Last week(Feb.12-Feb.19) six girls from Alberta travelled to Guatemala to represent Canada at the CSI Guatemala 2017 Show Jumping event, one of the premier show jumping events in Central America. Our Canadian team consisted of 6 girls, Rachel MacKay, 10, Calgary, Charlotte Macmillan Reeve, 10, Calgary, Meghan Kellie Atherton, 17, Wainwright, Karissa Enders, 17, Chestermere, Serenity Enders, 10, Chestermere and Kristin Gretener, 13 of Chestermere and their coach Tannis Rae Skinner-Guillen. Chestermere was well represented and proud to be a part.
All the girls rode horses that were drawn Monday evening. Of the horses drawn Kristin’s got the most attention due to his name “Hamburger”. Everyone got a laugh out of that.
On Tuesday the girls travelled to 3 different farms close to Guatemala City where the 3 younger girls got to meet and ride their horses. At the end of the day the three older girls made it to the show grounds where they met their new mounts and had a test ride. This ride was limited to about 20 minutes and only 7 jumps, that was all the prep allowed before competition started on Wednesday. Prior to their actual competition they were allowed another short warm up of about 20 minutes. This in itself speaks of the skills these girls possess as a number of those they were competing against were riding their own horses that they had trained on for months or years.
Competition started on Wednesday and continued through to Saturday. The Canadian Team put on a great show with a number of podium finishes and good rides throughout. At the end of it all Team Canada claimed Second next only to the host team, Guatemala.
As for Hamburger, he turned out to be a pretty solid horse, putting Kristin on the podium and making sure she placed in all her rounds.
In addition to the competition the girls got to experience the Guatemalen culture with a little bit of sightseeing and exploring between competitions. Meeting riders from other countries and making new friends had to be one of the highlights of the trip. On Saturday evening during the farewell banquet the girls were presented with their trophy for their second place finish. Not only did these girls represent Canada well on the podium they also were wonderful ambassadors portraying their country.
Many thanks to the coach Tannis Rae Skinner-Guillen for her organization and coaching throughout this adventure.
