Ride and Drive at Gransha plus report from Riders Working Hunter League

Once again Gransha Equestrian Centre was luck enough to be able to host the forth round of the Riders Working Hunter League outside on the all weather arena. Although it was cool, the rain stayed away, the sun shone and the ground conditions were excellent.

It was pleasing to see that Kirsty Stuart is following in her mother’s footsteps and built an excellent course that was both inviting and challenging as the competitions moved up from the four year olds to the 1.10m class.

The riders and the organisers expressed their appreciation to the Judges Clare Hunter and Heather Gordon and were very satisfied with the results.

The Competition was sponsored by Blue Grass Horse Feeds and each winner will receive a feed voucher in due course and the six top placed horses in the Smalls, 80cm, 90cm and 1m. classes will qualify for the Northern Ireland Festival to be held at Cavan in the spring.   If the top 6 horses are already qualified the qualification cards can be passed down the line, so if you want to check whether you qualified or not  contact the organisers of the Northern Ireland Festival.

The next round of the league is on January 23rd at Lusks, starting at 10.00am.

The annual Ride and Drive competition will be on Tuesday 22nd December.  This is the most exciting night of the year!! Riders jump a small course of fences against the clock then their partner jumps onto the quad, kindly supplied by Francis Dunn, and negotiate an obstacle course without disturbing the balls on top of the traffic cones.

The winners are the pair with the fastest time and least faults.

There will be two classes.  A junior class for riders under the age of 14, jumping a 60cm course and a senior class for riders 14 years upwards, and they will jump an 80cm course.  In both classes quad drivers must be 16 years old or over, and if they have their own helmets bring them along.