Hold your horses, eMalahleni is here
Dressage dates back to classical Greek horsemanship and the military who trained their horses to perform movements intended to evade or attack the enemy whilst in battle
This past weekend saw riders from Cincinnati Equestrian Centre, Country Ranch Stables and Bankenveld Equestrian Centre truck their horses all the way to Forever Resort Badplaas for this year’s first South African National Equestrian Schools’ Association (Sanesa) qualifier.
Cincinnati Equestrian Centre took a number of horses and learners, and had an incredibly successful campaign, bringing home four first places, two second places, five third places and two sixth places.
Chantel Edwards, owner and instructor at Cincinnati Equestrian Centre also competed in the Elementary dressage classes.
Elementary dressage is higher grade dressage, and there are only a very small number of riders in South Africa capable of completing these incredibly difficult tests.
Despite this, Chantel walked away proudly with two third places, cementing her place as one of eMalahleni’s top dressage riders.
Chantel also gave dressage and showing instruction to two riders from Country Ranch Stables: Caleigh Ferreira and Shaye Williams.
Dressage dates back to classical Greek horsemanship and the military who trained their horses to perform movements intended to evade or attack the enemy whilst in battle.
Country Ranch Stables raked in the show jumping rosettes like they usually do.
Show jumping is a relatively new equestrian sport.
Until the Inclosure Acts, which came into force in England in the 18th century, there had been little need for horses to jump fences routinely, but with this act of Parliament came new challenges for those who followed fox hounds.
The Inclosure Acts brought fencing and boundaries to many parts of the country as common ground was dispersed amongst separate owners.
This meant that those wishing to pursue their sport now needed horses that were capable of jumping these obstacles – and thus modern show jumping was born.
Country Ranch Stables’ campaign got them six first places, six second places, three third places, two fourth places and one sixth place – with brother and sister pair, Caleigh and Christian Ferreira, trying to see who could rake in the most.
Bankenveld Equestrian Centre also took a handful of riders who did their schools and their instructor proud.
They managed to bring in four first places, five second places, one third place and one fourth place for their efforts.
All three of the riders from Bankenveld Equestrian Centre were riding at the first ever Sanesa show.
All of the riders from eMalahleni made their hometown incredibly proud by setting an example of what good sportsmen (and women) ought to be.
The results of individual riders from these horse riding organizations can be found on the results page of this week’s edition of the WITBANK NEWS.
