It was, as forecast, a beautiful weekend of eventing at Denman Horse in northern NSW, Australia.
While much of southern Australia was shivering in wintry conditions, riders at Denman were in shirt sleeves, competing in classes from EvA45 to CCN1*-S on the first weekend in July.
The Marsh Carney Saddlery CCN1* turned into a battle between two of Australia’s top lady riders, Emma Bishop and Cathryn Herbert, but it was Emma who came out on top.
Both riders are well-known for their dressage prowess, however Emma led after the first phase with Windouran Johud, an 11-year-old gelding who is an interesting mix of warmblood, thoroughbred and stockhorse, on a score of 28.9. They then produced a clear show jumping round and added just 1.2 time penalties on cross country to win on 29.2.
Cathryn Herbert’s CH Colette moved up from fifth after the dressage to finish on that score of 31.5 and Junior rider, Reese Spencer-Ruddy took third place riding HH Deluxe.
The Tozer Air Conditioning EvA95 classes were won by Tara Seppelt riding Rosthwaite Venice Beach (Section) and Maddilyn Millington riding Jaykobee Gold (Section B)
Maddilyn had a good weekend, also winning the Lake Maquarie Designer Kitchens EvA80 Junior, riding Sovereign Park Trilogy to a win on a cracking score of 22.5.
Kate Roots riding Siege Warfare won the EvA80 Section A, Carey Doran took the EvA80 Section B on Kanandah Park Socrates and Bols Armstrong won the EvA80 Section C riding Elsa.
Another very good winning score came from Katie Murray riding What A Wizzard in the EvA60A. They were indeed wizard in the dressage test, earning a score of 20.6 and adding just 1.2 time penalties in the show jumping to finish on 21.80. The top six all scored sub-30, but Katie’s score was particularly impressive.
The other two EvA60 sections, sponsored by Two Rivers Wines, were won by Cathryn Herbert, this time on board CH Phryne and Junior rider Zara Nugent riding Cookie Monster
The EvA45 is all about having a go and enjoying the day, with Leanne Way riding the thoroughbred Khawaja taking the win in the Anvil Enterprises Section A and Junior rider Natalie Razon winning the Section B on Glynyarra Park Libretto
