CAYMAN EQUESTRIAN TEAM NAMED RESERVE CHAMPIONS

From CIEF

Cayman Islands equestrians, Chloe Fowler and Ashley van den Bol, shined at the recent Caribbean Junior Jumping Competition that was sponsored by the Pan American Equestrian Confederation and took place at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia. The Cayman team of Fowler and van den Bol just missed being named Champion in a tie breaker with Bermuda.

The competition, which was held among six English-speaking Caribbean nations and the USA, took place over three days this past weekend on horses lent by SCAD’s renowned equestrian program. The first day, each participant rode two different horses in a clinic with SCAD head coach, Ashley Henry, who is originally from the Bahamas. The second and third days were devoted to the competition, for which each rider was paired with a new horse to get to know for just five minutes of warm up and four jumping efforts before entering the arena, making it a true test of horsemanship.

The competition was designed with an initial round followed by a jump-off for those who garnered no faults in the initial round. Placings were determined by referencing the time taken to complete the course in the jump-off to the optimal time, defined as 4 seconds faster than the time allowed, with those closest to the optimal time placing higher. Van den Bol won the competition on the first day on the horse, E.J., with a time less than two-tenths of a second off of the optimal time. It was a tight contest with less than two-tenths of a second separating the first 4 finishers. Fowler, riding Peia, finished 7th, despite having a double clear and being just two seconds off of the optimal time.

On the second day, Fowler finished in fourth place on a horse named Sociable. Unfortunately, van den Bol, riding Bentley, knocked a rail midway through the first round, and ended up 9th out of 14 riders.

When the points earned by each country’s two riders for each of their two rounds were added up to determine the country rankings, the Cayman Islands found itself tied for the lead with Bermuda with 40 points each. The total faults earned over the four rounds were used to break the tie, and that put Bermuda on top with zero faults to Cayman’s four, leaving the Cayman team with the Reserve Champion trophies. Trinidad and Tobago placed third with 35 points, followed by Barbados in 4th with 33 points, the USA in 5th place with 26 points, Antigua/USA in 6th place with 25 points and Jamaica in 7th place with 11 points.

By Eve van den Bol

Photo credits: Eve van den Bol