Alana Missen, of Clare, may only be 13-years-old but she recently won the Bendigo Bank Junior Winter Series show jumping competition for riders up to the age of 18.

She started jumping 45cm courses at the Mallala Equestrian Centre only 3 months ago on her new horse Harvey Shackleton, a retired race horse.

Gradually as Alana gained confidence, with Harvey taking her safely over 90 cm, they were ready to enter the Winter Series which was held on July 26 and 27.

It was a three round competition with the first starting at 90cm and raised for each round, as well as the optimum time for completion being shortened.

Alana and Harvey were only one of two combinations to go through with three faultless rounds. The final height was between 105 and 110 cm, the biggest Alana had ever attempted.

Alana’s older sister, Elle, won this event two years ago, in 2006, on Ballantyne Law’ n’ Order, a home bred horse, so it was wonderful to see both sisters winning their first trophy rug of their show jumping careers in the same event.

“A big thank you must go to Bendigo Bank for their wonderful sponsorship, also to the Brice family of Mallala for the use of their world class facilities and to Alistair Mackie, for giving Alana the pleasure of having Harvey,” Alana’s mum Teresa said.