Carla Echavarria, Grade 9, and Mariana Torres, Grade 8, represented Colombia in the FEI Jumping Children’s Classic, an international showjumping event, in Guadalajara, Mexico February 15-20.  

Torres finished in 9th place in the Final event and 9th place overall. Echavarria finished 4th in the Farewell event and 20th place overall. The competition had 30 athletes, 16 international riders and 14 Mexican riders. The riders were from all around the world from places such as South Africa, Ecuador, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Russa, Guatemala, Argentina, Iran, Mexico and Colombia. 

“Representing Colombia and competing against athletes from all over the world, was an amazing experience. I got to meet new people who even though we don’t all speak the same languages, we became friends and made new experiences,” Torres said. 

Torres rode Habibi De La Reine, a horse owned by one of the Mexican riders. Torres ended 8th in the first qualifier with 0 faults, 25th in the second qualifier with 8 faults. She earned 29 points total for both rounds, qualifying to the final in the 16th place. 

“I felt that I did pretty well. I got an amazing horse called Habibi De La Reine, who helped me through the competition as we ended 9th place overall which were some amazing results,” Torres said.

Echavarria rode Flying High, a horse also owned by one of the Mexican riders. Echavarria ended 25th in the first qualifier with 8 faults and 21rst in the second qualifier with 4 faults. She earned 16 points total there for not qualifying to the final and competing in the farewell final. 

“I didn’t have the results I expected but there was a lot of competition and pressure. The fact that I represented Colombia in the World Final was a great satisfaction and the biggest goal I had for my sport,” Echavarria said.

In this competition the international riders do not ride their own horses so there are an equal number of local riders to international riders. The local riders in this competition were Mexican and had to take two horses which one for them and the other for an international contestant.  

“Once I saw the horse, I felt like I had got a good horse. It was a mare, who was owned by one of the mexican riders and was called flying high, she looked very good. She had a very good body type, she was very strong, as well as she looked young and healthy,” Echavarria said.

Echavarria and Torres qualified after finishing first and second place in the FEI Gold tour hosted in el Club Campestre Llanogrande. Their times were compared with the other riders around the world, classifying in first and second place world wide. 

“We qualified after competing in Medellin and finishing first and second locally. We knew we had a chance to qualify but we had some low expectations and never imagined that we would both qualify as first and second best in the world,” Torres said.

The competition also had random teams picked in which Echavarria and Torres both ended on team 4 along with other two Mexican riders. The teams scores were based on the members’ results from the first two qualifiers. Their team finished in 5th place. 

“The teams were all formed by two internationals and two Mexicans but I never expected to be lucky enough to be in the same team as Carla. Even though our team didn’t really do that well, we enjoyed the competition and it is not always about winning,” Torres said.

Torres and Echavarria didn’t know these horses. So they had two 30 minute training sessions with a maximum of 6 jumps each, to get to know the horse. They also had a 10 jump course, in which they had 90 seconds to jump these obstacles however they wanted. This was all they had of getting to know the horse, before the actual competition.  

“At the moment the horses were being picked I felt uncertain because I didn’t know that it would be as well as I expected. And I didn’t know if the horse would be a good horse or a bad horse, a horse which had bad things like that he would stop before the jumps or have any health issues. I didn’t know how to feel,” Echavarria said.