Every month around this date I have a reminder set on my phone to let me know that my blog is due. It so happened that this reminder was set for midday on the 7th April and went off in my pocket when I was attempting to organise a new event on the WA calender – Little Brigadoon CNC!
The Future Eventing Committee after running our first event!
Photo by Darren Dawes of Redfoto
In September last year, a group of WA young riders including myself, Felicity Hegarty, Michaela Martindale, Tegan Lush, Elizabeth Moore, Bec Williams, Kate Klemm and Sarah Isbister (all of whom ride horses and most compete interstate!) got together to create the ‘Future Eventing’ committee. The aim for the committee is exactly that – to become the Future of our sport in Western Australia; as event organisers are getting tired and we have started to lose both grounds and events. Before we knew it, we had an event on the calendar that developed the name Little Brigadoon, which hardly seemed right after the 200 odd entries had been accepted on Ktrials! My role was the Event Secretary and over the past three months I have been working hard with mum (Karen Wood) and Sue Warren to get our event up and running. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t absolutely exhausted today however this strong satisfaction that now lays inside of me has made it all worthwhile. We did it!
The event was a massive success. Held over two days at the State Equestrian Centre we had only two grades – EvA65 and EvA80. ‘Only’ two grades ended up being eight classes with record introductory entries in WA! There were a total of five senior classes and three junior classes – which also incorporated the annual High Schools one day event. We had a great hardworking team that didn’t stop at the list of the committee. Mothers, dads, partners, sisters … the list went on and on. We had so much support and it was just fantastic. We ended up with a super group of sponsors, an awesome team behind the scenes and the positive feedback has not stopped rolling in. I can say, on behalf of our committee, that we are so excited to keep building our event up – the possibilities for the future are endless. Bring on 2014!
Early Days in the show jumping at Murray PC ODE
Photo by Lauren Youngs
On another note – all of the horses on my team have been going really well and we have had a super start to the season. I believe I left you all with ‘waiting’ for the first event. Well that has come and gone and I was happy with the performance by Early Days at Murray HPC ODE where she came fifth in the ‘A Grade’ section.
Just Corona in the dressage phase at Capel CNC 2**
Photo 4 by Sue Gilbert
One week later we made the three hour journey down south to Capel CNC for our first EA Event of the year. Held on the 23rd and 24th of March, Capel is generally a super first event as the grounds are amazing. This year didn’t fail to deliver with perfect going on the cross country course – a big thankyou to the Capel PC Committee for their efforts, and to the Polo Club there who I believe help with maintaining the grounds. Here I had Just Corona in the 2** class and Early Days in the 1*. Both horses went really well – solid dressage tests, clear cross country rounds and the show jumping went mostly to plan. A couple of ‘early season jockey errors’ with the ride I gave to Trumpet, however everything was definitely looking positive towards W.A.Y.E.R @ Brookleigh in a couple of weeks. Daisy finished sixth in good company and a massive 1* class of around 35. Trumpet just missed out with a seventh.
Just Corona into the water at Capel CNC 2**
Photo 2 by Sue Gilbert
On a ‘non horsey’ note I spent a very relaxing few days over Easter Four-wheel driving and fishing for about three days down south in Bremer Bay and it was just perfect. It’s always nice to have a few days rest after a pretty full on few months! I was lucky enough that my sisters Samantha and Tara (well…supposedly…I guess I will never know!) fed the horses for me, alongside my weekly helper Tayla Cooper. It’s always stressful leaving the horses in the hands of someone else however I returned home to no injuries and nothing abnormal – thankfully!
It’s all onwards and upwards from here. Four horses back in work, preparing for my upcoming clinic in May and also getting geared up towards W.A.Y.E.R CIC in a few weeks – bring it on!
Makayla
