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Welcome back everyone to Too Hot to Trot and what a pleasure it is to be able to start off the season with the news that the EU export ban has been lifted after Bahrain was given the all-clear from the deadly equine disease glanders.
However, confusion reigns as it appears that procedures for transporting ponies and horses have still to be put in place and there remain restrictions of moving animals between north and south of the island.
My sources assure me that horses will shortly be able to travel into the EU once quarantine and all other necessary procedures have been correctly followed.
The official Journal of the European Union states: “In view of the information and guarantees submitted by Bahrain, it is appropriate to authorise the re-entry into the Union of registered horses for racing, competition and cultural events.”
The campaign group Stop Glanders in Bahrain is preparing to close down its Facebook page. A spokeswoman said: “As this page is not needed anymore, I will delete it soon. Please don’t ask questions or make comments on this page anymore, if you need information, contact the Animal Wealth Directorate.”
Hopefully, we will see the season and riding in Bahrain really take off again this year.
To start the season the Dilmun Riding Stables held its first event on Friday, a quadrille and impromptu puissance and jumping demonstration.
With eight horses and riders participating in the quadrille, the group did a lovely dressage test to music in perfect harmony.
The group consisted of four chestnut horses and four grey horses – Maud Tinsley rode Dilmun Nelson, keeping it in the family, Florence Tinsley rode Dilmun Fallah, Charlotte Gunby rode her own horse Magnum, next to Kirsten Lee on Raggy; Aimee Keen rode her new horse Rio, with Laura Erber riding the Scopes’s Flicka, with Natalie Gunby on Bart who is currently on loan to the Dilmun from Laura Erber, and to finish was Amy Brereton-Stewart riding Dilmun Phantom.
The term quadrille came to exist in the 17th Century and started with a set of four couples dancing to music, hence why there are usually eight horses in a quadrille. However, this is not set in stone, for those of you that saw the Spanish horses visiting last year; their finale was a quadrille of 10 horses.
Suffice to say that the precision involved with any form of quadrille is huge, so a big ‘hats off’ to all the girls that performed on Friday. This was not an easy start, especially since this was the first show for some of the young riders.
The quadrille at the Dilmun was followed by an impromptu jumping demonstration by Carina Abdulrahman riding Tashan, Hamad Fakhrawi riding Kuwait, Danielle Shaw riding Tayar and Basil Al Dosari riding Kismet.
The jumping demonstration was an unexpected treat with the four chestnut horses performing beautifully over some really high fences. The ‘boys’ put their horses through their paces with some very fancy jumping, a great end to a brilliant afternoon.
Carina is now the stable manager of the Dilmun Riding Stables, taking over from Melanie Spink who stood down at the end of last season.
She is well known to everyone both in the riding fraternity here in Bahrain and the UK. She is a local lass who trained at the Talland School of Equitation in England. Regular readers of this column may recall articles about her. She is also an accomplished racing driver.
Carina has lots of plans for the stables. This month will see a Halloween Fancy Dress Pairs to Music, a fun gymkhana-type afternoon, and it will be running two leagues this season – dressage and show jumping – though with a twist. If you are a competing show jumper and you want your points to be counted in the league it is compulsory to do one dressage event.
Carina is also planning some fun shows, courses in stable management, course building, judging, dressage and show jumping clinics. She is one of the principal instructors at the stables, alongside Hussein Al Busta, supported by Basel Al Dosari, a freelance instructor.
The club has recently purchased and acquired a few new horses for the school thanks to fund raising activities, donations, bake sales and various other methods. Phantom, for example, has been at the stable just two short months and is already proving to be a wise investment.
And, the news just in is Twin Palms Riding Centre will start its season next Friday with a Gymkhana along similar lines as the end-of-season event. However, this will be held in two sections, one for the younger members of the stable, and the other one for older riders. If the last gymkhana is anything to go by it will certainly not be for the faint-hearted, full on fun is totally expected!
This coming season promises a feast of fantastic events. If there is anything you would like to see added to the column or have an interesting story to tell please email HelenTooHotToTrot@hotmail.com I look forward to hearing from you soon.
