Rounding off a great year

It’s been quite a year for equestrians across the kingdom, filled with thrilling competitions and edge-of-your-seat action. This week, it seems only fitting to give an overview of all the memorable events which have taken place in the equestrian arena over the past 12 months.

Despite Glanders thwarting the movement of all horses for the whole year, local stables refused to be defeated and hosted innovative in-house competitions and events.

January saw the Dilmun Riding Stables’ inaugural In-House Show Jumping League, which proved very popular with riders fiercely competitive to the very end. Twin Palms Riding Centre also started off with a series of in-house events, the first also being a jumping event, obviously to shake off the Christmas cobwebs!

Serina Rolph, equine body worker and sports massager, provided top advice for equine muscle care. She also gave tips to use each time you rode or groomed your horse.
 
The end of January and beginning of February saw the rains in Bahrain, which stopped just about everything in its tracks! Luckily, the Dilmun caught a window in the rain for their second in-house league event. Twin Palms Riding Centre then hosted Pony Clubs to coincide with schools’ half-term holidays, along with the first of their Dressage shows.

Shakhoora Riding Centre hosted the first of their in-house shows for the year, dressage with a difference – fancy dress – horse themed of course!

Sadly though, February also brought unrest to Bahrain bringing more trials and tribulations to the equine industry.

Another sad side to the troubles in the Middle East was the equine casualties in Egypt, as the tourists stayed away. Horse-owners, who relied on income from the tourists, could not feed their horses, resulting in these poor creatures starving to death. The Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals, did all they could in this sad situation, and still continue to help all the animals there.

March saw Dilmun, Twin Palms and Shakhoora hosting more in-house events, in show jumping and dressage. With the stables trying to find variations on a theme, the Dilmun hosted a Pairs and Pizza afternoon.

One particular show for Twin Palms was solely organised by 10-year-old Florence Finzi. Unfortunately, this transpired to be her farewell tribute as, due to the unrest, her impending return to the UK was brought forward. To add to that, because of glanders, Florence was unable to take her beloved MissPrint to the UK. Florence now has a new pony Billy and the pair are doing exceptionally well!

In April, the stables hosted events in the mornings due to unrest in the afternoons, though there was also some inclement weather. With Easter and more holidays, there was the usual flurry of pony camps from Twin Palms Riding Centre.

To add more entertainment, the Dilmun arranged a fun show, with bareback show-jumping, barrel racing amongst other classes and a livery only master class.

In May, trainer Jaquin Tinao of the Bahrain Show Jumping team conducted a clinic at the Dilmun.

At the end of May, glanders, now a year on, was still making the news with the equestrian federation issuing documentation regarding rules and regulations for registering horses and transportation within the kingdom. These regulations are still available from their website www.equestrianbahrain.com

June saw some serious competition in the Dilmun Show Jumping League, though at their penultimate show Hamad Fakhrawi was a clear 25 points in front. The main challenge was among the ladies for second to fourth places with only three points separating them. Sadly, one of the junior contenders broke her arm just before the last show. Their final show was held in fancy dress just to alleviate some of the tension.

Two huge events took place in July – the Dilmun/Gulf Weekly Championship Cup, organised for champions of the Dilmun In-House League, which was followed by a presentation evening at the club itself.

Twin Palms Riding Centre rounded the season off with a ‘jump gymkhana’ fun event followed by a BBQ.

Everyone left for the summer with the hope that the end of 2011 may see the glanders situation change. However, that was not the case, as the ban was extended to March 2012. 

In October, with the situation remaining the same, stables sourced more internal entertainment for their horses and riders.

The Dilmun Stables started their In-House Show Jumping League for 2011/2012. Riders expecting a nice easy re-introduction to the season were, instead, faced with challenging and technical courses. 

Twin Palms introduced their own In-House League, encompassing show jumping, dressage and eventing.

Shakhoora Riding Centre also launched an In-House League, again comprising of show jumping and dressage.

November witnessed the usual in-house events, show jumping, dressage, pony clubs, pizza and pairs evenings and stable management courses.

Twin Palms Riding Centre reinstated their annual Open Day Extravaganza, a multitude of fabulous demonstrations, show jumping, puissance, a dressage to music quadrille, a traditional Arabian Horse in full costume, cowboys showing their western riding skills, lunging performance and fun gymkhana event culminating in the fancy dress parade.

There was something for everyone with competitions, quizzes, games, bric a brac, second hand stalls, the tombola, coupled with home baked cakes, nestling next to many other sumptuous goodies, as well as free horse and pony rides.

December brought a bit of diversification from Twin Palms as they produced a team for the Bahrain Marathon Relay; on the same weekend they hosted a multi-phased show jumping/dressage event for their in-house league.

The Dilmun Stables and Shakhoora Riding Centre also had a very busy month, with show jumping and dressage events. To round off the year Twin Palms held their annual Christmas Gymkhana with a visit from Santa and gifts all round.

For the New Year, Shakhoora Riding Centre and the Dilmun Riding Stables will be holding shows on January 6.

All that’s left for me to do now is wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012. Enjoy!