Adelaide - what an event, what a week, what good horses and the jockey wasn’t too bad either!!
Never in my experiences have I ever had a three day preparation go so smoothly. Winning a 4* or any event takes months of preparation, fitness, fine tuning, obsessing and stressing before even reaching the venue. It is very common to have hiccups along the way, anything from a hoof abscess, nail bind, virus or an eye ulcer can cause upset the preparation and make you miss gallops and training days.
With two horses aimed at the 4* in Adelaide things are bound to go wrong along the way, but week after week, gallop after gallop the horses got fitter, stronger and everything just kept ticking along nicely. We got to a week out from leaving the final gallops where complete and we were still on track. At this point all I was trying to think was positive thoughts, but I still had in the back of my mind everything that could go wrong, but lucky for us it all went smoothly.
The drive from Sydney to Adelaide is approximately 16 hours in a truck without stops. We left home, at 10:30am on the Monday before the event with four horses on board; Shane’s 2 four star horses, CP Qualified (Darcy) and Virgil, plus Waltresse (Niki’s dressage horse) and Diablito (Judy Clarke’s 2* horse). We had an entourage of people as well; me, Shane, Judy, Lauren and Jessie enjoyed the truck trip while we met Niki and the kids and Amanda, who had flown over from WA to help out for the weekend, in Adelaide. This left Laura, Rhianna, Shannon and Genna to man the fort at home.
We had a quick fuel stop just up the road and then onto Narranderra, 6 hours down the Hume Highway and the horses were then ready for a leg stretch and a pick of grass to get their heads down. We then loaded back up and continued on to Balranald, arriving at approximately 8pm Monday night. We set up camp for the night, rugged and bandaged the horses and let them settle in and have relaxing few hours. Virgil was very excited to be off the truck and enjoyed his sandy yard by rolling and rolling, now that he and his rug was filthy dirty he was happy.
We set off as the sun was rising at 5:30 am Tuesday morning to continue the journey across the Hay plains. The Hay Plains is a very flat piece of land and you hardly have to move the steering wheel for hours as the road in quite straight and with a view for miles without a tree in site. It’s a long drive with not much scenery except the odd emu every now and then.
We left Balranald with just over half a tank of fuel and after a couple of hours on the road we started to get a little nervous. The Hay Plains and its road to Adelaide is missing some fuel stations that are open that hour of the morning and even on a Tuesday! Every town we reached were closed, had run out of diesel or only have fuel available every Monday and Thursday between 10 am and noon. Shane was busy doing sums in his head calculating how many kilometres of diesel was left in the tanks and with signs saying 23km to Pinaroo it was touch and go whether we would make it; with the final bend in the journey to the fuel station the truck was running very low but luckily the fuel gods were with us and we rolled down the hill and into the fuel station. After filling up and some breakfast it was onto the final leg into Adelaide.
Just made it to the fuel station!
We made it by around noon and got the boys all checked in and they were very pleased to be able to have some grass and stretch their legs. We were lucky and had stables underneath the shady trees along the road side, which gave them a little bit more shelter from the sun. Shane rode the two boys later that evening before we all started the Adelaide tradition of heading to the pub. The event in Adelaide is quite unique as the venue is situated in parklands in Adelaide cit, and it is a short walk to the middle of the city centre. The stables and truck parking used to be set up directly across the road (100m) from the Britannia Hotel, now the stables are further down the road so it is a little bit more of a hike (approx. 700m)!! Conveniently located the pub is the place to go for dinner and catch up with many people you have hardly seen all year.
Wednesday was trot up day, we were up early to get the horses out of their stables early to again fill them up with some grass and try to beat the worst of the heat. Both the boys were feeling, eating and drinking well. Virgil was up too his usual tricks, annoying everyone around him. He loves attention and whenever someone was doing something with Darcy or the horse next to him he would start pawing at the door and calling out to someone to come and give him some attention. With trot up not scheduled to start until 4pm with the 2* it was a long hot day waiting around for it to kick off.
When it came around to the start of the 4* both Virgil and Darcy were sound and happy to strut their stuff up the runway. Unfortunately we didn’t win the best presented horse and rider combination, but I was extremely happy for Emily Littlejohn who was working for John Twomey, together they won the prize for the male rider. Emily is a good friend of mine who I met in the UK, she is Bill Levett’s head girl and came to Australia for holidays and while over she decided to work at Adelaide so she could tick off all the 4*’s in the world.
Virgil posing with Emily in the Adelaide stables
That day Shane was able to have some help from Gareth Hughes who had flown over from the UK to teach the squad riders in the lead up to the event and in the final preparations before their tests. At just two days before competition it is about trying to polish off everything you have been working on all year, making sure the frame of the horse and the overall picture is as good as it could be. A big part of doing as good a test as possible is getting the warm up right for each individual horse; Virgil is a horse who thrives on being confident. He is an intelligent horse, who keeps learning and growing from experience all the time, Shane encourages him to keep trying as much as possible. Darcy is one who’s warm up needs to go right, he can be lazy and get tired quickly so you don’t want to overdo the warm up but not long enough means he can be spooky and make mistakes.
Although Thursday was a day off from competition there was still plenty to be done and think about, more lessons with Gareth and then arena familiarisation in the afternoon. Shane was out doing course walks in his spare time and he also spent some time at Bates, TRM and Brighton’s Saddlery trade stands. At the end of Thursday you could say we were quite happy looking at the score board of the 2*, Amanda Ross winning on Dicavalli Diesel (a horse who she purchased off Shane and Niki earlier in the year), our friendly neighbour and good friend Judy Clarke was 2nd on her lovely Diablito and not too far behind was Sam Lyle on Glenorchy South Park, a horse who Niki was meant to ride at Adelaide but her timing of pregnancy was a little off.
By Friday, we were all eager to get the competition underway. Dressage morning always has a different feel in the atmosphere; some people are keen to get it over and done with while others want to leave it as long as possible. Darcy was fourth out in the 4* at 10:24 in the morning. He warmed up well and everything seemed to be on track but he entered the arena and you could tell that he just wasn’t quite there after the first few movements, he wasn’t 100% settled and there were the odd mistake here and there with caused the marks to fall down.
There were some lovely parts to the test which scored well but movement in a halt, jogging in the walk, and a very uncharacteristic missed change put him on a dressage score of 42. Not a bad score but still some improvement to come. With Virgil not on until mid-afternoon there was plenty of time to wash, plait and get him ready for the test, Shane was able to go through Darcy’s test and then make a new plan for Virgil, after Darcy’s test he decided to give Virgil five more minutes in the warm up. Which is what he believes Darcy could have benefitted from, he was just not quite with him during the test and the atmosphere was more electric than predicted.
Darcy circling the arena before his test
Shane got on Virgil 35 minutes before his test, the warm up mainly consisted of running through test movements and making sure he was listening to Shane’s aids and keeping him happy and confident. He entered the ring and continued through his test well. A solid test with no mistakes, so we were a little disappointed that it didn’t score in the 40’s but a 50.2 was still competitive. Going forward there is still a lot of areas to gain marks, his frame can still improve by getting his neck a little longer and therefore improving the overall picture. Darcy ended the day in front by 7 penalties with Virgil in 7th place, with less than 2 penalties behind second place.
The morning of cross country had finally arrived. While the riders are out doing final course walks and making decisions on how to ride each fence and which line between trees through the parklands is going to be quicker, the grooms and helpers are kept busy keeping the horses happy and chilled out and also packing wheelbarrows to take to the finish box. We pack anything from head collars, buckets, sponges and scrapers to spare studs. I always get the farrier to make up a spare set of shoes for each horse before leaving home, so if they happen to lose a shoe you have a spare one ready to get tacked straight back on. Other things are towels, leg grease, scissors, electrical tape and a spanner to take out the studs. The 2* class was first out in the morning and with that all going fairly smoothly the 4* started on time.
Again Darcy was first out for us, he left the start box and headed to the first fence, Darcy is known for being a little spooky and he lived up to his reputation heading towards the first fence, he spooked left and right and backed right off, Shane had to kick him and nearly jumped it at a 45 degree angle. It gave everyone looking on a little shock but once they were over the first fence everything looked to be going well from then on. Unfortunately the spook early on caused him to be behind his minute markers from the first minute, he was unable to catch these up and came in with 3.2 time penalties but still the 5th fastest time of the day. After he had finished his round it was all systems go in the cool box, we were lucky they had a tent set up with misting fans and interestingly enough all horses seemed to love them.
We quickly took off all Darcy’s gear before putting cold water on him and moving him inside the tent in front of the misting fan. The veterinary team take temperatures and heart rates as soon as the rider dismounts and then they are checked every ten minutes. They will usually hold the horse in the area for 15-20 minutes or until the horses temperature is below 38.8 and heart rate below 80. This can be difficult in a fit horse who gets excited by horses galloping past elevating their heart rate again. It is also common that a horse will come in with a temperature but after ten minutes of cooling the temp will have elevated slightly, these horses if they were fit enough will then come down quite quickly after their ten minute check.
After we had cooled Darcy off and cleared by the veterinary team he went back to his stable for some hay and then the icing of his legs begins. I put ice on for forty minutes then off for half an hour, then repeating half an hour on half an hour off, checking regularly for heat and swelling anywhere. After Darcy’s first lot of ice, it was time to saddle Virgil and do it all again. Virgil cantered out of the start box a little straighter and more forward than Darcy and he cantered around the rest of the course coming in under time, the first of the day. It was a pretty great day with both horses performing very well and pulling up great. We trotted them up at 6pm and again at 10pm they had done well and were ready for a good night sleep. It was a great feeling in the team to have the two horses sitting 1st and 2nd.
Let's do a bit of grooming ourselves ..........
It was an early start when the stables open at 5am to prepare the boys for a big day ahead, knowing they were sitting 1st and 2nd was exciting but there were so many things that could go wrong. Knowing they are two good jumping horses gives you confidence, but in 3rd position was Clarke Johnstone on a super jumper. All the home work had been done and it was down to one trot up and a showjump round each. The morning consisted of plaiting and presenting for the trot up before 9am, they both sailed through and you always feel a little bit of pressure release once they are through the final trot up. It was down to just keeping the coloured poles in the cups and hoping the jockey remembers the course.
With the reverse order of placings for the showjumping it meant that Virgil would jump out of order slightly, he warmed up well but cantered into the ring and knew the crowd was out to see him, he jumped the first fence massive and kept that theme for the whole round. He is a super jumper and lived up to his reputation. It was just after he finished his round the team realised Shane had won Adelaide, no other horse could beat Virgil except Darcy. Shane had won but there was not a lot of time to celebrate as he had to get his mind back on the job he had to do for Darcy. Darcy had warmed up really well and was feeling great, he went into the ring and had an unlucky rail jumping into the double. But it was still enough to take out the victory narrowly ahead of Virgil in 2nd place.
Shane had done it 1st and 2nd at Adelaide, something we had joked about at home the week before we left. It was an unreal feeling that they were both at the top of the podium and he was unbeatable on that weekend. The party continued that night at the Britannia before heading into Adelaide city.
All that was left ahead was the long drive home, a long journey is always easier after a good weekend, and what a good weekend it was, 1st and 2nd in the 4* Judy finished 2nd in the 2* and Niki finished 3* in the dressage grand final. Sam Lyle on Glenorchy South Park finished 3rd. For the four horses that travelled on the truck all to have podium finishes, you can’t do much better than that!
