Laura Hercules and Ballahowe Wildside, EvA95.2 winners
An Eventful Life filmed all competitors on cross country at
Gisborne EA Horse Trials 2021 - order or view videos here
View our full photo gallery from this event here
We often think that the weather gods like to have a bit of a joke with eventing competition schedules and last week they obviously enjoyed a little bit of a giggle.
Running an event in January in Australia can be a problem. Temperatures are often in the high 30’s and bushfires are always a threat in the height of summer so the organisers of the inaugural Gisborne Horse Trials , about 30 minutes from Melbourne in Victoria, knew that it could be challenging to get a new event up and running so early in the season.
But they weren’t expecting 60ml of rain two days before the event and for a little while, with parts of the cross country course under water, it was touch and go as to whether this would be a full-on event with cross country or become just a Combined Training event.
Sadly the brand new bank, just completed for the inaugual EA Horse Trials couldn't be used, but all other fences were given plenty of good footing
But the experienced organising team who have plenty of eventing credentials between them – 4* eventing rider James Lang as the Event Director, international course designer Ewan Kellett and the very experienced TD Michelle Debenham – swung into action. The weather also started to behave, and the go-ahead was given after dressage on Saturday evening so that Sunday’s cross country could take place.
Ewan re-organised the courses slightly to avoid the boggiest patches (although sadly the newly built bank couldn’t be used) and as the day went on and the sun came out, most of the going was actually pretty good. Ewan also had plenty of chances to play with the ‘boy toys’, topping up gravel areas during the day so that the approach and landing at all fences was spot on
Cameron Mathlin and Nimerion Park Impressions, 2nd in the EvA 65.2
Although Gisborne has run many Pony Club competitions, this was their inaugural event run under the auspices of Equestrian Australia and there were three levels at EvA 65, EvA 80 and EvA 95.
Each level had two sections; the EvA65 riders were the first out in the morning with Lisa North riding Elvis the Dude moving up from fourth place after the dressage to take the class win in the EvA 65.1 as well as the Off The Track title for the best placed ex-racehorse (Elvis the Dude raced as The Barman) while Susan Williams riding Purple Rain won the EvA 65.2
You can watch Lisa and Elvis the Dude's winning cross country ride here
We caught up with the two EvA80 winners just before the presentations; both Nola Poulter riding AEV Ingleby and Stephanie Rowe riding Erinlea Tatiaana finished on their dressage scores to take the wins in these classes
You can watch Nola's winning cross country ride here and Stephanie's winning cross country ride here
In the EvA95.1, Bella Warner also started in the lead on a fantastic score of 15.8 riding the impressive looking grey, Remi Royal Star. They added 6.8 time penalties on cross country but their strong starting score and a clear show jumping round helped them maintain their lead to finish on 22.6 penalties.
Bella Warner and Remi Royal Star
Second placed Taleah Cameron riding Equineaffaire Blackjack also had an impressive sub-20 dressage score of 16.6 but 8.8 time penalties on cross country and 1.6 time penalties saw them finish on 27 penalties whilst Jasmyn Beesley on Jazdan Spellbound, who won at Ballarat Pony Club Horse Trials last week, added nothing to her dressage score of 28.2 for third place
The winner of the EvA95.2, Laura Hercules riding Ballahowe Wildside also added nothing to her dressage score of 32.9 to take the class ahead of Rita De Bon riding Velvet Well Fit Returns (who also won the Off the Track prize for this level, racing name Well Fit) and Rosie Maiden riding Mister Will
Natalie Davies and The Ruckman took the Off The Track prize in the EvA80, finishing in seventh place overall.
