Huge thanks to Patsy-Muir Simpson and Sanchia May, co-organisers of our first outdoor event of the season, which was a joy in glorious sunshine from start to finish!
Roadworks on two local bridges made travel plans trickier than usual, with the alternative routes giving everyone early practice for the challenging cones course to come :-). Friday evening was a typical first-event-of-the season “who has forgotten to pack the most items?” competition, although Hamish and Anne Reid had the best excuse for not arriving until Saturday morning – making daily trips to the event so they could be home at night to look after a surprise new-born calf and its mum.
Our dressage judge, Joyce Simpson, had her work cut out on Saturday (her car horn was working almost as hard as her writer) and the cones stewards were also on their toes, running the extra “Playfair Cones challenge” alongside the main cones phase. Tip for competitors – the even numbers are all those that are not odd.
The course design helpfully placed all the obstacles close to the stabling field, making walking the obstacles less of a pilgrimage and more of a pleasure, and gave everyone a chance to watch our Gateway competitors gamely tackle obstacles 3 and 5. Following the Gateway presentation (see results below) and marathon briefing, the BBQ was fired up and we were treated to a display of Highland Dancing from Kayah Burns who will be competing at the World Championships in a few weeks time – good luck Kayah!
From the sublime, we moved to the ridiculous (hello, Garry Duff 🙂 who tried once more to teach us how to play bingo (what, the numbers are in columns of ten?). Congratulations to the winner, Eileen Cornish, who clearly knows her way around a bingo card. A little bit of music and singing rounded off the evening, which admittedly attracted the midges more than the sheep.
The recent weather, while amazing, meant the ground conditions for the marathon phase were “firm” (ahem) but everyone drove safely and without incident. Thanks to our wonderful scorers Mike and Louise McCutcheon, results were out before 1pm and the prizes were presented at 1.30pm by our very welcoming host, Sir Archie Orr-Ewing. For all the details of the results see the results page – but here’s the backstories on the winners…
Gateway Winner – Abbie Thomson, repeating her success from last year.
Abbie is now keen to try to step up to the VSE class with her great wee pony – go for it, Abbie!
Open Single Horse Winner, and Event Reserve Champion – Ian Bertram, the SCDA’s permanent “Competitor Number 1”, showing that he can still mix it with us commoners after his trip to the World Championships last year!
Open Single Pony Winner, and Event Champion – Jen Bernard, winning her first SCDA Event Champion rosette. (Jen also won a special award for delivering the “best insult of the day” although sadly details cannot be repeated here, due to BC rules on propriety).
Pairs Winner – Hamish Reid, also repeating his success from last year.
VSE Winner – Lorraine McIndoe, who also took first prize in the “Playfair Cones Challenge” (kindly sponsored by Shona) by being the only driver to achieve a clear round. Lorraine also won the “Most Sympathetically Driven” award, kindly sponsored by Riding and Harness Stuff
Small Equine Winner – Cathy Duff, who stepped up from the VSE class so that she could tackle all six obstacles (without Garry to hold her back).
Pre-Novice Winner – Claudia Nisbett, our GeeGee Rugwash Gateway champion of 2024, who relished the step up from Gateway to the new 2-day Pre-Novice class.
The individual phase awards were won by Pam MacArthur (best dressage), Jen Bernard (best marathon) and Lorraine McIndoe (best cones – so a double cones winner!).
And finally, ending where we started this report – a huge thanks to the organisers Sanchia May and Patsy Muir-Simpson, who were presented with gifts by Wendy and Graham Scott of Benview Garden Centre, main sponsors of the event
