The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials really is the bee’s knees, full of (to use the words of Libby Law) ROCKSTARS and SUPER HEROES!
The riders love the event, the spectators love the event (and the shopping) and we love it too. Obviously it is an event that all of the UK-based Australian riders try to compete at and this year the usual suspects of Paul Tapner, Sam Griffiths, Bill Levett etc were joined by Megan Jones and Tim Boland.
Sadly for Tim, it was no-go from the first horse inspection. A minor injury to GV Billy Elliot from the previous run stopped Tim competing but they bounced back at Blenheim. Megan had an unfortunate run-out on the cross country picking up 20 faults which put her out of contention despite a good dressage and one of only four clear rounds show jumping on Kirby Park Allofasudden. Sam Griffiths (above) was the best placed Australian but it was one of his fellow Antipodeans that took the honours; Andrew Nicholson and Avebury while American Sinead Halpin (below) looked fantastic during all phases of the event on the French bred horse Manoir de Carneval, with just a small blip in the showjumping to put her in the runner-up position.
CLICK HERE for our full coverage of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials
At the Fidelity Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials Tim and Billy Elliot were second after dressage then showed how well Billy can jump with a clear showjumping round to finish his UK campaign in ninth place here. Paul Tapner and Kilronan (above) kept moving up the leader board all weekend; thirteenth after dressage, they were clear with only 3.2 time penalties on cross country to move up to sixth place then jumped a clear showjumping round to finish in fifth place. The ‘Catch Ride King’ and evergreen Mark Todd was second on Conair, a horse usually ridden by the injured Rodney Powell but it was William Fox-Pitt who triumphed again, this time on Seacookie (below) for the 50th three day event win of his career.
CLICK HERE for our coverage of the Fidelity Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials
Back in Australia Shane Rose was busy winning classes at Berrima in NSW, picking up the CIC3* on APH Moritz and finishing first and second with CP Qualified and Shanghai Joe in the CIC*. Our own Hamish Cargill took the CIC 2* and a certain well known Australian dressage rider and coach was heard to be contemplating taking up eventing (well, he has done rodeo, so should be easy).
CLICK HERE for our coverage of Berrima Horse Trials
Down in Melbourne the second leg of the Exhibition Eventing took place during a very wet day at the Royal Melbourne Show. The eventers took the sloppy arena, dive bombing seagulls and torrential downpours (somehow this weather seems much worse when you’re in the middle of a city) in their stride with local girl Katja Weimann taking the top prize and an invitation to the Grand Final of the Exhibition Eventing at Equitana Melbourne the following month.
Bill Levett and Deja Vu
The Whatley Manor Horse Trials at Gatcombe Park saw 13 Classes running and approximately 600 horses over three days and once again, the Australians were out in force, along with the New Zealanders and a fabulous array of top riders. Take a look at some of the young horses these guys have coming through the ranks through the lens of Libby Law while Jenelle Christopher captured the action at Avenel at Oaklands in Victoria
To relive photo memories from all events in 2012 CLICK HERE
Coming u in October; Building snowmen at the NSW State Champs in Goulburn, the final Nations Cup at Boekelo, 4* in Pau, swimming at Le Lion d’Angers and plenty of eventing action around the States in Australia
