Tania Harding and Jirrima Yorkshire on their way to their first 3* win
As we said yesterday, you never know what is going to happen when the CIC show jumping takes place in the evening and this morning it turned out that Will Enzinger, who was leading the Cardinia Shire CIC3* after the dressage on Wenlock Aquifer, had opted to withdraw from the class before the evening show jumping. Will told us (see interview below) that Wenlock Aquifer has recently had a bruised foot so he decided that he hadn’t had quite the right preparation in lead up to this event to compete in the jumping phases. This left Tania Harding in the lead on Jirrima Yorkshire, just one of the horses that she was riding here this weekend, ahead of Nina Clarke’s LP Boudin and Nat Davies’ Chatswood Captivate, both having their first three star starts.
CIC3* second and third places to Nat Davies (above) and Nina Clarke (below)
All three girls had rails in the evening show jumping with Tania just having four faults and Nina and Nat picking up eight faults each. On today’s 3* course designed by Ewan Kellet Nina and LP Boudin had a run out at Fence 8ab, two large brush fences on a curving line and no doubt Nina opted to go a little more slowly after that, picking up 31.6 time penalties. Nat certainly seemed to be trying to make the time and finished with 5.6 penalties on Chatswood Captivate while Tania also jumped clear with 5.2 time penalties to pick up her first ever 3* win – a great achievement for a rider on a home bred horse who works full time as a teacher
Tania Harding
Will and Britannica
While Will may not have been riding today in the CIC3* he was certainly kept busy in the Mick’s Metals CIC2* with three rides that all finished in the top ten. He was particularly impressed with his third ride, Britannica a new horse for Will that has been brought over from New Zealand for him to compete. His other horses, Paihia Wilhelm and Mousetrap finished fifth and eighth; Mousetrap picked up 22 time penalties to drop from second place but, as Will says, the 21 year old chestnut is allowed to go at whatever speed he chooses
Megan and Kirby Park Impress - more from Megan in tomorrow's article
The winner of CIC2* however was Megan Jones on Kirby Park Impress, just one of the rugs that Megan is taking back with her to South Australia from this event. Nat Davies backed up her second place in the CIC3* with a second in this class too riding Chatswood Design, moving up from sixth with another fast cross country adding only 1.2 time faults while Tesse Cook and Rimfire Don Pierre moved up from 10th after dressage with a clear show jumping round and the only double clear cross country round in this class.
Whereas making the time was an issue in the CIC2*, fence 12 was the tricky element of the Pakenham Produce & Saddlery CIC1* course with several riders picking up 20 penalties here and two riders being eliminated. The big dun horse Linbil White Russia ridden by Linda Williams (above) led after the dressage, as is often the case, and although they picked up eight show jumping penalties a double clear cross country round put them back on top. Second placed Jacqueline O’Reilly also produced a double clear cross country round to move up from sixth and Tania Harding had another good home bred horse in this class, Jirrima Yabba Dabba Doo to finish third.
Lily Wickenden and Hoc's Streisand
17 year old Lily Wickenden was delighted to find herself in the lead of this class after the jumping one of only four clear show jumping rounds but she wasn’t expecting to win after the cross country phase saying “I always get time penalties but I’m still really happy”. Lily is trying to balance HSC, riding and everything else but loves her grey mare Hoc’s Streisand who is also 17 years old; they did indeed get 11.6 time penalties to drop them to eighth but this is still a great result for only their second 1* together.
In the national level classes the day started with an incident towards the end of the EvA80 class which resulted in Swedisk rider Caterina Queckfeldt Luczak being taken to hospital. Caterina was very nearly home in the Ride With Elegance EvA60C when her horse PS Legolas refused at the last fence on course; PS Legolas was uninjured but Caterina was not quite so lucky and needed medical attention on course which eventuated in the final fence being taken out for the rest of the class. Although it was feared that Caterina may have sustained a pelvic injury the good news is that it is soft tissue damage and we wish her a very speedy recovery. Caterina had messaged us yesterday saying “Go Team Sweden today - 3 Swedes riding today at Tonimbuk” so hopefully the other Swedish riders went well!
We’ll bring you more reports and photos from the EvA classes tomorrow and there are lots more interviews and photos coming up from a great weekend at the Pakenham Produce & Saddlery Tonimbuk Horse Trials
