors were given the opportunity to train their horses at a certain pace to allow them to train their horses to get used to the course in order to achieve better turns, use their space, and develop quick reactions in their horses.

Kerryn adds that the seniors, who have more experience, were each given two opportunities to practice the jumps around the course, some with new horses and others with their original ones.

“Each rider was required to do a course walk before they began the competition. During the course walk, the riders will walk around the obstacle course and measure the distances between fences and plan the lines they will ride between each jump. Riders had to complete a jumper course within a time limit, set with eight obstacles where a rider is required to challenge their horse to jump a certain height. The combination that completes the jumping course fastest with the lowest faults wins the class.

“Fortunately, this was only for training, so we gave them the opportunity to correct their faults and advise each rider on what they can improve. Additionally, we made the jump show fun for the riders to not be pressured, which made the competition both fun and competitive,” Kerryn explained.

The riders will be competing in a variety of upcoming competitions provincially, as well as some representing the West Rand in the South African National Equestrian Schools Association (SANESA).