Design a Fence 2020 WINNER

by Lindores Cross Country | Feb 22, 2020 | Award

THE WINNER OF THE

LINDORES EQUESTRIAN

DESIGN A FENCE COMPETITION 2020

Polly Quaile Designed A Whale!

Congratulations to Polly Quaile aged 14 who is the 2020 winner!

The judges at Lindores Equestrian were overwhelmed with all the design entries for this years competition.  We have to congratulate everyone who made the effort to create and send in such impressive designs.  The standard of concepts are getting better and better every year which is making choosing one winner harder and harder for Lindores Equestrian.

Why did the Whale win?

The judges loved Polly’s design for a number of reasons.  The concept with ‘no more plastic’ grafitti’d on a whale is extremely important message to save the beautiful planet we live in. We’ve never seen a jump design like it and we’re 100% behind what it says!  The design has a very safe and forgiving profile for a training facility like Lindores. The design also has three jumping heights that can be wide enough to comply with British Eventing standards. The whale concept very cleverly allows for the 50cm height to be in the middle which we also loved for training.

Who came close second?

Competitions don’t normally tell everyone who came second – but this year we wanted to share a design that gave us the biggest laugh.  We liaised closely with our British Eventing Course Builder on this design but sadly it just didn’t tick as many boxes as The Whale.  So well done to Caroline Wilson and Frances Ferguson with their ‘Brave Pants and Posh Pants’ design.  Inspired by the Equiteam Confidence Camps that are hosted here at Lindores. ‘Brave Pants’ was a strong re-occuring theme that clearly means a lot to many riders. Well done everyone!

Greta Thunberg inspires Polly Quaile

Polly Quaile the winner of this years competition is a member of Strathblane Pony Club and has a 15.1hh Irish Sportshorse called Noah.  Polly learnt to ride in her local riding school from age 4 but she is also a keen sailor. She often sails with her dad on the west coast.  She said she feels strongly about plastic pollution and she see’s plastic on the beaches and it makes her sad.  At the time of this competition Greta Thunberg was sailing across the Atlantic and after a bit of research Polly realised there was no whale cross country jump in existence. Polly said,

‘I want to make a change and just like Greta I want to raise awareness of plastic pollution.  This idea was a nice way to do it’

When Equestrian Manager Anna Black announced to Polly that she was this years winner Anna asked if there was anything the equestrian industry could do to help tackle plastic pollution and she raised a very clear point. Polly said:

I think it’s the small things, the industry could think about recycling feed tubs and doing their bit.

We both hope that this jump at Lindores Equestrian will help raise awareness and generate idea’s on how the equestrian industry could reduce plastic pollution.

What’s Next?

The whale design is incredibly large scale and and it requires a 6metre long tree that is 1 metre wide.  A huge amount of resource and effort was taken to find the perfect tree. The team at Lindores sustainably sourced a tree from the local town, Cupar.  We will be telling the story of the tree and its journey to becoming a whale in future blogs.

The Whale will be carved and painted over the coming weeks by our British Eventing course builder.   We will invite the winner of the competition to open the fence and be the first rider to jump it.  After that, everyone is welcome to jump ‘The Whale’ at Lindores Equestrian training venue in Fife which opens 1st March 2020 and is open 7 days a week during daylight hours.

Until then, stay connected – and think about what you could do to reduce plastic pollution!