The victorious Aussie team - photo: John Lechner
Kihikihi Trans Tasman
I did my first Trans Tasman in 1999 with Phil and Mary Hockney's Billy Bathgate. It was an amazing experience, and even though I only placed 11th, it was the event which helped me prepare for my win in the first CCI**** competition in Adelaide in November that year. We didn't win the teams event (I was riding as an individual), but even then the elusive title had not been won by Australia EVER!
This year I was honored to be selected once again to represent Australia for the Trans Tasman. 13 years on, I wasn't the "baby" of the team any more.
Julia McLean and John Glenn's little superstar horse Algebra and I were chosen to be the trailblazer for the team. This position in a team of team is very important. To start I needed to get a solid score in the dressage, plus the ability to give the team an insight on how the cross-country is riding to give the team a starting score for the competition. Of the team of four, the lowest score is discarded, so finishing the cross-country is very important. If the number one rider doesn't finish, it puts pressure on the rest of the team.
The event at Kihikihi was amazing. The course was spread out around sports grounds, including a rugby field and several polo fields. This made the going under foot perfect! The arena had a big tent around it with lots of flags. This looked spectacular, but it gave the arena a lot of atmosphere for the horses. For me this was great as we don't get the opportunity to compete under these conditions often. Sammi's test was generally really good, but in the halt and reinback, he spotted the cross country course and stopped and stared. I asked for him to go backward, and he just said "no". I had to wait a few seconds and after a little naughty rear, he finally decided to listen and he went backwards then off we went into canter and it was like nothing had happened. Our score was a bit down because of that, but 64% and an eventual third position was a good start to the weekend. The Aussie team really showed their strength in this phase, with Christine Bates on Delago in second and Shane Rose on the beautiful Taurus had a clear lead after the dressage. With Katja Weimann on BP Gallantry in fifth place, the Aussies were in the lead by some 40 points!
The cross-country course built by John Nicholson was a huge eye opener. The jumps were MASSIVE, but incredibly well designed and built. This is by far the most challenging course I have done at a CIC event to date. After the first two fences, you were hit with four sets of combinations with very open distances, which is tough for a little horse. The brush fences were well over my head and it was unbelievable to see how big the tree stumps are. There were two challenging water jumps and a massive ditch palisade jump, which was big enough to drive a car through. It was probably as close to a four star as you could get.
Being first on you don't get to see how the course was riding. I had always planned on doing all of the straight routes so I just had to stick to my own game plan. Algebra (Sammi) jumped the first three fences really well, but got a little keen at the fourth combination. He put his head up at the wrong time at a very open birch wood apex. It was set four strides from a vertical then down a steep slope. Unfortunately he didn't quite spot it and so we had a run off. Bugger! We quickly did the option and burned off to the next difficult combination, an oxer to a ditch in which you jumped into a hill. Once on top there was a very large arrowhead. He did this really well and we were off again.
The wide arrowhead to the next big apex he jumped like a dream, then from then on we cruised around. He cleared the massive brush's easily and flew through the waters. Over the big ditch and home, it was a huge relief to finish!
Sam and I were the first Aussies to challange the tough New Zealand track - photo: John Lechner
Big hugs all round, but I couldn't help being a bit angry with myself for having a run off. Christine who was next to go for Australia, was warming up her young horse Delago. Whilst the first New Zealand team rider Simon Gordon, second out on course had a fall at the water. I watched Christine start the course, but was also helping cool down Sammi, when I heard the "oh my god" and I looked up and saw Christine on the ground next to Delago. He had left a leg on the third fence and while Christine stayed on initially, Delago couldn’t regain his balance and fell, spearing Christine to the ground. Ouch, it looked awful and seeing her lie there whilst the ambulance and people all around is always sickening. Delago was perfectly OK and we had his gear off and cooled down straight away whilst Christine was carted off to hospital. She was released later on but had some serious gravel rash.
The next few riders had a few stops and falls and nervously awaiting in the warm up area was Katja Weimann, next to go for the Aussies. With the competition already with one from each team out, and one from each team finished, it was very important for Katja to finish. Katja bravely took on the Apex and was only one of two for the event succeeding. They looked to be going amazing until her mount known as Gus put an extra stride in at the angle brush and he fell onto the fence. Katja looked all but gone, but she managed to push herself up off his neck and keep going … Hooray! Another scary moment at the second water, but the brave combination finished. This was fantastic, as the course was proving to be really difficult to get around.
Shane Rose was the last to go for the Aussies. Shane appeared a little nervous waiting (I was glad to be first to go after seeing the course ridden) but he started in fine form. A last minute decision to avoid the apex and take the option gave him some time penalties and a ride over the angle brush that only Shane could pull off, but the rest was smooth sailing. They flew home clear and with the fastest time of the day.
Shane had increased his lead over Joseph Waldron (NZ) one of only four clear rounds of the event in second place. Donna Smith (NZ) was in third place on her horse Henton Executive. Despite my initial disappointment, I was happy to be in fourth place just 0.8 points from Donna. Katja Weimann was in eighth place and the Aussie team still had quite a handy lead of 40 points.
The show jumping the following day was a beautifully built course in the main arena. The two star class beforehand appeared to be having a lot of trouble with few clears. The show jumping is held in reverse order of placings, making it even more nerve-wracking. Katja jumped a great clear round which put us in good spirits. The little grey superstar Sammi also went clear putting pressure on Donna Smith who ended up having a rail, pushing her back to fourth place. I was then in third position and watched Joseph and Shane produce clear rounds.
Final results were Shane Rose and Taurus first, Joseph Waldron second, we were third, and Katja Weimann and BP Gallantry sixth.
The Aussie team producing all clear rounds proved our dominance over in NZ and we were excited to be a part of history with the only Aussie team to ever win on New Zealand soil!
On to Sydney three day event
The past few weeks leading up to Sydney three day event have been very strenuous. What with several trips to squad schools at Windsor and then back again to Wallaby hill in Sydney. Then a busy non-stop week in New Zealand and flying home with the team horses, it was back in the truck and heading home to get ready for our last minute competition in Canberra for a final run, we are now completely exhausted.
With so much riding on the final selection event, and so many days, months and years training for the one event, for some it would have been a thrill and others a letdown. For me, it was a bit of both. I was very happy in general with Algebra’s performance. He has yet again done a CCI*** competition in the placing’s, but I was hoping to break the cycle and come up with a finish in the top three. With the very high calibre field, even little mistakes cost us a lot and you are left wondering if you could have done anything better.
Sam’s dressage was good and he was very relaxed, but not having the greatest half passes and not maintaining a halt, probably cost us a few placing’s and we ended up ninth. Dressage is such a subjective sport and you are relying on three judges to make an on the spot decision on how they rate your horse during the test. Of the three judges, they were all very different with a 69%, 65% and a 63%. You always get a bit offended by the lower mark of the three judges, but other than the top few horses, the marks for everyone were all over the board. You then have to soldier on and the good thing about eventing is that the cross country and showjumping is all about you and the horse and there is always room to catch up.
The cross country at Sydney, whilst appeared tough enough, it was really no match for the quality field and other than the inexperienced riders and horses no one had any real problems. Time was hard to make and whilst I felt I was up on time, the last minute was a lot harder to make than expected leaving me five seconds short and with two penalties. Again happy to finish but a little disappointed that I let the legendary Sonja Johnson and Christine Bates ahead of me before the showjumping. Both of these horses are super jumpers and I knew they would most likely go clear!
Sam felt great cross country but those two time penalites were costly
Sam was absolutely knackered that evening and morning. I have never seen him so tired at an event. I think the travel to New Zealand knocked him around more that I imagined, but for him, being a little tired also means he is more relaxed. On with the new Hidez suit (compression suit for horses) and an Equissage and lots of icing he felt very good in the morning of the showjumping when we had a quick session with Rod Brown.
The showjumping course was very well designed and tested all the different capabilities of the horses. There were jumps facing the crowd and tent, triple bar and style fences into a big combination. The first few horses seemed to have a lot of time penalties, so I rode tighter lines and kept Sam moving throughout the course. He jumped really well but as we jumped the last, we were cheered on by the crowd and commentator which we all thought was a clear round, then an almighty ‘ahhh’ We just tapped off the last back rail on the way down! I felt elation turn to disappointment again. He really did jump well, but sometimes you can hit something hard and it stays up and other times the slightest touch brings it down.
We ended up moving up a place to eighth after watching some really great clear rounds and some rounds you had to hold your breath the whole way.
I may have thought Sam was a little tired after cross country but he still tried to out run me on Sunday's trot up
Good thing about Sam is that he is a really sound horse, so he pulled up like we haven’t even had a major competition, which is now adding up to seventeen or so three and four star runs in his career so far.
We are keeping our fingers, toes and hooves crossed that we are selected for the team or at least a reserve for the team for London. It is now a really long wait to see what the UK based riders will achieve and with Badminton canned, the nail biting continues for everyone here in Australia. No one really knows who will be on the team. D-Day is the 18th of June, so that is over six weeks away. In the meantime, we have to prepare as if we are going to the games and hope for the best!
