I am very grateful to Sue Lee for submitting the following report covering the exploits of the Mounted Games squad this season.
Sue Writes:
Having got through the Zone Finals on Sunday 3 July 2011, I thought it would be a good idea to let all our members know the journey we, as the Mounted Games squad, have been on, to get us this far once again.
We started practicing once a month, indoors, at Plumpton College back in October 2010 and then every Monday from February this year, staying indoors until early April when it was time to venture out onto the grass and big open spaces in preparation for the start of the competitions, which are all on grass.
It has been great to welcome a few new faces who have been coming regularly to practices. This has given Meg Rowles-Jones a team of mini’s to train once more and who, hopefully, will have a chance to compete next season. They certainly all seem to be enjoying taking part.
Unfortunately, due to a shortage of senior team members and other commitments, we were unable to get a senior team out to the first 4 competitions of the season.
In fact, the first team we got out competing was our veteran team, who went to the OBH North competition on Sunday 9 April which is always a really fun competition. Our team were Max Howell with Blitz, Meg and Tash Rowles-Jones with Molly and Roxy and Marcus Waters with Biscuit. As they were only a team of 4, they were joined by an East Kent member, Aisla Gifford with her pony. Unfortunately I did not manage to go and watch, but apparently they had a great time. Sadly, however, they did not get placed, but they have not ridden together as a team since this competition in 2010, and then that was with Oliver in the team and not Aisla!
The Romney Marsh competition on Sunday 17 April was our first outing for our senior team – Finbarr Blair and Star, Rosanna Curtis and Missy, Sienna Howell and Mandy, Ace Robins with Beauty and Finley Walsh with Dee. For Rosanna and Finley this was their first outing in the ‘A’ team, and for Ace it was his first competition on his new pony. There were 12 teams in the competition, which meant 2 heats of 6 with the first 3 teams going in to a final. Leading up to the Area competition, there are 8 races, and we made 7 out of the 8 finals. We finished the competition in 4th place, which was very good for our first outing.
This same team went to the West Kent Sevenoaks competition on Sunday 1 May. In this competition there were 11 teams, we made every final and came 1st overall, beating East Sussex ‘A’ team by just 1 point. East Sussex had been leading all the way through the competition, but lost it in the last race – it was all very, very exciting.
The next competition was Old Surrey and Burstow Pony Club at Blindley Heath on Sunday 8 May. Again, we had the same team out and there were 12 teams altogether. We managed to make 6 out of the 8 finals, but unfortunately we got eliminated in 1 heat and 1 of the finals, which meant that we lost valuable points! So after our great success last time out, we were a bit disappointed to finish in 3rd place overall.
The next competition, East Sussex Pony Club on Sunday 15 May, was to be the last ‘friendly’ before the Area competition. Ace was unable to compete, so we took Ben Berrill, one of our new members who has been coming regularly to MG practices. We thought it would be nice to get him to a competition so that he could find out what all the practicing was actually leading up to! Ben borrowed Finley’s pony Dee for the competition, as it was felt that the whole competition atmosphere would be too much for his pony. This meant that the whole team had a swap around with ponies throughout the competition, and even though Ace was not able to take part, Sienna borrowed his pony, Beauty. Great fun was had by all, they made 6 out of the 8 finals and came 6th overall, which was a great result. Ben certainly had a big smile on his face when he collected his rosette at the end. Hopefully we will be seeing him out again next season, now he knows what to expect.
The following week, Sunday 22 May, saw the Area competition, this year hosted by East Kent Pony Club at Stelling Minnis. There were 12 teams taking part, so for us to carry on with our quest of competing at HOYS, we needed to finish in the top 4. All the teams seemed to feel the pressure, and there were a lot of silly mistakes made. We managed to make 5 out of the 8 finals, and before the very last race we were actually in 4th place, 24 points behind East Sussex ‘A’ team, 6 points behind East Kent ‘A’ and 3 points behind OSB with Romney Marsh just 1 point behind us in 5th. Remembering that we needed to be in the top 4, this made the last race so very exciting. East Kent ‘A’ didn’t manage to make the final, so they only got 1 point for that race, but the other teams did. We did brilliantly and won it which meant we finished the competition in equal 2nd with OSB and East Kent ’A’. Luckily, all 4 of these teams would qualify to go to the Zone finals in July, but we had to do a ‘2-flag’ run-off race to determine the overall places for this competition. We came 2 in the run-off so finished the Area in 3rd place overall, and once again were on our way to the Zone finals.
Practices continued twice weekly during the build up to the Zones, the winner of which goes to HOYS. The 2nd to 9th placed teams go to the Championships for a second chance to try and get to HOYS by taking part in the Runners-Up competitions and then 10th to 13th placed teams go to the Championships to take part in the Intermediate competition.
Our Zone competition was at Onley Ground Equestrian Complex, Rugby, Warwickshire, on Sunday 3rd July, so we all travelled up on Saturday, set up camp and corals and then had a very nice pizza supper with a few drinks before retiring to our very various ‘bedrooms’! Kate came up and joined us early Sunday morning, got the team up and ready to go to tack check. There were 18 teams in this competition, which meant 3 heats of 6 with just the first 2 in each heat going through to the final. There are 10 games in the Zones, of which only 3 were the same as the Area. After a slow start, we managed to make 4 out of the 10 finals and finished the competition in 10th place overall. This now means that we no longer have a chance of getting to HOYS this year, but will still be going to the Championships to compete in the Intermediate competition in August, so practices will continue weekly.
We have had a most enjoyable season this year and the team have once again done our Branch proud. Unfortunately the Championships will be the last Pony Club Mounted Games competition for both Ace and Sienna, who will be too old to compete next year. Sienna will carry on doing MGA, which is Mounted Games for any age, (yes, even I could take part!!) and Ace has said he would like to give it a go, so I wish them good luck and thank them both, and their families, for all their support and commitment over the years to the Mounted Games squad.
If you have managed to actually get to the end of this report, I can only apologise for the length of it. We have done quite a lot, but however much I write it doesn’t really give you an idea of what MG is really like. You actually need to see, or take part in, a competition to find out how exciting it is and how much fun it can be. It is a real team sport, where you have to work together as part of a team to do well.
We will be holding a rally in the holidays, which will be suitable for all abilities, from lead-rein up, so please do contact me if you are at all interested in giving it a go, we really would love to see some more new faces. I have mentioned names of those taking part this year – have a chat with any of them about it, if you see them at camp, they will all tell you how much fun it is. Don’t just take my word for it.