vaulting4africa

Stay Signed In
Do you want to access your site more quickly on this computer? Check this box, and your username and password will be remembered for two weeks. Click logout to turn this off.

Stay Safe
Do not check this box if you are using a public computer. You don't want anyone seeing your personal info or messing with your site.

Ok, I got it

Karen McGowan was born in Malawi and has always lived on a farm and always had horses. Malawi has about 285 horses in the whole country at the moment, which is probably the most it has ever had but vaulting has never been a sport taught here. Karen & her sister Tamsin have been running a pony club with 36+ children using ponies that came from Zimbabwe, most of them rescues. When on holiday in 2005 for some bizzaar reason I had a dream that I taught vaulting. I knew nothing about it, although when working in a stables in Germany about 20 years ago, I had watched a group of youngsters training on one of our Haflingers sometimes, and wished that I had been gymnastically inclined and were able to join in the fun.

Malawian vaulters - Chanda, Zandria, Acacia, Kate during first vaulting seminar with South African coach - Agata
Lunger & instructor - Karen McGowan
Horse - Gonger

Our daughter Kate is crazy about dance and gymnastics and there is no opportunity for her to have lessons here in Zomba, on a regular basis. She has her own pony and started doing exercises and kneeling etc on Maimie when we went for rides. Then I thought, well, if I actually did teach vaulting then she could do her dance and gymnastics on her pony in a more controlled environment!

I looked it up about vaulting on the websites and found a lady in the UK called Jenny Leggat with whom I got in contact with and managed to order the DVD “Vaulting My Sport”. From watching that we began using Kate's pony Maimie and we had so much fun even though Maimie was so small. Then through the web I found Barbie Gertenbach in South Africa. She was so enthusiastic and encouraging that I began to get more confident in my ability to teach the sport. We visited Riba stables and watched Agata Pekala doing a training session and Kate joined in some drum work. Kate was so keen that I realised I had to take this further. Barbie has always been very encouraging and when I have doubted myself she has given me the confidence to keep at it.

Then we went to Canada in August 2006, & I looked up Vaulting in and around Vancouver and found Susan Barron at Sky Vaulters. She was so enthusiastic and friendly and invited us to visit, so we took Kate there for a couple of sessions at her club and were able to buy a proper roller. My husband Ewen has always been incredibly supportive and from then on there was no stopping us. Susan was also amazing and one of her kids Tauren, gave us the book that the Canadians use, and Susan has always been at the end of the e-mail.

When I came back to Malawi armed with Equestrian Vaulting by Utte Wiemers and a new roller I decided that we needed to go onto a bigger horse. Ginger (14’3”)had always been so reliable in so many ways for me, either jumping, cross country or teaching other horses, although dressage is not her forte!! She has been amazingly patient, learning with myself and the children. In September 2006 I had only 3 kids - Kate, Chanda and Zandria and we had fun, put on a little show for pony club and met most Fridays. Then, Barbie asked me in December if we could put a team together for the Inter Africa Vaulting Show in April 2007! None of us had had any coaching, none of us seen much vaulting at all, and we had never been in a competition before let alone an international one. We didn’t know about grades or compulsories, but Barbie was determined we could do it. She told me to accept the challenge!! So we did.

Acacia came and vaulted with Kate one afternoon and got “the bug”. She worked on the barrel at home regularly and joined “the team” which we call Pegasus Vaulting Club. I then asked Barbie if we could borrow Agata for a week. We fund raised like mad, set a programme to expose as many children as possible and Agata came to Malawi in February 2007. The rain held off for the week of her visit, we learned heaps and put together a workshop with other riders and one for the children on the farm. It was a fun packed week and Agata gave us the confidence that we all needed to follow our dream and continue to enjoy vaulting. Her trip to Malawi will always be a very happy memory for many who met her or had the privilege to learn from her.

Hard work on the barel :/

Kids from the farm in Zomba at their first vaulting lesson!

Now we have a week to go before the Inter Africa Vaulting Show in South Africa and Pegasus Vaulting Club from Malawi we are a proud little team, totally self funded, going to compete in an International competition for the fun and the experiences they will share with other vaulters and no doubt we will come back with a whole lot more knowledge!

Inter Africa Cup - Johannesburg 2007

First day in South Africa

Acacia, Kate, Chanda and Karen

Chanda in her free style

The youngest Malawian vaulter - Kate

Boet in beauty salon

Pegasus team from Malawi

5th place - Pegasus Team from Malawi
Kate McGowan, Chanda Graf, Acacia Paul
Chef D'Equipe - Karen McGowan

Two vaulting clubs in Malawi

Pegasus vaulting Club

Michiru Vaulting Team

Our little team started at the end of April 2007. Acacia Paul (my daughter) was part of the Pegasus team that competed in Johannesburg in April.
We have since started our own team as the other one is based far away from us and we always anticipated doing our own thing.

We are using a 158cm horse called Big John, he has a very laid back nature and is proving to be ideal for vaulting. We had Yenku from Johannesburg here a few weeks ago and did a Clicker course, I have used it with Big John
for vaulting and it is perfect to communicate with him.

The team is made up of Jo Ferguson - 6 years old, Leoni Paul - 8 years old, Acacia Paul - 12 years old and Natasha Norford - 13 years old.

We are hoping to extend the team by two more in the near future and would like to bring a team down to South Africa next year to compete at E Grade.

Piczo