An Extravaganza coming up at Wallaby Hill

The driving force in her buggy - Alex Townsend will be not only organising but competing too this Sunday

You have to hand it to the team at Wallaby Hill Farm in the Southern Highlands of NSW, they keep coming up with good ideas and ways to make equestrian sport really appealing

This Sunday Alex Townsend and her team at Wallaby Hill are putting on the Equestrian Extravaganza which not only offers lots of entertaining sport throughout the day but also provides quite a few twists on the Olympic disciplines of dressage, show jumping and eventing. There are two ‘normal’ classes (which by no means infers that competitors in the other classes are not normal, although …..) with the 1.15m Show Jumping class sponsored by IRT and the hotly contested Amateur Show Jumping class sponsored by Gladiator Floats.

There is also the NSW Exhibition Eventing qualifier for the Equestrian Australia Be the Influence Grand Final to be held at Equitana in Melbourne this November. Wallaby Hill also held the qualifier last year for this modified version of eventing,  where each horse and rider combination perform a dressage test then go on to complete a jumping course made up of a mixture of six cross-country fences and six show jumps as fast as they can. Ten combinations are entered and they are;

One notable name missing from that list is Shane Rose who has an enviable record in Exhibition Eventing but he has opted for yet another different format of eventing this weekend.

       Shane Rose will be there but this time competing in the Equestrian Team Triathlon - in five teams!

The Equestrian Team Triathlon sponsored by Gow-Gates Insurance Brokers incorporates a dressage test, cross-country round and show jumping round but the rules allow for a different horse and rider combination to undertake each phase as part of a team. So a dressage rider can do the dressage test, an eventer can do the cross-country phase and a show-jumper do the show jumping round. Alternatively one rider can do it on 3 different horses, the same horse can be ridden by three different riders or any version in between. Mind boggling isn’t it?

This results in some cracking teams such as Craig Barrett riding Sandhills Brillaire in the dressage and cross country while wife Prue Barrett will do the show jumping on Sandhills Special. Or what about the team consisting of Brett Parbery riding Good As Gold (dressage), David Cameron riding RR Dyranta (show jumping) and Shane Rose riding Pumpkin (cross country). Shane is actually in five teams; one of the other teams is a real Bimbadeen Park affair with Niki Rose riding Wallstrasse (dressage), Shane riding CP Qualified (show jumping) and Michelle Robson riding Eastern Star Capone (show jumping). There are other family ties throughout with Melinda Parbery riding against hubby Brett and Karen Tinney riding Annapurna and Pluto Mio (dressage) with daughter Jaymee also in one of her teams. One thing is for sure – the rivalry between teams (maybe even within teams!) will be fierce and lots of fun

But that’s not all folks, there is also the Eventers vs Show Jumpers class, another one which is bound to get the banter between riders going. This class works by having a combination of show jumps and cross country jumps as part of the course. For every cross country jump there is a show jumping option of similar difficulty and the rule is simple - the fastest clear round wins. Young show-jumping star Tom McDermott will be competing here before heading off to Germany to make a bid for Normandy this year and has Fernhill Zin Zan entered in this class which will feature 24 riders keen to defend their chosen discipline.

I had hoped to have a relaxing day sipping St. Maur wines in the VIP marquee at Wallaby Hill while Alison Duthie will be hard at work covering Canberra Horse Trials during the coming weekend. However, with so much going on here on Sunday I think I’ll have my work cut out to bring you full reports from Wallaby Hill. So my swanning in the VIP tent may have to be curtailed but I have no doubt it is still going to be a fun weekend  and we may even do a bit of video to bring you some footage soon afterwards