There was great excitement in August when Ariane Groenewalt, a Grade 6 pupil at Laerskool Kleinmond, earned a place in the Western Cape primary schools’ team to compete in the South African Equestrian Schools Association (SANESA) national championships in Johannesburg during the recent September long weekend.
Hundreds of experienced competitors from different provinces were participating in 16 disciplines, so what were her chances?
Ariane had been taking lessons at the Klein Paradys Equestrian Centre in Bot River for less than two years, and Texan, her faithful riding-school horse, was 25 years old and had never participated in an event this big.
With many of the horses competing against them highly bred aristocrats, valued at R1 million or more, Ariane’s participation was, primarily, to gain experience for future competitions.
But Arianne and Texan refused to back down, as the record shows:
Show-jumping: Gold medal
Show-jumping 2nd phase: Gold medal
Dressage Test 1: Silver medal
Equitation: Silver medal
Dressage Test 2: 5th place
Working rider: 10th place (with a percentage of 95%)
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