Amanda Ross and William Wordsworth
It isn’t every day that we get to cover a high wire act at the same time as eventing but it isn’t every day that we cover Exhibition Eventing.
Exhibition Eventing is a strange concept as it is an attempt to bring eventing to more a mass audience which is a laudable aim but makes for a slightly strange event.
For those unfamiliar with the format, the competitors ride a shortened dressage test and then jump a combination of show jumps and cross country fences a few hours later. The winner is the one with the lowest score and the top four riders in each qualifier go through to the grand final at EQUITANA, along with other ‘wild card’ entries.
Cassie Lowe is kept company by the hack class in the next arena (above) while Anthony Thomas' Levitation checks things out (below)
At yesterday’s Royal Melbourne Show, the dressage phase started at 3:00pm and shared an arena with hack classes, seagulls and a big screen.
Luckily eventers, both two legged and four, are a hardy breed although a few of the horses were a bit on edge. The riders just accept it as part of the atmosphere and get on with it but it doesn’t always make the dressage pretty to watch for the crowd.
Horsey spectators were probably expecting top riders Will Enzinger (above) and Amanda Ross to do well in this phase on their experienced horses (both riders had two mounts) but it was a bit bizarre when both Amanda and Will shared the lead on a score of 66% on all four horses after the dressage.
The actual timing of the start of the competition seemed a bit hazy and, although advertised for 3:30pm, it started at 3pm which caught one of the dressage judges unaware. The dressage therefore was scored by just one judge, which made for an interesting experiment in dressage judging.
Crowds gather for the jumping, high wire and fireworks
So, having got the boring bit out of the way, we moved on to the jumping session in the evening. You can see that this part is exciting and fun for the crowd but the general public still seem a bit baffled by what it is all about.
Some people near me didn’t seem to grasp these were the same riders as did the dressage earlier and one little boy was distraught at having to watch the horses when he’d been promised fireworks. He had a while to wait however; the advertised start time of 6:30pm was actually 7:45pm by the time we’d had the high wire walker.
Bello Nock highwire walker (above) and his guys on the ground (below)
Towards the end of the dressage phase, a guy started climbing a steel tower close to the dressage arena. Intrigued, I watched but couldn’t work out what he was doing. I found out later.
Bello Nock (no, truly, that’s his name) walked 100 metres on a high wire 30 metres above the arena. He seemed to find it quite easy and the thing that scared me most was that the tension of his highwire seemed to be left to the guys on the ground.
I loved the fact that his hair seemed to be standing on end (and who can blame it?) and I also loved the wit who shouted out at the end “Can you do it again? We missed it”
In the meantime, course designer Ewan Kellett was probably desperate to get his crew out on the arena to set up the 12 fences – six cross country and six show jumps for the Exhibition Eventing – which they managed to do as soon as the ‘high’ drama was over.
This was another treat for the little boy who could now watch heaps of tractors bringing jumps into the arena, which I think was actually the highlight of his day at the Show. Note to parents here – maybe just take your children to the real countryside, watch a few tractors and save yourself a lot of money
Ewan and the crew jump into action with the tractors
The jumping was interesting (except maybe for Isabella Walsh who must have been muttering under her breath when TS Swampfox crashed through the warm up fence and nearly dislodged her before starting. They were eliminated on course and it clearly wasn’t TS Swampfox’s idea of fun).
Experienced show jumper Anthony Thomas showed how it should be done when he was the first to clear the 1.45m Joker fence, Cassie Lowe too jumped the Joker successfully on both of her horses as did her partner Rob Palm on Visual Laughter.
Seumas Marwood and Wild Oats (love this mare) jumped a really excellent round but had the last two, which included the Joker, down. Amanda and Will didn’t have great rounds on their first two horses but made up for it on William Wordsworth and TS Jamaimo, the last two to go.
Amanda won the day (and the prize money) riding William Wordsworth, Will Enzinger and TS Jamaimo 2nd, Anthony Thomas and Levitation NZPH 3rd, Will Enzinger and Mousetrap 4th, Seumas Marwood and Wild Oats 5th
You may have sensed by now that I’m not a big fan of Exhibition Eventing at the Royal Melbourne Show, although no doubt lots of people enjoyed it.
I admire the horses and riders who can cope with jumping in strange light near big screens and dressage with hacks and seagulls. I also think it’s great that the prize money is good as that is a big area to be addressed in eventing. My guess is that the next qualifier to be held at Wallaby Hill in NSW would be more my cup of tea and I do appreciate that it may be bringing the sport to a wider audience but I’m just not sure if this sport is eventing
These spectators seemed to enjoy it but were disappointed not to see the recently succesful Australian horse Belcam Bear
