Last week we had an exciting time indeed!! It was the annual Dressage Competition at the Premadasa Riding School, and saw a lot of new faces in the mix.

On 17th August 2013, we had a lot of plucky youngsters and a few adventurous adults stepping in for their very first equestrian competition with a few old faces thrown into the mix!! The photo album is available in the Gallery (of this same esteemed website!), but just a little glimpse for all those that missed out!

Dressage as a riding event is very new to Sri Lanka. Most Sri Lankans think that horses can only race, and horse riding is actually horse racing. Gallop and kick and whip away! Sorry for the generalization, but sadly that is the public opinion!! Most people still refer to horse riders as “jockeys”!

Getting back to the subject at hand, Dressage is actually a pretty famous sport! It is internationally recognized and gorgeous to watch in the highest form! It is the ability of the rider to give subtle signals to the horse to move with agility and grace and perform complex maneuvers! Sometimes it is like watching the horse dance!

Dressage in Sri Lanka is actually in its baby steps, but we are getting there! The best thing is, knowing a little bit of dressage actually helps horses to be better at any horsey sport!! May it be horse racing, show jumping (you got to know what this is – horses jumping over nice little obstacles!), endurance racing (no guess what this is 80km, 100km etc) and ofcourse vaulting (gymnastics on horseback!)

We had 04 categories – Group A (kids on horses), Group B (kids on horses), Group B adults (adults on horses) and Group C (savvy kids on horses doing a tougher test!)

The entire event was a borrowed horse event, where all riders rode horses that were not theirs, and most kids rode horses that they had never seen before!!

It was our pleasure to have the participation of St Thomas’ Gurutalawe and Victoria Saddle Club at the event! It is so nice to see more youngsters involved in horses!

The Winners List is as follows: