No horsing around at Hobby Horse tournament
South Africa's first every Hobby Horse tournament took place at the Riverleigh International Equestrian Centre recently and it was loads of fun.
When you hear the words ‘equestrian sport’, you immediately think of big, beautiful horses. What you don’t think of is hobby horses.
Well, on Sunday, 28 April, the first ever Hobby Horse tournament in South Africa took place at the Riverleigh International Equestrian centre.
A hobby horse is a stick with a model of a horse’s head on one end. Contestants had the choice of making their own hobby horses or using one that they had bought.
Hobby Horse tournaments have become very popular over the past few years, with thousands of athletes competing in the sport.
Although the tournament at Riverleigh was not as strict, the international competitions are, and competitors take them very seriously.
For Sunday’s tournament, there were about 19 contestants and 23 categories for contestants to compete in.
As the first competition, for the hand-made hobby horses commenced, contestants were asked to parade around the arena on their hobby horses.
The contestants really showed their creativity in this category, making sock horses, horses with white manes and even a springbok hobby horse. An impressive one was called Woodstock, it was a type of rocking horse cut in half with a stick in the middle.
But the winner was Rian Reynecke’s Clothes Horse Rag Nag while Joe Daly’s Two Ply Horse Fly came in second.
The most original horse award went to Danny Ghirlando and Woodstock, while the most colourful horse went to Tyrone Kruger and Speedy Gonzales.
Ian Carpenter won the category for best horse name with his horse, Well Crafted. Other horse names included Neighsayer, Twilight Moon, Flash Gordon, Spoetnik and Waikikikamukau.
Then the races started and the front runner, Electric Blue, ridden by Katie Jackson took first place after several heats. This was followed by canter races, backwards canter races, which were impressive, and a trotting race.
It came time for contestants to show off their horses in the arena and Jeanie Naudé with Yo Mama took first place in the beginner’s dressage competition. The Junior intermediate winner was Chane van Wyk with Breeze, while Tyrone Kruger and Speedy Gonzales took first place for senior intermediate dressage.
Caleigh Mortimer’s Sir Prance-a-lot was first in the advanced dressage competition and Katie Jackson on Electric Blue was best in the Grand Prix category.
There were also apple-bobbing contests, plus sack races and egg races to finish the day off.
All in all contestants, judges and spectators had an amazing day, a lot of laughs and a lot of fun.
