We enjoyed a great time at Warwick
Like most of us bloggers, we do really mean to be on time with our blogs, but reality is that an eventers month is more like 62 days, maybe more. We often wonder where the time went between months. Having already competed at Warwick and Sydney 3DE’s, we now have to make plans for the upcoming Melbourne 3DE. If there were more daylight hours in the day you can be sure we would be still riding/teaching the endless amount of horses we train to make enough of a living to compete in this country. Unfortunately we can’t live off our prize money and there isn’t many high paying sponsors. Great owners are hard to come by and have to be just as hardworking and enthusiastic about the sport to stay in it. So to even be able to go off for a week to do a 3DE means we have to work double time before and after to make up for a week of lost revenue.
I was extremely happy with my horses at both Warwick and Sydney. Warwick has been trying really hard to get competitors back up from NSW to their event. It is hard to get a horse ready for an early 3DE especially when the cross country at SIEC was rained out. But it was a good chance for me to gain a qualification for my lovely young horse My Aladdin. This was the first time I had made the trip to Warwick and in general I thought the event was great.
My Aladdin is a big horse with hopefully a big future
The organisers were trying hard to be rider/horse friendly. It was the same, laid back, personable atmosphere as Camperdown. The cross country course going was good under the circumstances of it being very dry and there weren’t any huge nasty looking jumps. With Girl with a Curl winning the CCI*, My Aladdin placing third and Algebra winning the CIC*** AND coming home with the state of origin trophy, I was rapt.
We had a great team of young riders. We were competing against an all star QLD team including Stuart Tinney, Rebel Morrow and Isabel English so it was going to be a hard task and we were the definite underdogs. We were bound to be a bit behind in the dressage. However I said to my young team mates that it isn’t a dressage competition so the plan was to ride well cross country and we would be in with a shot. The scores had crept closer by the end of the cross country with all of our riders coming home clear. With a few great show jumping rounds by my team it then came down to me not having more than a rail in the show jumping. The scores were so close we weren’t sure who had won, but we were very excited to have come up trumps.
Trans Tasman winners ... I love being part of a team!
Sydney 3DE Trans Tasman, another great event. It was a real honour to be able to be on an Aussie Team, and we are using it to gain experience for selection for future team events like WEG. There is always an added pressure of being able to perform well not only for yourself, but for the team and country.
The course from Mike E-S was again brilliantly designed. It was definitely tougher this year but it was very fair, with lots of nice options. I was happy with Sam’s (Algebra’s) dressage, scoring 47.7. Algebra’s scores are constantly improving so I would like to think we could get closer to the low 40’s in the future. I was a little conservative at times in the XC (we had a naughty run off at Albury) so I took a lot of time setting up for the apexes in the main arena which cost me a few seconds, plus he was very excited and he was strong throughout the course. He finished the 10 minute round still pulling! A clear show jumping round and we ended up 4th individually and it was fantastic to be on another Aussie Trans Tasman winning Team! I was thinking during the presentations that wouldn’t it be nice if the top four of us placegetters all got on the plane to WEG... hint hint to the selectors.
Algebra was keen as usual at Sydney
So that’s what I have been up to the past few months. Other than work, I have moved in to my new property and house. There is still the odd box to be sorted through. But I am enjoying the close proximity to my horses and we have such amazing views so it is a real pleasure to finally be able to fully work from home. I have Matthew Jantakad from Thailand here training with his aim to find a horse and qualify for the Asian Games next year.
My annual winter darts competition in Yass has started which is becoming a regular competition for me. It is a pretty laid back social competition, in which we get to meet a lot of people from around the region. We basically play against all the pubs and clubs in the district and clubs in Yass, Dalton, Binalong and Bowning. Last year we were the B grade champions! The competitive nature in me now wants to crack the A grade championship! I will keep you informed with our progress.
Next for us will be Melbourne 3DE with My Aladdin in the CCI*. I think this horse could be amazing, but he is very big and is taking a while to find his balance. He has already got a qualification at this level, but I think it would be good experience for him to compete in this atmosphere. Algebra will go to Adelaide while Girl with a Curl will compete at one day event 2 stars untill we feel she is ready to tackle a CCI** - perhaps at the end of the year.
Nat
