Megan and Jester in full flight at Tonimbuk
As Camperdown is approximately three hours drive west from Melbourne, heading towards South Australia it is not surprising to find that Adelaide-based rider and Olympic silver medallist Megan Jones will be heading to Camperdown this weekend. Megan has her two top horses in the CIC 3* class; Kirby Park Irish Jester and Kirby Park Allofasudden as well as her younger horses, KP Irish Empress in the 1*.
Joining Megan is a fellow Beijing-medallist, Sonja Johnson who is stopping at Camperdown for a run on her way over to the all-important Sydney International 3 Day Event. Sonja is bringing her two top horses, Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison (Ben) and Belfast Mojito (Mojo) all the way from Albany, Western Australia but she has already advised us that she has every intention of taking Ben very quietly and steadily around the 3* cross country course.
Sonja and Ben at the Australian International 3DE Photo: Jenny Barnes/FEI
“We know he can go fast” says Sonja as I spoke to her on her drive over “This outing is for him to do the dressage and then go slowly and steadily around the cross country, just to have a run before Sydney. He’ll hate it – he gets very impatient and doesn’t understand why I don’t want him to go quickly!”
Sonja has been doing quite a bit of showjumping with the horses recently in WA and, although pleased to be competing at Camperdown again, is sorry to miss her home event , WAYER at Brookleigh Estate on the weekend of the 21st April (which we will be covering here)
“We couldn’t change the date and it just didn’t give me enough time to compete there and then have a good drive over from Western Australia so I decided to do Camperdown instead” she said
Sonja and Megan will be joined by eleven other top riders in the CIC 3*class, mostly from Victoria.
Will and Ruban Son
In the CIC 2*, Victorian rider, Will Enzinger will be competing on his two very in-form horses; Ruban Son and Wyuna Clear Image. Will took 1st and 3rd places on these horses at the Wandin Park CIC 2* and 1st and 4th at Tonimbuk Horse Trials recently so will probably be the one to beat on this occasion.
With 48 starters in the CIC 1*, it will be a hard fought contest. Adam Benson is bringing the Tonimbuk 1* winner, Brookwood Park Feuergrass who is likely to lead the dressage phase ( being also an Inter I level competitor in dressage) and Chelsea Priestly will be riding the delightfully named Blameitonthebear, who won the CIC 1* in fine style at Wandin Park. Of course you can never discount Megan Jones whose 1* ride, Kirby Park Irish Empress (Chooch) is out of the full sister to Megan’s past superstar, Kirby Park Irish Hallmark.
Megan and Chooch
Megan says “Chooch is what I call my freak, she is one of the “babies” but goes about her business with such maturity people laugh when I tell them she has only really been under saddle and consistent work since October 2009. They think I’m joking!”
We also wish one of bloggers, Vaughan Ellis all the luck for this class – his first 1* start; you can read more about his ambitions in this area in his first blog.
With two PreNovice classes of approximately 30 riders plus a Junior PreNovice section and good entries in the Preliminary level, it is going to be another great weekend of eventing in Victoria. This will be my first trip to Camperdown (accompanied by the cowboy hat girl herself, photographer Toni-anne Collins) and we’re really looking forward to it. Even the weather forecast is good!
Look out for Toni-anne - smile and wave at the camera!
We’ll be bringing reports, results and photos each day and keep an eye on facebook and Twitter for regular updates throughout the event
