Bermuda Tops FEI World Jumping Challenge

The FEI World Jumping Challenge 2014 Bermuda competition was held last weekend at the National Equestrian Centre, with Bermuda coming out on top in our zone – which includes Barbados, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cayman, and Jamaica.

The official results were published today [Jan 14] and in Category A in which the heights are 1m20 [approximately 4 feet] Kirista Rabain riding Helsinki van de Heffnick finished the competition with four clear rounds in a time of 99.56 seconds.

In second place was Giorgia Ieromazzo from Dominican Republic also with four clears but a slower time of 102.19 seconds, and in third place was Philip Correia from Bermuda on Emerson with four faults and a fast time of 88.99 seconds.

The competition was originally scheduled to be held in November but due to damage caused by the two hurricanes in October permission was obtained from the FEI to delay it being held until early January.

Photo courtesy of Andy Gibbs

The FEI World Jumping Challenge has been held for a number of years and gives the smaller Federations the opportunity to compete internationally against other countries on their own horses without the requirement to travel overseas to do so.

The FEI supplies the courses which must be built exactly to strict dimensions and with the same material, and for category A it is necessary to have a Foreign judge approved by the FEI, as well as a local FEI judge.

There are ten zones world wide and the top two riders in each zone are traditionally invited to a final hosted by a national federation which supplies suitable borrowed horses for all of the riders. It is anticipated that the final for the 2014 competition will be held in Bulgaria in July but this is subject to confirmation.

Ms.Rabain is a keen equestrien competing in harness pony racing events as well as riding Helsinki, which is owned by Bevis Tetlow, out of Hinson Hall Stables. She attends Bermuda College as well as working at Butterfield Bank.

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