Taleah Cameron and Equineaffaire Black Jack
An Eventful Life filmed all competitors on cross country at
SMZ J.B. Tooradin Estate Horse Trials 2021 - order or view videos here
If you were going to have a lot of rain the day before a horse trials in Victoria, Tooradin is the place to have it. The sandy coastal soil of the Tooradin Estate, where the SMZ JB Tooradin Pony Club Horse Trials is held, simply soaks it up, leaving great going and a dust-free event (a rare thing in Australia at this time of year)
Tooradin is well-known for its winding sandy tracks that make their way through the bush, but it now also uses a large open area which provided some good galloping areas for the higher levels. Only two combinations contested the Pony Club Grade 1 class and it was Hannah Schey riding her off the track thoroughbred High Demands that took the honours.
They started in the lead after dressage, show jumped clear and added just one time penalty on cross country to take the win from second placed Rachel Bartolo riding Heez Our Wonder
Rachel Bartolo's Heez Our Wonder was definitely not going to step in that ditch!
Both horses were a bit astonished by the water in the ditch at Fence 9, giving it plenty of air and keeping riders on their toes throughout the grades that jumped it. Several of the new fences out on the big paddock also featured MIM clips, now mandatory on certain fences for FEI competition and the Pony Club is obviously following suit.
Taleah Cameron riding Equineaffaire Black Jack won the Pony Club Grade 2, moving up from second place after the dressage with a double clear show jumping and cross country round, to take the win from Hayley Fino on the 15-year-old off the track thoroughbred My Thai.
If that name rings a bell, it may be that you remember My Thai being competed by Olympic medallist Stuart Tinney a few years ago when he started out on his post-racing career; he was also loaned to another Australian equestrian representative, dressage star Brett Parbery when he wanted to ‘have a go’ at eventing, so this is one very versatile horse, now enjoying life at Pony Club events
Rachel Lyon and Wattle Park Vienna
Maddy Truong and another off the track thoroughbred, Darwin Park Beats, won the Pony Club Grade 3 just ahead of Alisha Mizzi riding Misty Isle Caprice and Rachel Lyon and Wattle Park Vienna in third place
We’ll be back later in the week with our cross country video winners (in the meantime, check out our Instagram and Facebook posts and stories for some snippets from today) and some more photos from a great day with lots of very happy riders and some very cute ponies …..
