My rock!
Well it’s been a week now since the running of the Melbourne 3DE and I have just emerged from under my rock, yes my great BIG rock. Talk about a bittersweet experience, anyway I had better not start my blog with the end of the story, so here goes.
The Melbourne 3DE extravaganza is a massive undertaking, time consuming, expensive and a logistics nightmare. However it is also the experience of a lifetime and well worth doing, but you might as well write off a whole week prior to the competition as the horses are required at Werribee Park on the Wednesday prior to the start of competition, so the weekend and Monday, Tuesday prior are pretty much spent packing the truck, cleaning gear, organising hay, feed, bedding etc.
Luckily I had some pretty experienced girls (and boy!) looking after me and Jupiter (Joop), as I had no idea how many times Joop would require plaiting, washing, make-upping, bandaging etc, etc. It was like a little village down at the stables and Laura McMahon and Sam Jeffree were absolutely on top of everything. Joop was his normal sulky self for the first day and didn’t drink or eat all that much but soon got into the swing of things. I think it really suited Joop to be worked twice each day and working on those arenas at Werribee was invaluable. The familiarisation sessions on the actual competition arena were also a huge help and he was much quieter after working him for a few sessions.
Not bad for being straight
So by the Saturday we were ready to take on all comers, all 76 of them anyway ha ha. I was hoping for a nice 50th spot after the dressage but my confidence was a little shattered when the girl before me was being instructed by Heath Ryan and was doing like trotting on the spot in the warm up (nearly ran into her a couple of times) so my confidence wasn’t improved by the cheer that went up from the crowd on the completion of her test. Well now it was my turn, Joop goes in and does this grouse test, stays calm and surprises me no end! It’s awesome, fantastic for me and I get a warm reception from the punters as I exit the ring, friends and family I’m sure ha ha. The score comes through and I am running 23rd, now that might sound bad but it’s not a bad place to be considering the size of the field. I might be half a chance for a ribbon; I just have to do a good job tomorrow.
I was a happy man as I left the arena
The cross country looks fantastic, nice going, doable and I can’t quite believe that I will be riding around it in the morning, just one more sleep to go. Sunday morning dawns and the big question for the morning is stud selection, we have had light rain all night and I walk the course again just to make my final decision. It looks slippery and a little deep in parts so I decide on the fairly large ‘woolly whoopers’ as I like to call them, the winding track through the Rose Garden is going to be fairly chopped up by the time I get there, so I err on the side of caution. The time has arrived so with my trusty timepiece set and a determination to make time I am counted down and head off at my idea of a gallop. Joop is fairly hammering and we are actually ahead of our first 4-minute markers (amazing!) oh and clear too! I figure we need to be ahead of time to allow for the combinations and the Rose Garden area, it’s like 4100 metres long and optimum time is nearly 8 minutes with 21 fences with 9 combinations so we need to be well ahead. I hope I can last that long as we have only done mainly 5-minute tracks before. We jump the final fences clear but incur just 1.6 time penalties, it’s still enough to have us running 15th, considering ribbons go to 15th my prospects are looking good.
Joop's is quite happy to go for a walk at the finish while I let everyone know how it went
And if you click on the video below you can see how I went
Joop’s pulls up well, and Laura has him in ice boots quick smart, walking him and icing throughout the day. Everything is going well, a little too well I’m thinking. Something has got to go wrong, it has to, it always does. And yes dear readers it does (more on that later). So donning my pinstriped suit, accessorised with a smart hat (due to an ordinary haircut administered by an Asian hairdresser in Werribee on the Wednesday afternoon) I head off to the trot up. It’s freezing, flaming cold, and it’s 8.30 on a Monday morning, not to mention my screaming hangover (courtesy of over celebration of my success the previous day). Trot up is apparently a 3DE thing, which I am sure, is more about the mettle of the rider rather than the soundness of the horse, however Joop leads me down the runway and I pass (sorry I mean Joop passes) with no problems at all. Thank God, another trot down there and I think I would have been permanently disabled; anyway we are passed and allowed to continue onto the showjumping phase.
There we go - me and my hat
After a tense morning we are almost set to go finally, due to running 15th the class jumps in reverse order so I have to wait for 50 odd horses to jump before us. I finally get my turn and canter into the indoor full of bravado and confidence, salute the judge and head off waiting to hear the bell, off it goes and we are away. We jump the first and get a great distance, jump the second and get a great distance, in fact it’s looking faultless; perfect actually (a little too good), keep jumping feeling like I’m in some sort of heavenly place, until disaster strikes, or some might say divine intervention. I prefer to refer to it as my ‘major stuff up’, seven stride curving line to a big brown and white oxer, I try it in six! Stupid, all I had to do was wait, but no, rush of blood, I launch. Joop chips in, and next thing I’m looking up at the flags hanging off the ceiling.
Flat on my back (glad I didn’t buy the $600 GPA helmet, or it would have been an expensive fall), anyway I take the walk of shame, embarrassing to say the least and head off to look for that rock where I have been ever since. It’s a funny thing, when you are going good you want people to ask,” how did ya go”, but when you go bad, you just wish they wouldn’t ask at all.
Seriously Melbourne was a great experience and was the culmination of twelve months of hard work. It was a great experience even though I fell off. Having had a bit of time to think about things I have come to the conclusion that provided Joop keeps forgiving me I will continue on with my eventing and hopefully in time improve. Who knows, I might even try the 2 star next year? (but I’m not making any promises this time). Have a little thing called showjumping to sort out, so for now it’s over and out from me and hope to see you all out there again soon.
