Judy Clarke’s 17 year old eventing horse Diablito has always been on my list of horses that I would personally like to ride but it is only when you look back on their very impressive record that you realise what a fantastic combination this is.
Since starting his international level competition career Diablito has only twice been out of the top six placings over 19 competitions at CIC/CCI 1, 2 and 3 Star. On one of those two occasions in 2013 he was seventh at Goulburn and at the other he had two very uncharacteristic stops in the CCI2* in Adelaide to place 35th
Judy and Diablito made no such mistake this year as they added only 7.2 time penalties to their dressage score of 42.30 to finish the Australian International 3 Day Event CCI2* in second place behind Amanda Ross and Dicavalli Diesel
It has been a year of seconds for the pair, being the bridesmaid at Albury CIC2* and Goulburn CIC3* but winning the Canberra CIC2* in October. They won the CIC2* at SIEC in April 2014 and, apart from their two ‘blips’ in 2013, their record that year was untarnished, with four wins from four international starts
By the dressage stallion Leonardo 68, Diablito always impresses in the dressage arena but his score of 44.5 in Adelaide this year was a little off their personal best of 36.1 at this level, which Judy attributed to the heat and maybe working him for a little too long in the warm up. However it was still a lovely test and they topped off the weekend with a beautiful clear show jumping round as you can see in the videos below
We're looking forward to seeing them continue their great form in 2016
