Well, I had been hoping to be there. The plan had been to go to the London Book Fair for our new book “An Eventful Life”, visit mum at home in Yorkshire and of course go to Badders! However due to several things, including mum going into hospital, production on the book “An Eventful Life”being slightly behind schedule, not to mention a volcano in Iceland, I found myself still in Melbourne and watching it live on the Internet. Still, thanks to technology I found myself watching the horses go around the famous course on a grey English day and didn’t even need my wellies! I loved watching my hero Mary King – a stylish lady and a stylish experienced rider who took the lead early on her first ride, Imperial Cavalier and was only relegated to second spot much later by Paul Tapner. Paul, on his first ride Stormhill Michael had a great round but Australian Olympic silver medallist Clayton Fredericks on The Frog did not look comfortable around much of the course. The Frog did not give Clayton the result he was probably hoping for in the lead-up to the WEG and he is in 48th place going into the showjumping. As one of the commentators noted “The Australians certainly have a few to choose from for Kentucky” and “Australia will be one of the teams in contention for the medals at the WEG”. A couple of my personal favourites – a beautiful galloping horse, Opposition Buzz with the Yorkshire rider Nicola Wilson (of course I’m biased – I’m from Yorkshire!) looked to be having great fun and finished in 11th place and the wonderful Spring Along with Daisy Berkeley (better known by her previous name Daisy Dick) who finished in 6th place. UK rider Sharon Hunt showed great expertise in her flying start – her horse Tanker’s Town has a real problem in the starting box so she is legged up as he is being walked around at the last second before leaving the Start! She wears an air vest and has to attach it as she heads for the first fence! The air vests certainly proved valuable for many riders – Kristina Cook took a ducking at the water and then a bow, showing the crowd she still had a sense of humour despite the drenching and several other riders took falls which gave their air vests a workout. At midnight Melbourne-time I headed to bed before Paul Tapner’s second round on Inonothing but the experience of his first round obviously helped and he goes into the showjumping later today in a very exciting position in both 1st and 12th spots but with the super experienced Mary King breathing down his neck. Bill Levett, another Aussie based in the UK, is also in a good position in 10th on Hippolyte and 20th on Political Trump. As one of the commentators noted “The Australians certainly have a few to choose from for Kentucky” and “Australia will be one of the teams in contention for the medals at the WEG” but it probably wasn’t the Aussie combinations they expected to see leading the field. Another late night coming up I think!
