Oliver - The birthday boy / Event Director on cross country
Well, it's the end of May and the first major CCI of the year has been run and won. As I'm sure you’re all aware Stuart won and Australia won the Trans Tasman. The organising team at Sydney put on a wonderful show and without wanting to shock the organisers too much, it's my feeling that the show at Sydney could grow into Australia's version of Aachen. I do hope the organisers were sitting down when they read that!
Eventers attention will now shift to Melbourne CCI and then Adelaide will roll around relatively quickly, where I feel we may well see one of the strongest fields ever seen at 4star in Australia. Many a good rider and horse have been quiet for a while and all will see Adelaide as their chance to put their plans for WEG into action. I'm hoping there will be some young guns pushing us (the old ones!) to perform at our best.
On the Sandhills home front, April saw Oliver turn 9 and like all good 9yo boys, he thought it would be a great idea to have an event for his birthday party including dressage judge, full length newcomers/ intro cross country course, show jumping course, secretaries tent, TD, announcer and canteen …
So the date was set and the Sandhills Invitational swung into action. As the name suggests, it was by invitation only, and 12 riders started with one late scratching, some school friends on foot with all commencing dressage at around 10am. Thanks to Bates and Ariat, long time sponsors of ours, all competitors were outfitted with lanyards, hats, and lots of prizes at the end of the day.
Dressage judge extraordinaire Simon Barton, overlooked proceedings - I'm sure Simon is much happier watching super rugby or an Ashes series, but on that day he drew the grey rinse and was the dressage judge.
Of course the dog policy was enforced - all dogs were to be off leads -costumes for the dressage were encouraged and the odd superman suit did appear. The dressage ran smoothly and scores were tight after the first phase.
I was the ‘gofer’ (Editor’s note: course designer) but for reasons that I am about to explain I had only just turned up at this point in the proceedings.
I'd flown home from a clinic in Perth on the ‘midnight horror’ and after not being able to sleep on the plane, I decided to pull over and have a nap on the drive home. Unfortunately, in my ‘midnight horror’ haze, I left the lights on and 20min later the car had a flat battery and wouldn't start. On one hand it was lucky that I had stopped at a service station, but unlucky as it was Easter Monday so not many options looming. To my surprise there were a set of jumper leads for sale in the shop which I promptly bought and wandered outside to find some unsuspecting Good Samaritan to give me a jump start. The old Nissan with ‘bush basher’ as a number plate, was my first port of call and Bingo! In no time I was on my way again. Phew! The wrath of a 9yo was diverted…
Oliver helping Superman with salute
I arrived home just in time to see Superman, aka Jesper, and his pony trying to double barrel the dressage judge as he turned right at C being led ably by the birthday boy who after three 20m circles handed on to the next person standing nearby! Not to mention Zac Irwin being chased by the announcers Jack Russell in his first 20m circle and the second and the third ...
Outside assistance in dressage from the dog
The show jumping had been designed in accordance with the Hong Kong Masters Grand Prix course as per Event Director, Oliver's instructions. It even provided a great jumping contest for the non-mounted competitors including Nan! Heights started with poles on the ground and worked up to 1.05 at which point the technicalities of the course started to bare it's teeth. No one knew who was winning at this point but the canteen was opened and lunch was served. A quick course walk followed in the 4WD and on the quad bike with trailer, which resembled roads and tracks course walks of old.
The cross country ran in reverse order, jump judges were replaced with spotters, both Aunts needed help with finding their next jump, the unmounted made it all the way round on foot, the dogs chased, some parents ‘encouraged’, Superman was a no show, the tension mounted and the time was a very technical procedure.
Nanny providing some great competition (maybe this is where my competitive spirit comes from!)
All in all it was a great day and lots of fun was had by all. For the record, I can't remember who won but the standouts were Rosie Cohen and Olivia Barton.
On a more serious note, the start to this year has also seen the retirement of Wendela Jamie from top level competition. Jamie would have been 18 at WEG next year and so in consultation with his wonderful owners Henry and Helen Hicks, it was decided that Jamie could now partner Jess Grossman at 1* then maybe 2* level. Jamie is a superstar and would be in the top 3 horses I have ever ridden. With the exception of Adelaide 4* last year, in all his CCI performances he was never placed lower than 4th. His only cross country penalties for his entire career were a fall of rider at Goulburn, my fault, and then his first ever 20 was at Adelaide last year. What a horse. Thanks Jamie, thanks Henry and Helen.
All the best
Craig
