Midrand’s youngest horse rider, Qinn Luden, took many by surprise after achieving second and third place in two showing classes in the Horse of the Year Show at Kyalami Park Club on November 2.
The five-year-old, for the first time as she mainly concentrates on vaulting and showjumping, competed in the U8 competition as that was the youngest category.
Qinn achieved second place in the Lead Rein Show Pony category and a creditable third place in the Lead Rein Working Pony category, with Whitney Duverneuil assisting as her lead rein handler. Explaining how she felt while competing, Qinn said she felt good riding her cousin’s horse, Frozen.
She said she faced some challenges with getting Frozen to trot through the poles. “But I managed to get him to do it [trot], Whitney helped me with Frozen by holding the lead rein.”
She has been riding since the age of two and for the past 14 months, she has been vaulting at RiverGlen Vaulting Club under her coach, Dimitra Michalakis.
She has also achieved second place overall on the horse and
third place overall on the barrel in the SA Vaulting Championships in KwaZulu-Natal this year.
More recently, Qinn took third place overall on the horse and a bronze score overall on the barrel in the Gauteng Vaulting Championships which were held on October 16.
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