Beaulieu riders on top form

Equestrian riders from Beaulieu Preparatory School flew their flag high during the second South African National Equestrian Schools Association (Sanesa) Schools Core League Qualifier at Kyalami Park on the weekend of 22 and 23 May.

Seventeen riders from the school took part in the qualifiers and produced 25 first places, eight-second places and five third places. With equestrian being a non-contact sport, events were still able to take place.

Head of equestrian at the school, Michelle Blaauw was proud of the results obtained at the competition by the riders.

“Given our proximity within the main equestrian belt in South Africa, as a school, we would like to naturally attract the top riding talent within this neighbourhood… by maintaining our high riding standards and accolades in the Sanesa schools league, we hope to retain this strong reputation,” she told the Fourways Review.

The school congratulated Luca Dominic Watson, Jenna Blaauw and Kate Eales for winning in the showjumping 1.1m, 1m and 90cms single class.

Minki Venter, another learner at the school, also took part in the Sanesa Schools show at the Roselane Stables in Pretoria over the same weekend.

Riding in the Western Riding Second Qualifier, she placed first in four events. This included level four Trail Riding, level four Western Pleasure, level four Reining Run One and level four Reining Run Two.

Going forward, Blaauw said there is a goal to maintain these results and do even better.

“The goal of the team is to defend our title as the top prep riding team in Gauteng at the upcoming finals in early August. We would like to follow this up with a formidable team to represent Gauteng at SA nationals that will hopefully allow us to defend our previous wins in prior years of top primary riding school in South Africa,” she said.

Beaulieu Preparatory is currently ranked first in the Johannesburg Central region.