A winner's rug and cheque for $2,400 - Yabba Dabba Doo!
Tania Harding was in a good position at lunch time at EQUITANA yesterday, not only leading after the dressage phase of the Exhibition Eventing on her homebred Jirrima Yorkshire but also in third place on Jirrima Yabba Dabba Doo. But it was the 13 year old chestnut gelding Yabba Dabba Doo that moved up to take the winner’s rug, thanks to a jumping round with just one rail down; agonisingly it was the very last fence after jumping not only a good round over the combination course of cross country and show jumping fences but also jumping clear over the Joker fence
The wavy plank Joker show jump fence gave the riders that negotiated it successfully a -4 penalty advantage and the final top three riders, Tania, Katja Weimann and Sophia Landy did just that but then all three had the next, and very last fence down.
Cross country and show jumping course designers Ewan Kellett and John Vallance had created a strong course in the wide open amphitheatre of the Rowville Arena that has the further challenge of being surrounded by busy walkways, buildings and spectator seating. None of the 15 competitors produced a double clear round and the time was certainly tight with Victorian riders Katja Weimann,Sophia Landy and Madeleine O’Callaghan coming the closest to the optimum time, but still incurring nine time penalties each.
Sophia Landy and ESB Golden Zone
As usual the dressage had taken place in the morning and the riders jumped in reverse order in the afternoon. The dressage phase had caused its problems with 30% of the riders having errors of course (ah the joys of having to remember a specially created dressage test in the middle of the season!) and Murray Lamperd on one of his horses, Shemozzle, had the honour of two errors of course.
Murray and Shemozzle were in last place and first into the arena for the jumping during the hot and windy afternoon and put up a good effort to move all the way up to finish in equal fifth place.
The first riders in to the jumping moved up to fifth place - Murray Lamperd and Shemozzle
They were the first to fall victim to the two skinny angled brushes but jumped the Joker clear and were another combination to have the very last fence down. Madeleine O’Callaghan riding her 13 year old dark brown mare Fernloch Allemande moved up from eighth place after the dressage to join Murray in fifth thanks to her fast time despite having the Joker down and surviving a little hiccup over the arrowhead brush
The brush fences were also the downfall of Bessie Dimery on Ruban Son and Chelsea Priestly on Ashleigh Longtime who were eliminated for three refusals; both of these combinations would probably have jumped them without a problem on a normal cross country course but Exhibition Eventing is far from normal!
Molly Barry and La Muso leave the arena
Earlier in the day Captain Mark Phillips had encouraged the riders to ride ‘tall’ like William Fox-Pitt and one rider who always reminds me of this is young Molly Barry. Molly is physically tall but also reminds me of William in the ‘tall’ way she sits on a horse however yesterday was not her day on La Muso, having the first fence down and run outs at the brushes but jumping the Joker clear
Even Rachel had to laugh! Good job Amigo!
The rider who had one of the funniest problems of the day was Rachel Lee on Amigo. Rachel has some lovely horses and the seven year old Amigo is one of them, showing just how honest and talented he was by jumping the fence that Rachel pointed him at – even if it wasn’t the next fence on course!
As you can see in the video below Rachel had a problem at the brush fence and re-routed only to jump the wrong fence! It resulted in elimination but even Rachel saw the funny side of it
Sophia Landy and ESB Golden Zone, who recently finished ninth in the CCI2* at the Australian International 3 Day Event, put in a very good round to move up from 11th into third place and even the 2014 winner Katja Weimann couldn’t catch Tania despite one of the fastest rides. Tania’s top placed horse Jirrima Yorkshire, the last to jump, gave up the top spot to his stable mate Yabba Dabba Doo but added to the prize money with fourth place despite 12 jumping penalties
Defending champion Katja Weimann had to settle for second place
Exhibition Eventing is not eventing at its best but it is fun and certainly carries more prize money than 2* classes normally do with a total prize pool of $10,000. It isn't the £100,000 just announced for the winner of the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials but it is good prize money and a fun day for competitors in the centre of Melbourne
We’ll be bringing you more photos, articles and footage from the Exhibition Eventing and Captain Mark Phillips Masterclass at EQUITANA soon so stay tuned ..........
Watch the top three rounds of Exhibition Eventing
