There is nothing nicer on a sunny day than driving into the property, Lynton, which plays host to the Baxter Boots Lynton Horse Trials. Alan Cardy’s property looked amazing with plenty of grass for horses to graze on in their yards which, at the same time, must have given the small team of Horse Trials workers added mowing work!
Although Vince Roche’s name was in the programme as the course designer for the CIC3* class with Neil Kennedy’s down for the CIC1* and 2* classes it is well known that these two men work together to bring courses to the riders that are challenging, yet jumpable across the grades. They certainly did a good job of doing just that with all the courses causing a few problems but nothing major.
In the Baxter Boots CIC3* it was Hazel Shannon, who has been based with Heath and Rozzie Ryan for the best part of six years, who claimed victory. Riding Wendy Ward's chestnut thoroughbred Clifford, Hazel started the weekend in second place after dressage. However she moved up to the top spot before show jumping as dressage leader, Tim Boland had only planned to do the dressage phase with GV Billy Elliot, who had only recently come back from UK.
Hazel then went on to jump a faultless show jumping round and back that up with a clear cross country round. “It wasn’t just clear it was the first time I’ve ever made time at 3* level so I’m very happy,” said Hazel. We asked Hazel to talk us through her weekend
Winner of the Baxter Boots CIC3*, Hazel Shannon, ready for the prize giving
Hazel Shannon
Finishing second behind Hazel was Megan Jones riding Kirby Park Impress. This combination have won their last two 3* starts and will no doubt be looking forward to a good run at Adelaide next month. At Lynton Megan and ‘Candy’ were lying fourth after dressage and added just four time penalties from cross country to finish on a score of 55.1.
Megan Jones and Kirby Park Impress at the second water complex
It’s always nice to see an overseas rider at Lynton, and this year that rider was Kiwi, Sam Felton, who is based in Northland, (yes that’s right the bit at the very top end of New Zealand.) Sam brought two 3* horses to Lynton and we caught up with her just after she had discovered one of her horses, Ricker Ridge Pico Boo, had finished third.
Sam Felton is enjoying her time 'across the ditch!'
“I have been based with Sam Lyle for a couple of weeks, which has been great, and we will stay there until going to Adelaide,” explained Sam. I’ve been really stoked with both my 3* horses all weekend and even though I made a few silly little mistakes in the dressage with Pico Boo and both Pico Boo and Ricker Ridge Escada took a rail down in the show jumping, I was still pretty happy. I think your show jump courses a bit more technical than ours"
"Pico Boo went really well across country and I was excited to discover he finished third. Escada just got a bit of a scare when he jumped into the second water and then when he got to the road crossing he thought it was a little bit too similar so we retired – but he’ll be back another day.”
Jess Grossman and Bellmont Backstage fly over the second roll top in the CIC3*
In the CIC3* it was the Quarry combination fence at 17 that caused most problems with three riders, picking up twenty penalties. The other problems were scattered with the big roll tops at the road crossing (Lynton Lane) causing a few anxious moments for riders and spectators but causing little problem.
Emma Bishop (above) looked happy after winning the Lennock Jaguar Land Rover CIC2* on CP Issey Miyake, a mare by Prue and Craig Barrett’s eventing stallion, Staccato. The win at Lynton gave the pair their sixth 2* win this year but Emma told us she has no high-flying plans for this talented mare just yet.
“I have certainly taken Issey slowly. But that was because she is a warmblood and she just gave me that feeling that if she got a scare – it could really put her off. Luckily she hasn’t had a scare in all the time I’ve been eventing her so I think we are both starting to feel a bit more confident in each other. She can be a bit horse-shy and got a bit spooky prior to going into the area, which meant I couldn’t ride her the way I would normally ride her. But that said we were second after dressage and finished on our dressage score – so I have to be happy about that. Lots of people have asked if I’m taking her to Adelaide but I’m not. At this stage I would like to take her to the mid-week event at Sydney where she could have her first 3* start, but we’ll just see how she feels between now and then.”
If Emma has been the bride on several 2* occasions Andrew Barnett has been the bridesmaid – although not always. In fact it would almost appear that these two riders have been taking it in turn as to who is going to win and who is going to finish second – but at this stage it has to be said that Emma has more wins!
At Lynton Andrew was lying fourth after dressage, adding just 1.6 time penalties from cross country to finish just over three marks behind Emma.
Megan Jones was once again just missed out on a winner's rug dropping back from her top placed dressage score of 40.6 with Kirby Park Invader to finish third after collecting 8 time penalties on cross country.
NSW Junior rider, Macy Reen, showed all the professionals how to do it when she won the Coprice CIC* class riding Roskymar Prince Noreah. Macy, who is taught by Karen Tinney, was the only rider in the class to make the six minute optimum time, coming through the finish flags bang on six minutes.
“He was really good all weekend, but I was very glad I had Karen around and she was really helpful. We were coming fifth after dressage and finished on that score of 47.6. We have only had him (Roskymar Prince Noreah) since May and although he had done a couple of one stars with his previous owner this was my first one star event. I was pretty nervous about some of the fences on cross country but he didn’t really look at anything out there and just jumped around.”
The lower level classes were won by a good mixture of well known and less well known riders. We caught up with one of those more well known winners, Emma Mason (pictured above) who won the Wariapendi Farm Nursery EvA105 (A) with Delago Road.
Emma Mason
So as the spectators and officials left the popular road crossing 'spectator spot' and started to head home that was Lynton was over for another year. Congratulations to all those involved and whoever organised the pleasant sunshine could they do the same again next year … it’s so much nicer than the snow!
