The first leg of the inter-schools riding league kicked off recently, and was attended by more than 800 riders and horses.
Kerryn Maher, owner of Glover Paddocks in Honeydew explained that the sport has grown exponentially in the Gauteng West area over the last few years, and said, “Riding for your school is now a realistic dream for many young equestrians, as the sport is now a recognised extra-curricular activity at many primary and high schools. This means that young riders can now also represent their schools with pride.”
She said that many of the young riders’ dreams are supported by riding schools in the West that allow them to compete on riding school ponies.
“This means that the riders no longer have to own their own ponies to enter these competitions,” she said.
She added that the league is a national riding competition that covers all riding disciplines, including jumping, dressage, showing, equitation, eventing and much more. “We fall into the West region, and have four qualifying shows during the year in which riders represent their schools. Based on their results, they then have the opportunity to ride in the West Regional Ream at the inter- and regional finals, after which they have the chance of being picked for the Gauteng team to participate in the Gauteng finals,” Kerry said.
The first qualifying leg took place at Maple Ridge and Kerry said that it was a superb competitive weekend.
One of coach Tasmin Maher’s students, Amoné Janse van Rensburg, who represented Laerskool Roodekrans, had a brilliant show and Tasmin said proudly, “She clocked up a fantastic second place in her show-jumping, third place in the adrenalin-pumping working hunter category and a third place in the very difficult discipline of equitation.”
She concluded by congratulating Amoné and said the following, “Amoné and her terrific pony – Midsummer Night’s Dream – rode like super stars with determination and courage. She was a great ambassador for her school.”
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