An Eventful Life is filming all competitors on cross country at
Ariat Sydney International Three Day Event 2022 - order or view videos here
It has been a tough few years for Australian competitors with bushfire, Covid and more recently floods in Queensland and NSW but this weekend everyone is hoping that a semblance of normality will return with the Ariat Sydney International 3 Day Event from 6th – 9th May (yes, it makes for quite a weekend with Badminton also running on the other side of the world!)
Hosted at the Sydney 2000 equestrian venue, the Sydney International Equestrian Centre at Horsley Park, just outside of Sydney, the event features a FEI CCI2*, CCI3* and CCI4* in long and short formats as well as national classes from 60cm to CCN1*.
In an exciting new development, the grassroots competitors now have their own Individual and Teams Championships but there can be doubt that fans of the sport and selectors will be keenly watching the top classes – the Bates Saddles CCI4*-L and ENW CCI4*-S – to see how some of Australia’s established and up and coming contenders acquit themselves after the logistical complexities of the season so far
There are 10 competitors currently listed in the 4*-L and 26 in the 4*-S, mainly NSW-based combinations but Andrew Cooper and Maddie Wilson are making the trip from Queensland with three horses between them in the 4*-S while Sam Jeffree is coming up from Victoria with Wandin winner Woodmount Lolita, also in the 4*-S
The two Sams – both Sydney 2021 4* winners - Sam Lyle on BF Valour and Sam Woods on Cage Fighter are contesting the 4*-L, as is this year’s Tamworth International winner, Shenae Lowings with Bold Venture. Both Shenae and Sam Lyle are looking to travel overseas later this year if all goes to plan
This will be, by his standards, a relatively quiet competition for Tokyo silver medallist Shane Rose who is riding four across the two CCI4* classes and one of our favourites for the CCI3*-L class, Matrixx, but he will be busy in other ways as course designer for the lower level classes and part of the organising team at Sydney.
We’ll be at Sydney International from Thursday when the competition kicks off with the first horse inspection for the long format competitors. The weather forecast is for some rain (how surprising) but the good news is that cross country day is set to be fine and sunny – hallelujah!
