The Children Show Jumping Competition for the Prize of the Spasskaya Tower Festival was held August 26 on the horse riding arena on Red Square. The competition was organized by the Spasskaya Tower Festival Directorate, Department of Tourism and Sports of the Moscow Government and the Kremlin Equestrian School.
Cavaliers competed in two age categories. The first category included girls under 14 who performed on horses with shoulder not more than 150 cm. Their first challenge was the parallel show jumping. Eight girls competed in pairs and had to overcome eight obstacles. Time and precision were counted for the evaluation. The winner in this category has become Maria Maslennikova with her Welsh pony nicknamed Santana-10. She’s been doing horse riding at the pony club of the Moscow Zoo since 5 years old and already got the first youth category.
“It’s not my first victory. I have already taken part in various competitions and even lost count of them. I have a lot of prizes and victories. The most important to me are this one and the first place at the last year’s Crystal Pony competitions in Livadia. HaveIhadinjuries? Yes, IhaveandIevenbrokeafinger”, shetold.
The second category was the game called “take the stable” where five girls who didn’t win prizes in the first category competed. The aim of the game is simple: who will be the first to occupy an empty stable as the number of them is less than the number of cavaliers. The game continues till the winner is defined.
The winner in this category has become Maria Sakharova with her Welsh pony nicknamed Stogjehovse Evanit-10. Maria is 12 and she’s been doing horse riding since 9 years old in the Unost Moskvi school of Olympics reserve. In 2016 she won the third place in show jumping at the Russian Championship.
Winners were awarded cups, medals and valuable gifts. The winner of the “take the stable” game was as usual awarded a teddy bear. The award ceremony featured participation of Mr. Sergey Smirnov, Head of the Directorate of the Spasskaya Tower Festival, Mr. Boris Petrov, Director General of the Kremlin Equestrian School, Mr. Vladimir Belikov, chief judge of the competition, and Mr. Vladimir Beletskiy, Master of Sports of the International Class and Director General of the Unost Moskvi school of Olympics reserve.
The second block of the day saw competition among juniors in the category between 16 and 18 years of age. Six girls and one guy competed in the classic show jumping which constitutes part of the Olympics program. They had to overcome eight obstacles. The each successful try values points. Time is also considered.
The winner in this category has become Alexandra Nabatnikova with her horse Kama-04 of the Holsteiner breed of Kalato. She competed in a red jacket that means that she has already represented Russia at the international competitions.
Alexandra told that she had been doing horse riding for five years and represents her father’s horse club and had already become the candidate for the Master if Sports. She has several times taken first places at the Russian Championship and this year she has run second in the group B. She also has experience of international competitions. Alexandra wants to become the professional athlete and is ready to work hard.
The second type of the junior competition was the horse biathlon being the combination of show jumping and rifle precise shooting. Every mistakes counts for penalty seconds and then the overall time considering all the penalties defines the winner.
Andrey Gorchakovskiy has become the winner in this category with his horse Korvara-10. On the contrary Alexandra Nabatnikova was not so successful and run fourth.
Winners among the junior athletes were also awarded cups, medals and valuable prizes.
