Showjumper Oscar Ncube shares his experience as a rider and his hopes for the season
JOBURG - Seasoned horse rider Oscar Ncube shared his experience of being a showjumper and his hopes for the season.
“I have been riding for 20 years,” he said.
“I started competing when I was about nine years old and am instructed by top-ranking showjumpers Barry and Lorette Taylor of Farnham Stables.”
Ncube added that he worked for Farnham Stables from 2007 until 2010 and then rejoined their equestrian team again in 2013. “I have taken up some teaching opportunities at Farnham, the young horse clients as well as the junior 1-metre and under,” he said.
“My biggest motivation is that there is always a challenge, it’s working with an animal that can be unpredictable, making every day a different day. It always gets me up in the morning.”
Ncube said he rode and instructed for about 45 hours per week and currently competed in all levels of showjumping, ranging from the young horse levels to the open grades on various horses.
“In most sports, you are in your own team. With equestrian riding, it’s different because you have to build a partnership based on trust and loyalty with an animal that can either be your best friend or your enemy. I work very hard with my horses, and what I do for them, they do for me,” Ncube quipped.
Some of Ncube’s achievement were being chosen for the First Equestrian Showjumping Team to compete in the 2007 All Africa Games in Algeria. He received the Rider of the Year award by the SANEF Accelerated Development Programme 2007 and competed in the Natal Grand Prix in 2009 on his horse Paparazzi. He competed in the FEI World Cup qualifier series in 2009 on Paparazzi, as well as competing in the FEI World Cup qualifier series in 2010 on Wincent 28 and Aquablade, attaining a seventh in the Cape Town leg on Wincent.
The rider explained that he rode different horses but his open horses were Esaro W and Poker LS. “My hopes for the season are to jump the micro or mini derby and hopefully the big derby again this year, as well as to get all my young horses up the grades successfully. I am looking forward to what comes my way this year.”
