Dressing to impress

AN absolute flurry of activity was seen at the Twin Palms Riding Centre on a hot, balmy Saturday afternoon with all the entrants getting their horses and ponies ready for the fancy dress gymkhana.

The turnout was outstanding. All the riders – and certainly their proud mums – had got together to make some stupendous outfits. 

There were three sets of sister acts.

Weiling Morris with Candy, as a fabulous Cowgirl, her sister Jasmine dressed as a beautiful princess with her prince charming, Toy Boy.

Luna led the way for the Dreyer girls riding Red as an amazing Hawaiian Zombie – she was very scary, and even Red the pony had blood red lipstick dripping from his mouth for effect! Equally as intimidating was her sister, the Pirate Anae, aka Anne Bonnie, though she tried to be scary she really is far too gorgeous, and Zolo made his debut as the ship Vanity for Anae to sail away on.

The Rushton girls made up the third set for the afternoon with Bella as a fabulous diva putting Aramis through his paces, and totally terrific, as Jane of the Jungle, was her little sister, Imogen, with Lime playing the part of Tarzan for the afternoon admirably. 

And there was Jamiela Hassad, the stern and firm police presence of the afternoon, as she organised everyone astride Eid, her cool and collected ‘police horse’. 

It was difficult to say who was more Hawaiian, Maya Shaban and Jasper both adorned with garlands, grass skirts and even bringing tropical parrots to the event. Eva Subsol certainly made an entrance in her best party outfit, looking simply beautiful, with the very handsome Lord as her partner for the games.

Molly Wharton had gone to extreme lengths to convert Dollar into a beautiful steed upon which to carry the fairy Tinkerbelle, adorned with a pink heart on his bottom, and matching pink mane and tail, with ribbons and bells, fairy wings and even crowns on her boots. This pair clinched the deal and took home the prize for best fancy dress outfit of the afternoon.

This was an afternoon of fun, and at the end of it everyone was a winner. When the fancy dress parade was finished, the girls were put into teams for the ensuing gymkhana events.

Just before the games began properly, we were given an awesome demonstration of side-saddle riding by Sue Parker, with her wonderful horse Poncho. The pair certainly looked the part as they rode around for everyone. This is how all the ladies in the olden days rode their horses, and its amazing to think they sat like this while galloping across fields, hunting or even jumping fences! Well done Sue, a lovely performance.  

First up was the lime and spoon challenge. All riders had to carefully balance a lime on their spoon and manoeuvre around the arena without dropping the fruit. Once the lime was dropped they were out, and had to move on to the next event.

The obstacle race, probably the hardest race of the afternoon, was certainly the most fun. First of all, riders had to get over a set of trotting poles in the middle of the arena, then they took a sharp left turn and had to weave between barrels. If they missed a barrel there were time penalties.

Next up was ‘Walk the Plank’. Riders had to dismount, walk the plank and then remount and trot off to a bucket filled with bottles of water. The object was to pick up a bottle and race to the finish, making sure you banged the final finish barrel to stop the clock. The bonus for this race was you got to keep the water!

The bending relay followed with two teams’ taking part in the arena but the final challenge of the afternoon was the dressing up race. Every member of the team had to race to the top of the arena, dismount and put on all the clothes at their station. I have never seen children dress so quickly, I know they don’t dress that quickly in the mornings before school! 

Clothes were put on in the strangest of ways but as long as they were all dressed, then the race was on to gallop back to the finish line.

What an exhausting, but totally exhilarating afternoon of fun.