Hanson Tonimbuk International Horse Trials – order or view XC Videos here
It has been a relatively mild summer in Victoria, Australia this year but the autumn sun is going to be shining bright during the three days of eventing competition at Hanson Tonimbuk International Horse Trials from Friday 8th to Sunday 10th March.
The Tonimbuk Equestrian Centre in West Gippsland, about 90 minutes west of Melbourne, will host the first FEI competition of the year in Australia, as the Tamborine event in event in Queensland, scheduled to run in February, was cancelled following some wild weather that cut a path through the property.
That also means that this is the first event in Australia whereby combinations can gain one of the all-important MER qualifications for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games that has to be obtained after 1 January 2024 and on or before 24 June 2024 (the “Confirmation Result”).
Unfortunately, this year the event clashes with the 2024 Oceania Championships being held at the Horse of the Year Show in New Zealand, which means that we’ll be seeing many of the Australian-based Paris 2024 hopefuls in action on the other side of the Tasman rather than at Tonimbuk.
There will however still be one Olympian, who has already scored a medal, competing at Tonimbuk this weekend in the shape of South Australia's Megan Jones riding Toulando in the VRW Civil CCI4*-S. This will be their first international start since Toulando injured himself whilst travelling in Europe last year, just before they were meant to compete at Les Etoiles de Pau.
Tonimbuk is usually happy hunting ground for Megan, who has won this class many times and could probably do with a bit of a win after a difficult 2023!
Megan won’t have it all her own way with another past Australian team member, locally based David Middleton riding both WEC In The Breeze and WEC In The Money in the 4*.
The 12-year-old mare WEC In The Breeze racked up three 4*-S wins last year and took second place in the CCI4*-L at Melbourne International 3 Day Event while the 13-year-old gelding WEC In The Money had five podium finishes at 4*-S level so it will be interesting to see how they start their season. Another Victorian rider, Sam Jeffree, won the CCI3*-S here in 2022 on board the big grey gelding Koyuna Tactician and will be starting him in the 4* after several good results in 2023, including a win in the 4*-L at the ‘pop-up’ Werribee early in the year.
The event is also running the Horseland CCI3*-S, the Charlie’s Stockfeed CCI2* and two divisions of CCI1*. There are also national classes taking place with three sections at both EvA95 and EvA80 levels.
Follow our event coverage here on An Eventful Life and our social media plus of course check out our XC Videos after the event!
