The Kingston Polo Club and Equestrian Centre in Kingston, Jamaica played host to the final round of the Caribbean Equestrian Association’s Junior Show Jumping Competition last weekend. Eight riders from Barbados, Cayman, Trinidad and Tobago and hosts, Jamaica, met in a tightly contested final to decide who would be champions for 2014.

Going into the final round, Cayman lay joint first with Jamaica, with Barbados and Trinidad in joint third. Phoebe Serpell represented Cayman in the Under 16 category and Chloe Fowler was the under 14 team representative. Jamaica provided eight horses and each rider had to ride each of the four horses in their category over a show jumping course. The four rides required of each rider were split over two days of competition.

Borrowed horse competitions are always challenging for riders but do give competitors invaluable experience. In a borrowed horse competition such as this, the advantage will always be with the home team, whose riders know the horses and how they are best to be ridden. However each team gets the opportunity to host one round during the year’s competition and so take turns in having the advantage .

On the first day of competition, Serpell picked up eight faults in the first round and went clear in the second round. Her teammate, Fowler, fell from a challenging horse in her first round. Although unhurt, Fowler’s fall resulted in an elimination attracting 25 faults. In her second round, Fowler had a clear round.

On the second day, Fowler was first to go and had a run out and two time faults in her first round, resulting in a total of six faults. Her second round was clear. Serpell had a challenging horse in her first round who refused the fences twice, resulting in an elimination for Serpell attracting 25 faults. In her second round, she also went clear.

Jamaica led throughout the competition and when the points were totaled for round 4 of the competition, Jamaica was first, Barbados came in second with Trinidad third and Cayman in fourth place. Serpell placed 4th in the under 16 category and Fowler placed 3rd in the under 14 category.

The tallies for the end of the year were then made and Jamaica was declared the overall winners for 2014, with Cayman and Barbados in joint second and Trinidad coming in fourth.

Over the course of the year, this result has been a team effort and the Cayman Team has been represented by five young women. In the under 16 category, Cayman was represented by Isabelle Smith and Phoebe Serpell and in the under 14 category, Cayman was represented by Madeleine Aquart, Hannah Fowler and sister Chloe Fowler. Thea Millward was a team reserve. Mary Alberga, National Coach, who accompanied the girls to Jamaica, said “Both Phoebe and Chloe are at the youngest end of the age bracket in the categories in which they are competing. As such, they both did well and I think they learned a lot. This kind of competition is great experience and we look forward to seeing these two talents grow in the competition in 2015. I am pleased that a number of different riders were able to represent Cayman this year and all five girls in the team during the year contributed to this win. It’s a good result and yet gives us something to work on for next year when we hope to retake the title.

If you like watching show jumping then head along to the CIEF’s next show on Sunday 23rd November, 2014 at 8am at the Equestrian Centre on Linford Pierson Highway. Riders will be competing in the first of four legs of the National Jumping Champonship and jumping courses ranging from 0.6m to 1.2m high. Entry is free and refreshments are available for purchase.