Riders Tour pits Philippines equestriennes against Malaysians

MANILA, Philippines — Equestrian Philippines, Inc. stages the inaugural Equestrian Philippines Riders Tour on Sept. 27-29 highlighted by the Nations’ Cup pitting the Philippine and Malaysian teams at the Manila Polo Club on the final day of the three-day event.

Coached by SEA Games medalist and national team veteran Joker Arroyo, the home team will feature Minxie Romualdez, Alex Villalon, Mohamed El Akkad, Nicole Camcam, Lara Zobel and Paola Lorenzo jumping at different levels against Malaysian counterparts.

To rule out any disadvantage, the Philippine riders will not be riding their own horses but will swap for other mounts, and lend their horses to the visiting Malaysian team.

Arroyo sees a lot of promise from the home team.

“This is an exciting team, full of fresh, new talents who I hope we will see on senior Philippine teams in the future,” said Arroyo. “Each of them is hardworking, determined and competitive – constantly in pursuit of improvement and progress.”

According to Arroyo, the competition format is unfamiliar to this team, and “this adds further element of difficulty to the competition.”

“The Riders Tour has been organized by Equestrian Philippines, Inc. to give our developing pool a chance to experience riding as a team against another country, a completely different experience from riding individually in local competitions which most of them are used to,” said Equestrian Phl president Carissa Coscolluela.

The event is held in line with Equestrian Phl’s mission to cultivate a rising crop of internationally competitive riders.

“We need to expose our younger riders to competing as a team for our country,” said Coscolluela, whose group is looking to host one competition a year.

Equestrian Phl Riders Tour is sponsored by Aruga by Rockwell, Metro Society, Ramen Nagi, SSI Group Inc., Metro.Style, Metro Channel. Churrerial La Lola and Wendy’s and sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Red Cross.