An Eventful Life will be filming all competitors on cross country at
Motorama Tamborine ODE 2020 - find out more here
“It’s very pretty up here. At the moment it’s so green and you get complacent about how lovely it is when you live here all the time” Charlotte Price tells me when I call her to ask about the event coming up at Mount Tamborine in Queensland on 22nd and 23rd February 2020
This will be our first trip to cover and film at a Queensland event so we’re really looking forward to it, especially now that the rain has subsided and we’ve heard how pretty it will be! Please just don’t rain anymore and, according to Charlotte, the going on cross country will be perfect
“It’s the best it’s been for a couple of years, there are sandy elements to the ground so it drains well even after the huge downpours we’ve had. But it’s been good all season; when it was rock hard elsewhere, our ground has stayed good during the heatwaves”
For those living outside of Australia (or, like me, live in Australia but have no idea about geography) Tamborine is located about an hour from Brisbane and 30 minutes from the Gold Coast in Queensland and UK eventing fans may be interested to know that the event is held at Kelecyn, the property owned by Australian eventing rider Kevin McNab and his brother Dale a prefix often found on eventing horses in Australia and overseas
“We’re very lucky” the ex-English eventing rider Charlotte, who is now permanently based in Queensland with her partner Dale, tells me “Kelecyn is only 50 acres so we are helped out by the two surrounding properties. One is 150 acres and the other is only five acres but it’s where the yards, parking and dressage arenas are located”
A few days ago, Mother Nature had one of her hissy fits (as she so loves doing to our sport – keeps us all on our toes) with south-east Queensland having one of its wettest days on record, causing flash floods through the streets of Tamborine. Fingers are crossed for no more heavy downpours leading up to the event which will run classes from 60cm up to CNC3*
The event normally runs a 4* but this year is stopping at 3* due to low interest at 4* level but, with the cancellation of the Sydney Summer Classic, which would have run the same weekend, a few riders such as Tim Boland, Laura Wallace and Jess Somerfield are making the trip up
For us, it’s a 20-hour drive from Melbourne so join us on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) for our road trip – we’ve got to do something to while the hours away!
