AN ‘equestrian extravaganza’ best describes the show held by the team at Lusk Equestrian Centre last Sunday, September 4th.

Billed as an old fashioned gymkhana, the event catered for everyone.

There were six arenas in operation throughout the day with each ring very generously sponsored by Lusk Transport, White Horse Café, Lusks Riding School – Denise Neill, Bluegrass Horse Feed, Barclay Communications and Pure Day Spa – Elaine Murphy.

Once again the venue was bathed in glorious sunshine and, with the addition of an ice cream van and face painting, the feel good factor was felt by all.

The youngest competitor on the day was two-year-old Kjerstin Chissel, riding Caughley Pavlova, and the pair finished third in the lead rein for riders under five.

youngsters

The class was won by four-year-old Noah Houston on Peter Pan with second place going to Ethan Murphy on Papa, with Murphy stating that he was almost four.

In the show jumping arena the pony classes started at 30/40cm and went up to 1m, with great jumping and a lot of double clear rounds there were many happy competitors.

This was followed by horse classes which started at 65cm and went up to 1m.

Arena one hosted working hunter classes with horses in the morning and ponies in the afternoon, both categories jumping great courses designed by David McClurg.

Arenas two and three catered for the showing divisions and offered something for all, from native breeds to greys only, veterans, cobs, coloureds and many more.

In the Bluegrass Mini Ring the action focussed on the youngest competitors, many of these the next generation.

It was great to see Stuart Murphy strutting his stuff as he led Lily on Greendown Claire over a 30cm track with pony handler and pony going double clear.

A huge amount of effort went into designing and making the fancy dress costumes. So much so that judge Jackie Poland of The White Horse Café had to award equal first to the three competitors.

As dusk started to fall there were a lot of very happy faces loading up to go home to reflect on a very successful day and plan their return trip in the future.