Horse Week: Lots of fun at Laurel View Working Equitation Show

Over the last few months training sessions have been run for interested participants to come and work on their skills under the guidance of Una Clancy and Laurel Faloona. It has proved popular with riders and horses, giving a fun way of training and forming a bond with your horse.

The discipline involves riding a short flatwork test in a 20m x 40m arena to include movements required in the Ease of Handling (obstacle course) which is the second part of the competition. The Ease of Handling is marked in a similar way to Dressage with flowing movements gaining the higher scores. The competition concludes with a fun Speed test over a shortened obstacle course with time penalties added for errors.

Working Equitation is not only a sport, but also an emerging training method for any “working” horse – that is, any horse that is ridden for any type of equestrian activity. The international slogan is “Working Equitation– the fun way to train seriously”. This Equestrian Discipline does concentrate on the ability of a horse and rider partnership to negotiate various types of obstacles encountered on farms or ranches, which are similar world-wide. So, even a rider who takes their horse for a hack may well encounter these obstacles, and would benefit to add this Discipline to their training.

The competition was divided into three levels. Level 1 - Walk Trot; Level 2 - Walk Trot Canter and Level 3 - Walk Trot Canter (including lateral movements)

With places for each section, Dressage, Ease of Handling and Speed, then overall placings based on combined scores there were loads of rosettes to be shared around.

Thanks to everyone involved in bringing this discipline to Laurel View and helping to run this first show. Check out the fun that was had in the Equi-Tog photos at www.equi-tog.com

To find out more and be in the know when training or shows are coming up, why not join the Working Equitation Ireland Interest Group on Facebook. Laurel View hopes to run more training towards the end of July, with another show in the pipeline for late September.

RESULTS

Level 1

Dressage

1st Helen Watterson, Honey; 2nd Aisleen Long, Sandy; 3rd Holly Hanvey, Jeeves; 4th Anne Hill, Paddy; 5th Jackie Loughran, Freddie; 6th Angela Kernohan, Casper.

Ease of Handling

1st Aisleen Long, Sandy; 2nd Angela Kernohan, Casper; 3rd Ursula Gettens, Lucky; 4th Helen Watterson, Honey; 5th Jackie Loughran, Freddie; 6th Holly Hanvey, Jeeves.

Speed Trial

1st Aisleen Long, Sandy; 2nd Angela Kernohan, Casper; 3rd Jackie Loughran, Freddie; 4th Holly Hanvey, Jeeves; 5th Teresa Gettens, Lucky; 6th Anne Hill, Paddy.

Overall

1st Aisleen Long, Sandy; 2nd Angela Kernohan, Casper; 3rd Holly Hanvey, Jeeves; 4th Jackie Loughran, Freddie; 5th Helen Watterson, Honey; 6th Anne Hill, Paddy.

Level 2

Dressage

1st Debbie Cherry, Pebbles; 2nd Wendy Forsythe, Tifftarney PJ Gold; 3rd Rachael Kernaghan, Scarborough Fair; 4th Marina Hope, Junior; 5th Ruth Stewart, Caleb; 6th Lena Twardzicka, Lady.

Ease of Handling

1st Ruth Stewart, Caleb; 2nd Rachael Kernaghan, Scarborough Fair; 3rd Wendy Forsythe, Tifftarney PJ Gold; 4th Debbie Cherry, Pebbles; 5th Marina Hope, Junior; 6th Lena Twardzicka, Lady.

Speed Trial

1st Rachael Kernaghan, Scarborough Fair; 2nd Wendy Forsythe, Tifftarney PJ Gold; 3rd Lena Twardzicka, Lady; 4th Debbie Cherry, Pebbles; 5th Ruth Stewart, Caleb; 6th Marina Hope, Junior.

Overall

1st Wendy Forsythe, Tifftarney PJ Gold; 2nd Rachael Kernaghan, Scarborough Fair; 3rd Debbie Cherry, Pebbles; 4th Lena Twardzicka, Lady; 5th Ruth Stewart, Caleb

6th Marina Hope, Junior.

Level 3

Dressage

1st Jo McKelvie, Peregrina LXX; 2nd Julie Dauncey-Stuart, Molly.

Ease of Handling

1st Jo McKelvie, Peregrina LXX; 2nd Julie Dauncey-Stuart, Molly.

Speed Trial

1st Jo McKelvie, Peregrina LXX; 2nd Julie Dauncey-Stuart, Molly.

Overall

1st Jo McKelvie, Peregrina LXX; 2nd Julie Dauncey-Stuart, Molly.

Special Award for best Junior participant – Lena Twardzicka and Lady.