Four riders from Zalala Equestrian Centre performed excellently during the prestigious Cell C Christmas Betty Burgess Show 2025, which took place at the Mataffin Equestrian Centre in Nelspruit.

The five-day competition, which began on November 26, yielded a string of awards and personal bests for the team across various disciplines.

Charné Claassens won the Betty Burgess trophy for the fastest jump-off time of all the riders, and Bertus Harmse won the Betty Burgess trophy for the rider with the highest equitation score of the day.

Charné and Winternight Saphire also took second place in the junior equitation 1m and made a massive comeback after unfortunate penalties in the accumulator 90cm and A2 speed 90cm, winning the junior 90cm championship class.

Bertus and Passionate Lad won the junior equitation 1m class and accumulator 1m class.

They came second in the A2 speed 1m class and the championship class 1m.

For Danéll van Rooyen, this competition was the highlight of the year.

On Passionate Lad, she rode three tests, and she got her personal best marks yet in dressage novice adult graded.

On Avro Prince, she also rode three tests over two days and got second place in dressage prelim adult graded.

She also competed in the adult equitation 80cm on Avro Prince and took second place.

In the show jumping, she competed in three rounds and came second in the accumulator 80cm, third in the championship class 80cm and fifth in the A2 speed class 80cm.

On Paw Patrol, Shannon Lewis came first in the A2 speed class 80cm, second in the championship class 80cm and third in the adult equitation 80cm and accumulator 80cm.

In the 2025 Junior South African Show Jumping Challenge Bertus and Passionate Lad placed seventh in the country for the junior 1m.

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