Eventing is full of ups and downs - but you have to keep smiling ...
For those Aussie eventers who chose to stay and compete in Australia, Adelaide is the highlight of the year. Everyone converges on Adelaide not only to compete in the 4 star but it’s almost a party to celebrate another year of eventing in the country. For us we always aim to have at least one horse to stick on the truck for 15 hrs, drive across the Hay plains to spend a week with people from all over the country. But the road to Adelaide is long and never uneventful!
For us the lead up to Adelaide was challenging to say the least. Straight after Canberra, which didn’t quite go to plan for team Bimbadeen, CP Qualified (Darci) had yet to actually qualify for Adelaide and so had to have one last ditch effort at Silver Hills. At the beginning of the week though we had one staff member leave and another go on holiday. Not an ideal situation to begin with but we were battling through getting horses fed and worked. Little did we know there was worse to come.
In the middle of the week the worst happened. Rach, one of our long-standing employees, was kicked in the face by a young eventer here for schooling. Not good! I am currently reading a book written about the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria. In it they talk about a “survival arc” which is an analysis of human response to a disaster and the three stages involved in this response: denial, deliberation and the decisive moment.
I didn’t see the accident happen, in fact I was feeding the horses in the stables when Will and Soigne walked around the corner looking glum, informing me that Rach was on her way to hospital. I didn’t believe them to start with, after all I had spoken to her ten minutes earlier. Denial. Then came the deliberation. Niki had rushed her off to the emergency room and so I was left pondering do I call her parents or do I wait and see what happens at the hospital. Having been on the receiving end of one of those phone calls I know that its one of the hardest decisions to make especially when you haven’t really got any answers to the questions that are going to be asked. I tried calling a couple of people for advice, none of which would answer and so we decided to wait and see what the ER doctors had to say.
Shane had been at a meeting and I had left him a voice mail message. When he rang me back and I retold him the story his first response was ‘she gets kicked a lot.’ Not always the most compassionate person but that said he is good in a crisis as he keeps his head and stays calm! We chatted quickly and decided that being down to three staff members for the week we would turn out most of the eventers, bar the ones going to Adelaide, and all the racehorses. Shane headed off to the hospital to wait for a prognosis.
Rach had three fractures in her nose and one in her eye socket and cheek bone. Remarkably she didn’t get knocked out when the horse connected with her. She would have to be one of the toughest people I have ever met. To date she has had her nose operated on and she is going back to a specialist next week to see if the eye socket and cheek bone need to be realigned. She was back at work doing light duties after a week!
So Shane and Niki had to head off to Silver Hills by themselves. Fortunately its only 20 minutes down the road so I could plait both horses and get them ready before putting them on the truck. Both horses came away with a win and more importantly Darci had his qualifier for Adelaide.
Our next challenge was Equitana where Shane had decided to take Virgil down to compete in the Exhibition Eventing. His competitive streak firing he wanted to maintain his unbeaten streak. So I plaited Virgil up and got him ready and sent the 2 of them off on Thursday afternoon. From all reports Virgil was a star and looked like a show hack. Shane had managed to convince a few people that he had plaited himself! I was a little dismayed when I pulled Virgil off the float on Saturday morning to find his plaits were still in! Poor Virgil!
With a quick turn around we unloaded, cleaned and reloaded for the trip to Adelaide on Monday. In previous years our drives to Adelaide have been nothing short of entertaining with breaking down, going over weight and having to purchase a trailer in Wagga to get all the gear home and getting the truck and trailer wedged in a ditch as Shane decided to go off road driving! Never a dull moment. But we made it this year within good time and no major delays.
Along with Darci on the truck we had Moritz (APH Moritz) and Soigne’s horse Gold, both of which were competing in the 4 star. With the horses settled in their stables we headed into town to grab some dinner and supplies. Adelaide is unique event, running through the parklands in the centre of town, so it’s easy for everyone to walk to the main street and have a nice meal out rather than living off microwave dinners for the week. Little did we know this was going to be a week which we should probably have just stayed home.
Settling in with a bit of Adelaide grass
The problems began the following day with Soigne’s horse. He was quite stiff in his back end and without actually knowing what he had done we believed he may have got cast in his box over night. Unfortunately it was not going to be and she was spun at the first trot up. Meanwhile Moritz and Darci were both working well and happy in their temporary home. Moritz is a bit of a stress head and for him to be relaxed in such a different environment is a big deal. Hopefully he is growing up and realising life isn’t that bad!
Both boys went out and did fabulous dressage tests. I was so proud of them, especially Moritz as he can be a little exuberant but he kept his head and we finished the day leading both the 2 star and the 4 star. A great start to the event!
Mortiz jumps in to the water looking good but sadly the heat caught up with him and they walked home
The weather had been warming up since we arrived and the forecasts were for a hot day for cross country. Not ideal for galloping around but the organisers are always prepared and there was almost more vets than there were horses. Unfortunately Moritz didn’t cope well with galloping in the heat so Shane and he walked home. Darci looked a little spooky coming out of the start box but he jumped around clear and only two seconds over time. He came into the cool down area blowing a bit but he recovered well and we headed back to the stables to ice. At 11pm both horses were wrapped up and in bed. On cross country night grooms and riders are shut out of the stables from 11 til 5 am. This allows the horses to have some undisturbed sleep and re energise for the show jumping the next day.
The team swing in to action as Darci finishes his cross country round
When I walked into the stables at 5 the next morning to take Darci out for a walk he barely wanted to put his foot on the ground. It appeared he had bashed an old over reach and thought his foot had been cut off! Horses are just like people in that you have some that are tough and battle on through no matter what (Rach) and others that couldn’t possibly work with a small ailment. Darci thought he was one of the latter. Shane came down and had a look at him and we tried a few tricks to see if anything would help him get through trot up. He certainly improved but still wasn’t quite right and chances are that it would also affect his show jumping and so the decision was made to withdraw him from the competition.
So with no horses left to get ready for trot up and show jumping, Shane decided his day was best spent at the Adelaide oval for the 4th day of the cricket! I packed up and then with nothing else to do I snuck into the VIP tent to have lunch with friends and owners of the two horses. It’s quite a novel thing for me to sit down and watch the show jumping from a spectators point of view, it doesn’t happen very often!
Shane receives the Anna Savage Best and Fairest Award from Pam Savage
We had one highlight for the week, Shane won the Anna Savage Best and Fairest event rider award so at least we came away with something for the week. So we loaded up the horses just after lunch for the long trip back home. 15 hours in a truck is not so fun when you haven’t had the best of weeks.
We arrived home at lunch time on Monday and it was straight back into working horses and unpacking the truck. With only Berrima event left this weekend, the year has almost come to an end. It’s almost time to rest and recuperate to be ready for yet another full on year in 2013.
