Five girls are keeping both horses and rider under control in the collecting ring

With a few hundered riders and horses, that are participating in this years Icehorse Festival, the time scedule is tight and it is really important to stick to it.

That’s why there are five girls during this festival, who have a really important job: They are responsible to get all the riders into the “collecting ring” in time – this is the place between warmup area and oval track, where the riders should be waiting ready to enter the track – in time.

You find the team at the side of the warmup area, where they are watching out, which horses and riders are riding there and who gets called in by the speaker.

“I am really busy. Especially in the B classes, where the riders also have to put the different colours on, we have a lot to do. But I try to give them the colours as soon as possible, so they don’t get stressed out right before they have to enter the track.” Lena Fejborg tells, she is the teamleader for the collecting ring-team, and adds, that she nonetheless actually has a little bit of time to see what happens on the track, when there is only one rider on the track.

Lena will not be less busy the next days during the finals, where there will be even more riders, who need to be controlled at the same time. But that’s not something she gets stressed about.

“I have to work the whole Sunday, but that’s totally fine.” she says with a smile.

In case the rider does not come to the collecting ring in time, it is the speaker’s responsibility to call them in. And as a last consequence in case you are late, you can actually get disqualified. Luckily this had not been neccessary the last days, since the riders have all been ready in time, so they could ride onto the track, when the previous riders left it.

“But we did have some, where it was reeeally close.” Lena tells and explains that it is really important for the rules in the collecting ring to be kept to, so everything is under control.

For example is it according to the FEIF rules not allowed, to have other riders in the collecting ring than those whose turn it is. And if it is your turn, you should arrive three minutes before you have o ride on the track.

Lena only knew one of the girls in her team in advance, but she says she is really happy to have them. They are volunteers and work really hard to give the riders a good experience.

“We also have someone sitting at the track, to inform us, what is happening there and how far they are. This is really good, because it helps us to optimize the timing of when to send the next riders in.”