Teenager Amber Thomson continued to represent T&T with success, with her latest achievement recorded at the Winter Equestrian Festival held at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida, last month, where she was awarded several prestigious ribbons.
Mounted on 16-year-old Argentine thoroughbred, Vertigo, who is the same age as her, Thomson collected ribbons in almost every appearance at the arena, where they jumped the course with obstacles up to 1.2m high.
Thompson and Vertigo secured an eighth place finish in the opening speed class, but followed up well with a fourth place finish in the Classic Show jumping class, the next day when they jumped two clear rounds, but were beaten by time in the jump off.
In the “Clear Round gets a Ribbon” leg of the competition, held several days later, Thompson rode two clear rounds, following which she was awarded the celebrated ribbons.
On the following Saturday, in another Classic Show jumping class, Thompson and Vertigo conceded four faults in the jump off, but cleared the first the first round.
The, in the Children’s Modified jumper class, both rider and horse performed two outstanding clear rounds. The time in the jump off was 38.307 seconds, placing the pair third in a class of 40 entrants. The winner's clocked 37.674 seconds.
In the final week of the Winter Equestrian Festival, Thompson claimed another ribbon for riding a clear round. She and Vertigo went further to place second in yet another Classic Show jumping class with clear rounds in the first and jump off rounds and in a very good time on this occasion.
They were beaten by half a second by one of the last riders. On the last day of the competition, on March 29, the twosome placed fifth in the final Classic Show jumping class.
Once again the first round was a clear, but Thompson had a rail down in the jump off which unfortunately amounted to four faults.
Canadian equestrian and eight-time Olympiad, Ian Millar, congratulated Thompson on being awarded ribbons almost each time in the Classic Show jumping class.
Thompson has temporarily returned to T&T. She and 14-year-old Jordanne Brown will represent this country at the Caribbean Equestrian Association’s (CEA) Junior Jumping competition to be held in the Cayman Islands on both days next weekend.
Earlier in February, whereby part of the competition was held in Barbados, T&T placed first, represented by Hadley Rahael and Jordanne Brown. After competing in the Cayman Islands, Thompson will return to the Millar Brooke Farm in Canada where she will continue to ride and compete.