Maybe more of a 'Splash Palace' than a 'Honda Dream Arena' for Emily Cammock and Lewis
Emily Cammock still leads the Honda NZ CCI3* as well as in the Veterinary Associates CCI1* but in between the two leading horses she took a bit of a ducking.
Lewis, Emily’s first horse in the CCI3* jump very boldly into the water complex and buckled on landing, depositing Emily into the water. Apart from a scraped chin, neither Emily nor Lewis is any the worse for their soaking but her second ride on Shaw Lee was much more successful if less spectacular
Emily and Shaw Lee (above) still lead the class but they picked up 12.4 time penalties to finish on a score of 60
Emily Cammock
Emily wasn’t the only one to fall foul of the water complex but at least Jock Paget managed to stay dry.
Jock and Heelan Tompkins’ Snow Leopard looked to be making easy work of the course until, like Nick Brooks’ For Fame in the CCI2*, Snow Leopard stumbled up the bank out of the water complex resulting in a very dignified dismount
Jock is still waiting for his first baby to arrive so maybe someone up there knows something and Jock is now free to dash home at any moment!
Cory Wood and Pick Up
Jock’s demise bumped Cory Wood riding Pick Up from fifth place into second place thanks to the fastest 3* round of the day with 7.6 time penalties, finishing on 61.6
Cory is a farmer who fits in his riding ‘after I’ve finished my work’ so he was pretty surprised to find himself at the press conference at just his fourth 3* competition
"To be honest I was crapping myself! It was quite a big track compared to what I've faced in the past but I put my faith in him and felt like a bit of a passenger really. I just pointed him at the fences, he took them in his own stride and he made everything feel relatively good"
Cory is just hoping that his coach will be helping him tomorrow but Coach Emily Cammock is threatening not to!
Bundy Philpott and Tresca NZPH remain in third place after really enjoyable cross country round
“He was so honest and tried really hard, he didn’t give me any scary moments or sticky parts, he just went and did his job” but she had to admit that, if she could have done anything differently, it would have been to ‘go 10.8 time penalties faster!’
“I probably started out a little cautious as I wasn’t sure how quick he would be or if he could stay the whole distance. He probably did run a little quicker than I expected so I think that in hindsight I could have gone quicker but I’m very happy with him overall”
20 year old Renee Faulkner is also delighted with how her horse Rubinstar HH (above) went at their second 3* start at Puhinui.
