Pondarosa Ranch thunders to life for SA Eventing Interprovincials
This year's Adult SA Eventing Interprovincial Championships was a great success, having been held at Pondarosa Ranch from August 16 to 18.
Pondarosa Ranch played host to the 2024 Adult SA Eventing Interprovincial Championships with great success as the country’s best eventers descended on the Lowveld.
The SA Eventing Interprovincials is one of the biggest events on the national eventing calendar, and eventers travel from all over South Africa to take part and stake their claim as the best in the country. It is therefore also a great honour to host the SA Eventing Interprovincials, and Pondarosa has firmly earned this.
According to event director Tracy South, Pondarosa owner Sean Eggersglusz and his team went to great lengths to develop the ranch. “His crew put in an incredible amount of work building the eventing tracks. He’s developed Pondarosa to be one of the best eventing venues in the country,” she said.
This hard work then made it the perfect venue to host this year’s SA Eventing Interprovincials. In total, 34 riders and their horses from five different provinces travelled to Pondarosa for the competition, ready to take on the beautiful yet challenging tracks.
The action started on August 16 with the dressage competition on the first day. This was followed by the eventing on day two on Saturday, and finally the showjumping competition on the third and final day. The goal for the riders was to accumulate the lowest number of penalties over the course of the three competition days, and those with the least would be crowned the winners.
It proved a mighty successful three days for the riders from Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. In the 65cm adult class, Mpumalanga’s Helle Wagner reigned supreme with her horse, Pondarosa’s Munando Bay, while Mpumalanga’s Isabella Cavina was victorious in the 65cm junior class with Maak ‘n Plan Barrabas.
In the 75cm junior class, Raymond Aitchison from Gauteng was triumphant with his horse, Equiprovet SA Jemada Jester. Eggersglusz proved he’s as adept a rider as he is a track builder, winning the 85cm adult class on Hay Sister. Lelandi van Hoek from Gauteng won the 85cm junior class while riding Hello Quality’s Branic Qino’s Secret.
KwaZulu-Natal’s K’li Scott won the 95cm adult class riding Iron Feeds Star of Joburg. Jane Brown from Gauteng, meanwhile, won the one-star adult class on Lighting the Fire. Esther van Eeden and Frangelico from KwaZulu-Natal won the one-star junior class. Finally, in the two-star adult class, Adrienne Macdonald-Hutcheson from Gauteng was triumphant with her horse Gondor Penelope.
In the team competition, the Eastern Cape team won the 85cm adult class. Further, the combined Gauteng and Western Cape team won the adult 95cm class, and Gauteng also won the two-star adult class.
