suNsHINE TOUR
It’s All About the Sunshine t
he sunshine tour season is well and truly in full swing, with qualifier shows in 11 counties, competitions every weekend and championship registrations flooding in to sunshine tour HQ on a daily basis. the Championship schedule is now confirmed and entries for the grand Finale of a fun packed season of showing, show jumping and dressage qualifiers will be open soon. Check out www.sunshinetour.co.uk for up-to-date information. this unique championship has been running for four years and continues to go from strength to strength, with ever increasing numbers of unaffiliated competitors and show centres taking part. Localrider has been out and about finding out about the people who take part and we caught up with Carlos Perez from Visualise Photography. Carlos has been involved with the sunshine tour from its inception in 2007 and as official photographer he attends many qualifier shows. aside from equestrian events, Visualise provides a full range of photographic services, including commercial, wedding, portraits for models, children, families and pets, all sorts of events like parties, corporate, hunt balls, dog shows as well as model and make-over portraiture. this year, one lucky sunshine tour winner will have the opportunity of an exclusive photo shoot with Carlos as a fantastic prize.
We caught up with Carlos at the great Bookham spring show, he said: “I’m delighted to offer a really great prize for the Championships. the organisers work hard to provide prizes that ‘real’ riders will appreciate and value so I hope a personal portrait session will go down well! It’s an idea inspired by the type of riders who take part, so I think we’ll have great fun creating a unique prize together.” “I see so many riders, handlers, horses and ponies participating in the sunshine tour shows and notice how many times it really is about the taking part that matters the most. Often competitors who might have missed out on winning a class are still delighted to be awarded their sunshine tour card. those little yellow cards are certainly sought after!” explained Carlos. “I see so many different shapes and sizes of horse and pony qualifying, it’s a great leveller. Many riders have not taken part in a championship of this size before, they’re very proud Carlos Perez to have qualified and very excited of Visualise about coming to the championship!” Photography We think a personal portrait is a truly enviable prize to win, for more details of Visualise’s activities and services check out www.ivisualise.com
Five Minutes with...
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he great Bookham spring show tabled a full array of sunshine tour classes, with qualifiers for every type, size and breed of champion horse and pony. the show proved popular following a grand refurbishment of the ground conditions by the use of a new ground Breaker machine and tonnes and tonnes of top dressing and fertiliser by andy Bridgland of Earthwise. We had a chat with two happy Sunshine Tour qualifiers at the show:
Flora Philips
Nine-year-old Flora has been riding her Welsh pony, ‘Clipgate Little star’ aka twinkle for only one season since having him on loan for last year’s Mid surrey Pony Club camp. “Flora and twinks got on so well that we kept him on, and although this is their last season together (she’s moving onto elder sister Millie’s pony next year) he still has a few tricks left to teach her!” explained Flora’s mum, Janet. at the spring show they were taking part in the show jumping classes with great success, winning both the 50cm and 60cm classes. twinkle is now 23-years-old, but “he’s still full of life and can still put in a huge buck. He’s regularly seen tearing around the field like a four-year-old!” according to Janet. In 2010, Flora took part in the sunshine tour 1’9” show Jumping Championship and beat off very stiff competition to finish in fourth place. When asked what she’s most looking forward to at this year’s Championship, Flora commented “doing better than last year” – go Flora!!!
Zara Lewis
Zara is nine-years-old and lives in Horsham, West sussex and rides shelmeg Biscuit. He’s a chestnut, five-year-old shetland pony and had been owned by the Lewis family for only five days before they came to the great Bookham spring show. Zara’s mum, Jane describes Biscuit as “a typical cheeky shetland, but very loving. He likes tipping over his water bucket and nibbling wellies, especially when you’re still wearing them!” Zara entered four classes at the spring show and Biscuit “performed well and was very well behaved (for a shetland!)” according to Jane. they had a very successful day, winning the Handsomest gelding class (against a great deal of competition) and came second in the huge Judge’s Choice class, so picked up two sunshine tour qualifying places! Jane told us “Zara always enjoys coming to gBEC and has learnt a lot. the judges are so helpful and friendly, she’s really looking forward to the Championships in september.”
78 Localrider august 2011
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