THE Mounted Games Association of South Africa (MGASA) team will represent South Africa at the World Team Championships (WTC) in Kentucky, USA. The competition will run from July 6 to 12 at the Kentucky Horse Park.
The five riders taking part are: Megan Marr and Daniel Ferreira (GAU) from Glenvista, Megan Frost and , Tomas Forsythe (KZN) and Dani De Marcelin Vinay (WC). Chris Kritzinger is the team manager/coach.
Team SA attended their first WTC in 2001 in Canada. Since then, the sport has grown in leaps and bounds. Teams were sent to the WTC USA in 2003, Belgium in 2008 and England in 2009. SA then hosted the first ever Southern Hemisphere Championships (SHC) in 2010, to which New Zealand and Australia were invited. Subsequently, a SA team was sent to New Zealand in 2011 and to Australia in 2012.
The competition returned to SA in 2013 where the South African team was victorious over New Zealand and Australia. The purpose of the SHC competition was to develop riders and help them gain competition experience before competing at WTC level against countries where the sport is at a highly professional level and far more established. The SHC have now grown and become the Five Nations, with USA and Canada joining in.
South Africa will also be sending a team to Australia at the end of 2015 to compete in the Five Nations Cup. The young riders who have been selected for the Five Nations are: Samantha Kruger, Donnelly Mac Kenzie and Grace Queally (GAU), Emma Dickerson (WC) and Taro Reece (KZN). Skyler Mac Farlane (GAU) is the reserve rider and Rachel Brew is the coach/manager. The Five Nations will take place in SA in 2016 and the World Team Championships in 2017.
Three Gauteng competitions have been held at Penbritte Equestrian Centre and the next one is scheduled to take place on July 19. Gauteng PRO Felicia Rowan invites new riders from lead-rein, special needs, junior and adult riders to try out. Contact Felicia 082 339 9268 or felicia.rowan@gmail.com
