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Christine Bates and Kung Fu Panda fly through the water
If anyone was feeling a little sleepy first thing this morning after last night’s parties in Adelaide, they would have been woken up by watching Megan Jones, the first rider of the day on the CCI2* cross country. Megan experienced, in her own words ‘the best save I’ve ever done’ at Fence 18 when Kirby Park Grand Impressions made a spectacular miss.
“I looked down at my air vest, saw that it was a very long way away and thought ‘it’s going to go off’ but thankfully it didn’t, I jumped the next fence then got my stirrup back and off we went”
Megan’s next two rides were much less eventful with Kirby Park Invader picking up 3.2 time penalties to move them from fourth to second, swopping spots with her other chestnut, Kirby Park Impress
“I love her to death” said Megan as they finished their ride “But she can be exhausting to ride! She’d be quite happy to come back to a trot after every jump but she’s learning so much all the time”
Megan and her 7 year old mare, Kirby Park Impress
Having said that, Megan and the seven year old Impress came in with no jump or time penalties, as did the leader after the CCI2* cross country phase, Christine Bates on both of her horses.
Christine and Kung Fu Panda had a little ‘moment’ in the Start Box as Christine explains in our earlier interview but both of her horses look superbly fit and Christine didn’t seem to be blowing at all either, unlike some riders who looked a little tired at the end of the long course. Kung Fu Panda maintains his lead, adding nothing to his dressage score of 47.50 but has less than one show jumping rail in hand while Jimmy O’Reilly has moved up to 15th place from 25th.
Third placed Kirsty Douglas and Cushavon Crackerjack (above) cruised around the course making it look easy as did the very experienced Wendy Schaeffer and Sun Showers to finish in fifth place. Despite being very different types of horses they both seemed to find a very good rhythm around the course and there was an obvious partnership between horse and rider. Wendy still had her foot to the floor to the very last fence which posed its own difficulties,requiring two tight turns at the end of the course
Third after the dressage, Eleanor Osborne and Highborne Rocker picked up 5.2 time penalties to drop them to sixth place while the two Victorian girls Tania Harding on the big striding Jirrima Yorkshire and Nina Clarke on LP Boudin both put in beautifully measured rounds to finish in seventh and eighth places. The ex-racehorse LP Boudin just ate up the ground and Nina was just delighted with him although he had to have a little reminder at the first combination
Nina was no Nana today on LP Boudin
“They call me ‘The Nana’ because I don’t often go fast” said Nina “But I like to pick when and where I go fast! I try and hold it back until I need it and this event is where you need it”
Another Victorian rider didn’t have quite as much luck. Emily McQueen and King’s Sun looked raring to go as they left the Starter Box – actually they looked raring to go even before that and King’s Sun needed the reassuring hand of Danni Marwood (Seumas Marwood’s wife) whilst being counted down. Sadly near the end of the course at Fence 24 King’s Sun incurred an injury on the big table fence – at first it looked serious with the horse badly lame but the good news is that it is simply a flesh wound that will quickly heal
“Eventing has its ups and downs” said Emily pragmatically “I’ve been lucky in the past and it’s not a serious injury so that’s just life. He was going to have a nice holiday after this so he can start a few days early”
Showjumping rider turned eventer Anthony Thomas also didn’t have much luck, being eliminated at the penultimate fence on course. Anthony jumped the CCI4* fence instead of the 2* fence riding his first horse Southern Warlock and then scratched his second ride Levitation NZPH
Rounding out the top ten finishers were Tegan Cook and Better On Sunday (above) in ninth place (we’d love to know where the name comes from – he was pretty good today so will he be better on Sunday?) and Western Australian Deon Stokes who is another of the walking wounded here. Deon rode two horses around the CCI2* today nursing a broken ankle; his first horse Koyuna Levi is in 10th place and Deon says that the ankle felt fine after his first ride but he was happy to get it into a bucket of iced water after the second ride on Crime Time who is currently in 21st place
Aaaahhh, that feels better. It's not often the rider needs ice more than the horse
The 43 horses that completed the cross country will now go through to the second horse inspection tomorrow morning before the show jumping phase which starts at 10am. With exactly 10 penalties between the top 10 riders it is a tight at the top which should make for an exciting finish
Full CCI2* results after cross country here
