Gymkhana Day - Great Fun, But A Bit Messy
We started off with the Horse and Hound show jumping class - Rebecca riding Rusty with Jester the clear winners. The Horse and Groom class followed, well contested with 9 entries. There were only 1.68 seconds between the first 3 positions, with Hayley riding Rupert and Gemma the runner narrowly beating Phoebe riding Taffy with some very impressive barefoot running from Robyn - just 0.2 seconds in front of third placed Melissa riding Crumble with Rachel the groom.
The team relay jumping produced some breathtakingly fast riding with Hayley/Rupert and Gemma with Twinkle just 0.3 seconds in front of Rebecca with Rusty and Rachel riding Crumble.
Team relay weaving resulted in Charlotte with Arwen and Phoebe riding Taffy the winners. There was some controversy with the team sack race - trying to work out who should be the winners. Emily riding Rusty ably assisted by sackperson Elizabeth were eventually proclaimed the winners, with a very commendable performance by second placed Louise riding Milly with sackperson Rachel
The 3-legged race was won by Sam riding Onyx and Issy riding Jackson, with some technically impressive movements by Sam and Issy in the final home straight. Nicole riding Conky very skilfully won the obstacle race, with Dannie riding Black Jack in second place.
Issy riding Jackson won Musical Blocks with some impressive tactical blocking manoeuvres keeping opponents out of the way. No doubt Jackson was inspired by the Ska and Blue Beat blasting out. With 13 entries in the Bucket Elimination class, we were down to the last bucket with 6 riders still in with a chance - well done to Phoebe the only successful rider to jump it with Taffy.
The day ended with 9 very brave people entering the Apple Bobbing class. This entailed riding one length of the school, dismounting; then picking an apple out of a tub of water followed by picking a miniature Easter Egg out of a bowl of flour - with no hands. Rachel riding Rupert was the winner: ending up amazingly dry and unscathed - which can't be said for all the rest. We ended up with lots of very wet people. This was followed by some very disgraceful behaviour whereby the tubs of flour ended up over most of the competitors. We really must congratulate Rachel (Rupert), Rachel (Crumble), Nicole, Lucy, Phoebe, Georgia, Louise, Alice (Snowball) and Sam for being great sports.
The day was great fun. Despite the fact that there were lots of very messy, dripping people all over the place, there were calls to have another gymkhana - as soon as possible. Which only goes to show that there are lots of people at Honnington who are completely bonkers!
Pictured above: Prize giving; Rachel C winning the Apple Bobbing class; Issy and Sam after winning the 3-legged race; Rachel T, a gallant second in the Apple Bobbing class.
