The Cayman Children’s team came first in the Caribbean Equestrian Association (CEA)’s 2011 Dressage Competition hosted at the Equestrian Centre in George Town.

The team, comprising Charlotte Hinds 15, Polly Serpell 13, and Thea Milward 12, outperformed the children in the other Caribbean Islands with an average score of 66%.  Charlotte lead the team with an impressive score of 67% on the Dutch warm blood mare Kartouche, with Polly gaining score of 66% on her Pony, Me and My Shadow and Thea Millward a score of 65% on the Cayman-bred pony, Storm.

The team came ahead of rival teams Barbados (second place) Jamaica (third) and Trinidad (fourth), each of which had been judged separately on different days in their own country.

The National Coach Mary McTaggart said,  “The standard of our young riders in Cayman is continually improving and we have a dedicated and ambitious young team.   We are very lucky to have our very own dressage professional coach Jessica McTaggart who visited us for the month of November and prepared the riders for the show.”

The CEA’s competitive events are divided into dressage and jumping sections with contestants travelling to other participating countries for the jumping section and using borrowed horses, but staying in their own country and using their own horses for the Dressage section.

Judge Susan Kolstad travelled from country to country in the CEA region judging each country’s horses and riders, and the three top scores in each category go forwards to be presented as the countries children’s and adult team score.

The Cayman Islands adult team comprising Jessica Mctaggart, Chloe Dudding and Mary Mctaggart also did Cayman proud, gaining third place in the dressage competition. Barbados won, and Bermuda gained second place. Trinidad came fourth and Jamaica, fifth.