The South African showjumping industry is bustling with activity in all avenues with the top riders constantly improving their strings, the competition venues continually improving their facilities, and equestrian orientated companies ensuring that they remain up to date with the best equipment available. Our local industry is as well-rounded as you would find in Europe.
With the focus of attention primarily orientated around Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the development and growth of other provinces have previously been overlooked, however, with numerous dedicated individuals determined to grow the ‘smaller’ equestrian hotspots, astounding venues have emerged including Stokkiesdraai Equestrian Centre and Heartland Equestrian Centre in Brits, and Sunera and Mistico Equestrian Centre in the Western Cape.
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Rumours surrounding the facilities at Mistico Equestrian Centre have often been whispered around Gauteng and while it had not been a venue in the limelight, the relocation of the Lipizzaners to Mistico suddenly brought it to light for a lot of non-Western Cape athletes. The venue has gained momentum over the recent years as an international standard competition venue that boasts 240 stables available for travelling competitors, 2 Indoor Fibre arenas, 2 grass arenas, and 11 outdoor arenas. With ample parking space available and great facilities on offer, the team at Mistico firmly believe that they have every capability of hosting a successful 2021 South African Youth Championships.
With a successful track record behind their national competitions, the venue hosted their first CN status show in 2019 where the Grand Prix competition was built at a height of 1.30m for a total prize purse of R 23,000 for the winner and runner-up. The success of this first event filled the organisers with great pride which lead to their decision to host the event for the 2nd time in 2020. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, entries for the event were larger than that of the year before. The continued growth in support for Mistico motivated the team to expand their horizons by opening their doors to the northern provinces.
As Gauteng is home to the majority of South Africa’s 1.50m athletes, the idea from the Mistico team is to entice the athletes to its home base by offering international standard facilities, a 1.45m/1.50m Grand Prix competition, and place the proverbial cherry on top by offering lucrative prize money.
As a province renowned for its statistically high production of top-level athletes, the Western Cape has never been short of competitive talent. But, with many riders relocating to Gauteng due to the number of available shows, the province has suffered a shortfall in the diversity of riders. This dilemma has sparked a fire in the hearts of Mistico as they do their best to entice the 1.40m/1.50m riders back. Uttering a similar sentiment, the 2020 Grand Prix Winner, Anuchka Anderson, said “This state of the art facility need[s] state of the art riders”.
Their 2021 Grand Prix event is due to be hosted on the 26th and 27th of June and with DL Sure coming on board as their headline sponsor, the Mistico team are once again hoping to offer fantastic prize money and an all-round top quality environment in preparation for their procurement of the 2021 South African Youth Championships.
-The JumpOff-
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