Gemma's tour diary

ON July 6, mum and I began our trip with a early morning travelling to the Brisbane airport where we departed at 7am on a plane to Sydney.

After a long trip we arrived at Mauritius at 11pm where the Mauritians were waiting to take us back to our hotel.

On the first day of our trip Wednesday (July 7) we started the day off with a snorkelling trip out to a small island off the shore of the east coast.

But after two days of being a tourist it was time to get into the riding on Friday, July 9 with the trail and draw of the horses.

I drew a 9 year old gelding called Counterlight who belongs to one of the local riders.

Competition time started on Saturday with a individual junior event.

After our competition we had the rest of the afternoon to relax.

We had both a individual competition and a teams competition on Sunday with the individual competition first.

My horse went well in the individual event but unfortunately had a rail which put me out of the placing.

As Sunday was our last day in Mauritius we were determined to leave our mark in the team's competition.

There were six teams in the junior competition: Mauritian, French, South African, and also Friendship teams were made which was a combination of two countries competing together.

In the first round Tory was the first rider for Australia and finished the round with one rail down equalling four faults.

I was next and had a clear round making us equal with three other teams these being a Mauritian team, South African team, and a Friendship team.

In round two, both Tory and I had a rail making the Friendship team the clear winners and Australia and South Africa tying on faults for the silver and bronze medal.

Mauritius was a amazing trip with a high standard of sportsmanship shown by all and was a great opportunity to represent my country in showjumping.