Horse Rangers

Hello, gymkhana was brill again this year with only 2 people being rushed off in the ambulance to hospital!!! Pipin being one of the key players in the 'lets get our riders on the floor game' as usual!Was a brilliant gymkhana although I'm not sure was too impressed with the turnout judging or maybe thats just because I'm bitter about getting 4th, didn't think we were gonna win but thought the people who got 3rd were going to!Inter-Squadron made me v angry 2! Being a faithful no 2 squad member I feel v cheated! The first thing to get right up my back was the fact that the horses weight limits are very strict. Well obv not for no1, This message is just to remind them that redwood has an 8 stone weight limit and the girl on top was OBVIUSLY not 8 stone or below!I'm not really complaining about the horses we got for show jumping because in the real world they might be good, and billy usually is! But not on sat! Both marmalade and billy had good confident riders on and yet they both acted like stupid animals, most of the time refusing to jump!Then number 3 had mistral for jumping, he's my babe and he could do a clear round with his eyes closed (unfortunately for us and good for no 3!) except the girl on top felt the need to circle him infront of the jumps a few times before actually jumping them, good job it wasn't timed trials!Then came the race... I think the lowest point of my gymkhana weekend made me sooooooooo ANGRY! No 2 were supposed to have Flynn, Rufus and Edward. Rizzy being the only horse I was confident that could push us to win, but then oh no! No 1's horse Sampson had gone lame, what would they do? They no longer had (what they described as) a fast horse! Oh well there was plenty of big horses (which was actually what they meant - not fast!) that weren't competeing in the competition which they could have had. But guess what none of the horses left were very good... so what happened? They took rufus from number 2 and replaced him with?... Danny a huge plodder!!!! So ok, they must have had really bad horses if they needed to STEAL Rufus to get a fighting chance of winning? Well tha left number 2 with Flynn as the Big persons horse, Danny as the medium horse and Edward as our small persons horse. The start of the race arrives and every member of No 2 is gobsmacked when they see number 1 with Rizzy, Redwood and Breeze, probably the best combination of horses you could get for intersquadron!As I said to my girls if it went on riders ability we probably would have won but unfortunately it is left to the talents of the horses!!!!Any way I'm not bitter that the whole thing was won by no1 and that we came 3rd, not bitter... Just very angry!Any way the rest of the weekend was brilliant!!! Can't wait until next years gymkhana although have only just recovered from the long best turnout days and don't think I could face seeing the world at 5 am again in a little while!!!I was very pleased that I't was confirmed to me that mistral is the best horse in the world when he got 1st in his class of Best Condition and Turnout. Girls from my Squadron got 1st on Cameo for best Condition and Turnout, and the girls in my turnout class got 1st in Fancy dress with Scooby Doo on Manton.Thoroughly enjoyed spending the whole weekend with Manton as he was as good as gold although got a bit restless at the end of the day on sunday!All in all was Brilliant weekend!

Thanks for this Kirsty. It was really nice to get the details of the Gymkhana since I now live in Dorset and was unable to make it.I will definitely make the effort to go next year, and I will probably make a visit to HQ at some point as I would love to see it all again. Especially after reading that some of the old horses like Manton, Rizzy, Redwood Princess and Pippin are still around.Pippin and Princess were both there when I first joined over 20 years ago! Pippin performed in the Musical Ride at the Royal Tournament and was the star of the show - doing his own rearing display throughout it. Jill who married David Dourbony (number 2 squadron Officer while I was there) was riding him.The gymkhana always ends up with tales of injustices. I can remember riding Pippin in the Egg & Spoon. I galloped him down without stirrups for a quick dismount (taking my life into my hands), got to the spoon way before anyone else to find that there was no egg! One of the judges came running on and gave me an egg by which time everyone else was on thir way back. I'm not bitter or anything, its just etched on my memory over 10 years later! They were always a good laugh though, and eventful.

Hey, just to say thanks for the reply, you should come down to HQ, I've been there 9 years now and not many horses have changed! Don't know if u remember duchess but she sadly died last year at rangers, cried my eyes out, I think raucheen may have been here when you were she is leaving at the end of the month to go to speen farm After 9 years it is hard to say good bye to them! David Daubeny is still there although left number 2 a few years ago, think he might be with number 3 squad now!His daughter is a ranger now!

hi i came to watch the gymkana this year and found it g8t fun oh damn there reli shud be an ex rangers race lol i was feeling pretty useless standing there while every1 was running around doing stuff but i still enjoyed being there soaking up the competitive atmosphere. all the riding was good and some very comical especially th falling off and funny mounting behind the saddle etc. the only bit that was painful to watch was the show jumping it was apauling the only resonable round was mistrals but i felt so sorry for the horses mouths it may have looked reasonable some of them but if u looked closely u would have been cringing at the fact that every jump the ponies did they werre yanked reli hard in the gob then kicked in the sides and they didnt realise that a horse has to have its head to jump and tha they cant jump with there heads in the air!1 other ethan that it was g8t and the jumpin wud be great ifonly the riders got the opertunity to jump a bit more! breezy looked cute but how can no1 want to do her she almost always wins!! jess is one of my reli gd friends her mum and dad r jill and dave daubney she lives with her dad now and in my opinion isone of the best riders in rangers seriously she can jump better than all the ones that did jumping at the gymkana she jumped paddy (my pony) bout 3ft xc she dnt get to do much like jumpin or nething as it looks like favouritism but if her and tree had done it 3 squad wud have thrashed the otheredid ne of u love chloe!!!!!!!!!!!????????/ she is da best most amazing pony in da world other than paddy but she was let down !! woo paddyd is da best!woooo

Yay gymkhana was wkd this year but kirsty HOW CAN U COMPLAIN ABT MARMALADE i wasnt there on sat but i kno he is a gr8 jumper (he used 2 do show jumpin b4 he came 2 rangers) and is gr8 if u r confident on him...the judges were way biased in turnout this year no3 didnt get ne 1st's or 2nds!!!! and manton looked gr8. but i have 2 say nat n co's scooby doo fancy dress was gr8 but we will win fancy dress next year >:D muahahahahaha

Hiya Kirsty,Why didn't you tell us bout the site earlier?I can't help it that the judge fell in love with my pony and we won best condition with Pippin.Can't believe I managed to stay on this year, I did have a couple of safe horses though.I hope Jo is feelin a bit better, after having her leg pinned back together.Pip is just gettin too old for jumping, he was fine for me in the bending.Even though we didn't win he was a good boy, just the old age slowing him down.

just to say chloe rules!!!!!!!!!!!!1

marms is being marms lol i missed it this year i usto go but i had to quit coz i did my ancle in reali miss it tho