From CIEF

Caymanian
equestrians, Kayla Mannisto and Megan Swartz attended the Children of
the Americas Dressage Invitational (CADI) which was held recently at
Faith Hill Farm located just outside of Providence, Rhode Island.
CADI is an annual dressage event for youth aged 12 to 14 from the
Americas. Participants must meet certain qualifications and be
nominated by their national equestrian federation, which in Cayman is
the CIEF – the Cayman Island Equestrian Federation.

In
addition to the two Cayman riders, the other 14 participants at CADI
this year hailed from Bermuda, Barbados, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Haiti and the United States. The four-day event consists
of training exercises, lectures and demonstrations, as well as a
competition on borrowed horses. This year, lecture topics included
Sport Horse Nutrition, Saddle Fitting and Equine Massage.

For
the competition, the children had two days to practice and get to
know the horse to which they were assigned. The remaining two days
were spent competing in two phases: First was the FEI Children's
Preliminary Test A and the second was a Freestyle test designed by
the rider and set to music of their choosing. Mannisto and Swartz
placed 6th
& 8th
respectively.

According
to Mannisto, in addition to getting to know her mount in a short
period of time, creating her own Freestyle test, and then putting it
to music, was one of the most fun, yet challenging parts of the
event. Swartz said the highlight for her was making new friends from
the USA, Central America and the Caribbean.

Many
of the CADI participants went on to compete for Faith Hill Farm at
the 2019 Youth Dressage Festival, a competition open to equestrians
up to the age of 21, that is held at the HITS showground in
Saugerties, NY. Given the enthusiasm generated locally by this
year's CADI experience, the CIEF is committed to sending a full squad
of young Caymanian equestrians to both CADI and the Youth Dressage
Festival in 2020.

The
CIEF is a registered non-profit founded in 1997 to serve as the
national governing body for equestrian sport in the Cayman Islands.
It hosts seven horse shows locally each year and supports Cayman's
elite equestrian athletes who compete at the international level
overseas. The first CIEF horse show of the 2019-20 season is the
National Jumping Series #1 which will take place on October 13th
at 8:00am at the Equestrian Center located on the Linford Pierson
Highway. Spectators are welcome and admission is free.

by
Eve van den Bol