Rob Palm and Koko Story go for it on cross country Photo courtesy Mona Helmgens/AlburyWodonga
Conditions were ideal for the Albury Wodonga International Horse Trials held over the April 1 – 2 weekend. The sun was shining and the grounds were in peak condition for the 246 riders that converged on the Albury Wodonga Equestrian Centre in Thurgoona, NSW
A highlight of the weekend was the staging of the CIC3* show jumping under lights on the main arena at the centre. A bumper crowd cheered on as the 29 riders navigated what commentator Heath Ryan said was a challenging course with some very tricky fences.
There were few clear rounds, with honours in this area going to Kirsty Douglas, Robert Palm, Jade Finlay, Hamish Cargill and James Lang.
After the CIC3* showjumping Kirsty Douglas was sitting in first place going into the cross country, closely followed by Robert Palm on both of his three star mounts – Koko Story and Halcyons Dark Secret. Palm went on to win the CIC3* event on Koko Story after Kirsty Douglas was knocked in to third after picking up 12 time faults in the cross country. Hazel Shannon had a stellar cross country round and took out second place.
It was an all-girl line up in the CIC2* event with winners being Jessica Rae on Rascal, Katie Taliana on Trevalgar II and Katja Weimann on BP Flamboyant. Jessica was looking good from the start with a 41.70 score in the dressage, a clear round in the showjumping and a smooth ride in the cross country finishing in 6.29 minutes.
In the CIC1* event Andrew Cooper was victorious – making the trip with five horses worth the effort. Andrew rode three horses in the top level of CIC3* but was unable to follow up on his win in this class at the Wandin Park Horse Trials.
His CIC1* mount Doubled Vision didn’t let him down and produced a clear round in the show jumping and a score of 46.90 in the dressage. He had a great round on the cross country and achieved the challenging course in 5.46 minutes.
Second in the CIC1* was well known competitor Stuart Tinney on Wanda and third was Edith Kane on Valenthyme.
There were 51 riders in the EvA60 classes with junior winners being 1st) Kirilli Campbell on County Lair, 2nd) Maya Basson on Jazzanova and 3rd) Majenta Little on Tassa Rocs.
In the EvA 60 class it was Bruce Clarke on Dan, Timothy Herbert on Tigger and Sarah Covington on Belcam Contrast who took the honours
.EvA 80 Juniors winners were India Gready on Red Bluff Country Rambler, Paige Gready on CSU Lyrebird and equal third went to Bessie Dimery on Nafees and Jordyn Faint on Bradgate Park Don Palermo.
Event Secretary Bradley Hayden said it was a highly successful weekend and continues its reputation as one of the favourite eventing competitions on the east coast.
He said staging an event of this scale took an enormous amount of man power and paid particular credit to the army of volunteers who filled roles such as cross country jump stewards, arena marshalls and pole picker-up-erers!
“We certainly could not host an event of this size without the nearly 100 volunteers that participate. It’s great to see everyone come together in the way that they do. They all looked particularly good this year in the volunteer shirts provided by our newest sponsor MAKE Finance Group.”
He also pointed out that an event of this calibre could not be achieved without sponsorship and support from local businesses.
“Two of the biggest supporters of this year’s event – in both sponsorship, organisation, time contributed and very generous support are Angela Ramsay and Scott Giltrap. This year they took on the major sponsorship of the event as well as spending many hours in the build-up making sure everything was right. They really deserve a special mention as I’m not sure what this event would be like without them.”
