The Sunday News
Mandla Moyo, Sports Reporter
PREPARATIONS for the 65th edition of The Horse of the Year Show pencilled in for 10 to 13 August at Zimbabwe International Trade Fair are underway.
The local Equestrian Federation in Matabeleland are leaving no stone unturned as they prepare for the ultimate show jumping contest of the years in this part of the country.
To make sure that course is set for a fantastic sporting day they have brought in an international Colin Ferreira, a track builder with vast knowledge in designing courses so that riders can to prove their horsemanship.
According to the Matabeleland Equestrian Federation vice-chairperson Arlene Freeland the first step was to ensure that the top dressing on the arena is up to standard for the horses.
“Our committee of managers from the Zimbabwean Equestrian Federation who are members of the Matabeleland branch made of up of ten members have been working very hard to get the preparations underway.
“We have to make sure that the arena is suitable for all the visiting horses, so our grounds keeper did top dressing a few weeks ago, thereafter regularly spikes up the arena so that it gets lot of water to ensure that the surface is ideal for horses and that it looks nice,” said Freeland.
Participants who are drawn from around the country are expected to lock horns in three categories namely the dressage which is the highest expression of horse training where a horse as well as its rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements.
The rider plus the horse that perform the task with a lot of precision accumulates the highest number of points taking into consideration a lot of factors like the pace of the horse as well as his sitting position among other skills.
After this stage competitors will go for show jumping which is a knock-out event to be won by the team that jumps the highest pole wins starting from 70cm as well as general smartness of the horses.
Participants that will take part are girls, boys, women as well as men from seven years upwards as well as members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
The winners from the different age groups will be awarded part of efforts to motivate the daring riders.
@mandlamoyo3
