WORKING EQUITATION UK

An Account of the First Year of this New Discipline

The year began with the Working Equitation UK Launch Day held at Towerlands EC, Essex on 3^rd February; this day was sponsored by Balanced Horse Feeds and attended by 25 guinea-pig riders and over 300 spectators. João Pedro Rodrigues, a senior rider from the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art and a judge of working equitation in Portugal, kindly oversaw the proceedings of the day and was impressed with the level of interest shown in the new sport. The Intermediate level competition was won by Sue Barber from Pine Lodge School of Classical Equitation on the bay Lusitano Infinito, followed in second place by Peter Maddison Greenwell on his grey Spanish stallion Farol.  The Novice level competition was won by Lorenzo ridden by James Stiff. The Launch Day brought to light several aspects of the discipline - the complexity of the obstacle course, and in particular the high level of equitation demanded from the rider and considerable submission necessary from the horse.

Two months later Working Equitation UK appeared at Equus 2001, the new equine event held at ExCel, London Docklands. We staged daily demonstrations of working equitation in the main arena at this 4 day event – over 18,000 spectators attended. Portuguese Working Equitation National Champion Jorge Sousa came over to ride in these demonstrations – he rode Caju and Jardineiro, the two Sussex Lusitano stallions. Jorge was accompanied in the ring by Claire Lewis on Bally James Duff II, who demonstrated the Novice level of working equitation, and dressage trainer John Lassetter who took on the role of commentator. The public were particularly thrilled at Jorge and Caju’s finale to the demos – a memorable round of the obstacle course against the clock ….and did they move!

From Equus 2001, the organisers of Working Equitation turned their attention to the series of Working Equitation Competitions held at Pachesham EC, Leatherhead, Surrey. These provided riders and all involved in the organisation to understand more fully the demands of the competition. Riders for these competitions came from afar – Devon, Worcs, Northampton, Kent, Oxon – and a large variety of horses came along too including Thoroughbreds, Irish X, Cobs, Warmbloods, and significant numbers of Lusitanos and Spanish horses. A small group of serious enthusiasts emerged from these competitions – at Novice level, Katherine Protheroe on her Hipano Arab, Canastero and Bridgit Parry-James on her TB King Rollo, and at Intermediate level, Diane Thurman Baker on her Luistano x Connemara, Lucca, Rebecca Young on the Spanish stallion, Don Diego, Susan Cox on her Lusitano, Golfinho, Janet Hakeney on her Lusitano, Negativ, Jacqui Grossart on her Arabian gelding, Bubu and Leila Rahmatallah on the Lusitano stallion, Caju. Our thanks to the proprietors of Pachesham EC for the use of their premises, and to the band of spectators who supported the competition days.

The months of July and August saw Working Equitation UK classes at the Lusitano Breed Show (classes kindly sponsored by Mrs Liz McCurley) and the Spanish Breed Show, at Hartbury. These classes once again brought out the riders mentioned above – the class at the Lusitano Show was particularly successful with a good standard of riding which caught the imagination of the spectators – “it’s quite different from Towerlands” was one comment…..yes, Working Equitation had come a long way since February.

There were a handful of other public appearances of Working Equitation this summer – one on July 28^th at Equine Salute, the equestrian extravaganza at Cowdray Park where working equitation formed part of the Lusitano display. Rather daunting this one – in the audience, as spectators, were Portuguese rider Bento Castelhano, twice European Working Equitation Champion and the President of the APSL, Dr Pedro Ferraz de Costa! The riders rode the obstacles well – once again ably assisted by the Working Equitation ‘ground crew’. The obstacles came out again at Cranleigh Show on August 5th – in 2 main ring displays organised by Sussex Lusitanos. Another major event was for Working Equitation was HORSE 2001, the roadshow organised by HORSE magazine which took place at Solihull RC on August 11th. Working Equitation occupied one of the arenas all day long with demonstrations and a competition between Solihull RC and a team from Worcestershire brought together by working equitation enthusiast Janet Hakeney. Cancelled from April due to foot-and-mouth, this event made us pull out the stops in every department and we were ready – many thanks to the demo riders, Diane Thurman Baker, Becky Young, Jacqui Grossart and Leila Rahmatallah, who were now starting to make working equitation look quite easy! Our ring ran smoothly all day long – HORSE magazine’s editor, Jaki Bell, appreciated this and invited us to make the presentation of rosettes in the main indoor arena in front of the largest crowd of the day. This was a fitting reward to a good day’s work.       

So that was Working Equitation in the UK this summer – thanks are due to many individuals: Karen Cornelius and Char Lassetter for undertaking the judging at events, stewards Melanie and Richard James, and ground crew comprising of members (all ages!) of the Rahmatallah and Chadwick families. Support from Balanced Horse Feeds helped the launch of the discipline at the beginning of the year, and the end of the season saw sponsorship from Hurstwood Horizons.com  in the form of a customised mini marquee which will operate as control centre at future events. Additional offers of support for Working Equitation have been received – all of which bodes well for the coming year.

Representatives from Working Equitation UK went out to southern Spain in mid September to see the European Working Equitation Championships which were held in the small Spanish village of Paterna la Riviera. As in previous years, four countries competed – Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. Congratulations to the Portuguese team who were once again victorious (Pedro Torres/Oxidado, Paolo Santos/Importante, Ricardo Tavares/Navalha and João Lynce/Nabão) with the Spanish team taking second place. The individual European Champion title was won by Spanish rider, Alfonso Martin, with Portuguese rider Ricardo Tavares on the Lusitano mare, Navalha, taking the Vice Champion position for the second year running. The championships are held in a different country each year – next year they will be held in Portugal. Brazil will send a team to next year’s championships, and, if all goes well with winter training, the we too shall be sending riders from the UK. 

*A series of Working Equitation Training Days will be held throughout the winter – venues will include Belmoredean, West Grinstead, West Sussex, Turville Valley Stud in Oxon and South Hill House, Stow on the Wold, Glos. For dates and details of Training Days contact Sherene Rahmatallah on 01403 753445.