What a beautiful setting ...
A great weekend of show jumping, good food, good wine with a bit of rugby coaching thrown in – what was there not to like about ‘Jumping with the Wallabies’, which was recently held at the beautiful Wallaby Hill, Robertson in the Southern Highlands of NSW.
The umbrellas came out so spectators could enjoy the action in the shade
The team at Wallaby Hill, headed by Alex Townsend, are always coming up with new and different ideas to broaden the audience for all things equestrian and this idea was designed to bring families along – not just those interested in horses. “A lot of the time the mums and daughters go off to a horse event and the dads and sons go off to some kind of sport, often rugby,” said Geoff Spears, who is responsible for the PR and Marketing at Wallaby Hill. “We thought we would try to bring the two together and judging by the smiles I’m seeing I think it’s has worked pretty well. The team here are amazing, they have all pulled together and got things done and the competitors have really got into the spirit of things, which is great.”
During the event show jumping classes from 1.10m up to a Grand Prix took place and the event attracted some of Australia’s top riders from both the show jumping and eventing world.
Sharon Slater won the Animal Company Grand Prix with Tom McDermott taking second and third, while Andrew Barnett took out the Canberra Airport Mini Prix. Although the show jumpers won most of the ‘official classes’ Event rider Sam Fasher did manage to steal one win from them in the Copabella Sporthorses 1.20m class. But it was in the MacArthur Urology Eventers V Showjumpers that the eventers rose to the challenge.
Jamie Winning turns into an eventer - but only for the class
The course was a mixture of show jumps and cross country type fences (skinnies, off-set brushes) and all the riders had the choice of going for the show jumps (collecting penalties for rails down) or the cross country fences (risking a run out) or a mixture of both. Only two show jumpers finished in the top eight the first of which was Jamie Winning jumped the brush fences like an eventer. Riding Hedge Jamie finished in fourth place while Vicki Roycroft rode Kartoon de Breve with great skill, not to mention speed to finish fifth.
A happy John Twomey
The winning eventer was John Twomey riding Wade Equine Highly Recommended. Prior to his ride John thought his horse might be a little tired. “We’ve done a few classes this weekend so he might not be as careful with his back legs as he might normally be.” John had no reason to worry as the pair flew round, leaving everything up and clocking up the fastest time of the class. “This is a great event,” said John “it was perfect timing to come show jumping prior to Canberra CIC and prior to Adelaide. We think they should run something like this every month – I know we’d come!”
Watch Johns round below
Second to John was Shane Rose riding APH Moritz, with Emma Scott and Mustang in third. As Nikki Rose did her round, on Monty Who, commentator Hamish Cargill told the crowd Nikki was just back to competing after being on maternity leave – but boy it looked liked she had never been out of the saddle! She blitzed round, foot to the floor and it was only a rail down at the last fence, which stopped her finishing higher up the board than her sixth place.
Nikki Rose changes easily from fierce competitor above to winning mother below
While all this action was going on outside some boys were enjoying a spot of rugby training (see picture below) in the magnificent indoor school. Split into groups of three the boys were taken through their paces by former Wallabies stars and judging by the smiles everyone had a good time. For those children who didn't want to take on the rugby there was facepainting, other games and a small animal farm where children could get up close and personal with their favourite animals.
"Mum can we get some chickens please ..."
The perfect place to watch all the jumping action
For the full results click here
