By Eve van den Bol

The Cayman Islands Equestrian Federation (CIEF) held the first of the three-part FEI World Jumping Challenge (WJC) this past Sunday at Cayman Riding School. The World Jumping Challenge is designed to enable riders who live in more remote countries the opportunity to compete internationally without having to leave their own country. Individual and team competitors are ranked by geographic region and by height categories. For 2016, the CIEF is hosting Category C which includes jump heights of up to 1.1 meters.

The World Jumping Challenge is organized into three separate events which must be completed by each participating nation during the calendar year. Each event requires riders and their horses to compete over two different jumping courses, the first round for faults and the second round for both faults and time. After the two rounds, riders are ranked by their total faults and the event winner is the rider with the least number of faults. Ties are broken based on the fastest time in the second round. After all three events are held, the total faults generated over the six coursed are then used to determine an overall country and regional winner for the Challenge each year.

Competing for the Cayman Islands in this year’s WJC are Youth Olympics Bronze Medalist, Polly Serpell riding her sister’s horse, Sunday’s Edition, Amara Thompson on her young horse, Second Kiss and Jenna Boucher with her horse Edson Arantes MB. While Serpell and Thompson are veterans of the WJC, this was Ms. Boucher’s first time competing, although her horse participated in the event last year.

Serpell came out the winner of Event #1 of the WJC, but it was not until the last jump was cleared by Boucher and the time announced were the results known. In the first round, Boucher jumped clear while Serpell collected 4 faults at jump seven, putting Boucher in the early lead. Thompson’s horse had two unfortunate refusals which resulted in their elimination. In the second round, Serpell jumped first and knocked a rail on the very last fence. Boucher had two rails down which put her tied with Serpell with 8 faults, but her final round time was just over 1 second short putting her in second place. Serpell also won the Best Presented Horse award.

Commenting on the WJC and the results, CIEF President, Sharon Hinds noted “this is the third year the CIEF has held the FEI’s World Jumping Challenge, and it is a testament to the growth of equestrian sports in the Cayman Islands and the talent of our local riders. The unique nature of this event enables our riders to showcase their talents on the world stage, without having to travel overseas with one’s horse.”

Following the WJC, the CIEF held open jumping classes at lower heights. Winning the 0.6 meter and 0.7 meter classes was Olivia Kluyver on her horse, Shirley Temple. The 0.8 meter class was won by Lea Rado riding Never Ending Story and the 0.9m class was won by Ashley van den Bol riding Whindlass.

The CIEF will be holding Event #2 of the World Jumping Challenge on March 13th at Cayman Riding School located on Hirst Road in Newlands and spectators are welcome. The show starts at 8:00am and entrance is free.

IMAGES:

Ashley van den Bol on Whindlass
Lea Rado on Never Ending Story
Olivia Kluyver on Shirley Temple
Participants in the FEI WJC                                                                                                                                                                 Polly Serpell on Sunday’s Edition
Jenna Boucher on Edson Arantes