Focussed on Wandin - Seumas Marwood and Wild Oats lead the CIC2*
With the EvA80 classes kicking off in the dressage arenas at 8am today and the CIC3* dressage finishing at 7pm, it was quite a long day at Tonimbuk Horse Trials and it isn’t over yet as I write. The CIC2*show jumping, which takes place in the indoor arena under lights (which can be very tricky for eventing horses), has just finished and the dressage leader, Murray Lamperd on Shemozzle dropped to fourth place due to a couple of rails while the 4* mare with a very good show jumping record, Seumas Marwood’s Wild Oats, moved up from second after dressage to lead the class.
Seumas is heading to Wandin Park next week and understandably didn’t want to do two 3* events in a row so opted to start here in the 2* instead. However he has Megan Jones riding History hot on his heels in second place, moving up from third in the dressage with a clear show jumping round and Will Enzinger is now in third, also having jumped clear.
Looking for the best possible performance .... Megan Jones leads the CIC3* but feels things could have been better (above) while Amanda Ross in second place was reasonably happy with their first 3* start (below)
Some of these competitors now head back into the indoor arena at 9pm when the CIC3* show jumping starts by which time we may be tucked up in bed so let’s take a look at the dressage results!
Megan and Kirby Park Impress were the first combination into the arena (which was running a tad late) and they finished the afternoon on top with a score of 49.80 but you got the feeling that Megan thought they could have done better. Second placed Amanda Ross riding Dicavalli Diesel at his first 3* start was also happy with her horse but again the rider knows there is room for improvement; they scored a round 50 to be just ahead of Katja Weimann riding BP Flamboyant on 52.20 with another good test but again with just a few small errors.
My guess is that the happiest rider of the day would be Nina Clarke who pulled off a very good test on LP Boudin (below). Their score of 54.5 was just below their score here last year of 54.1 but it looked like a much improved, smooth and flowing test compared to 12 months ago, a really good job from them both
Nina and the ' Black Pudding' aka LP Boudin
The CIC1* class has the luxury of not jumping late into the night but the competitors completed their dressage today and this class is led by Meg Bishop riding Sovereign Venture.
This 13 year old chestnut gelding is a thoroughbred but looks like a warmblood and seems very much at home in the dressage arena. They lead on a score of 43.30 ahead of two more horses with real dressage breeding, Flowervale Ferringka (by Ferro) and the Holsteiner gelding Northern Cassablanca ridden by Raquel Corbett and Katherine Johnson
Meg Bishop riding Sovereign Venture
The EvA105 also show jump tomorrow with Tarryn Proctor leading the Section A riding On Coming Storm. The big smile on Tarryn’s face as she exited the big indoor arena after her test said it all and they were rewarded with a 49.40 from the judges while her other grey star of the stable, ESB Irish Quest is back after injury and currently in ninth place in the CIC2*.
Yolanda Kosach currently leads the Section B riding Goldmine Versace – to be honest we know nothing about this combination but certainly need to find out more as they scored 38.30 in a class where the top 10 read like a Who’s Who of EvA105 eventing
Tarryn Proctorand On Coming Storm
The EvA90 and EvA80 classes also completed show jumping and dressage today – more to come about these classes soon but mention must be made of Linda William’s dressage score of 21.80 riding Burrowa Dresden to lead the EvA80 Section B (and followed it up with a clear show jumping round)
We’ll be back with more tomorrow but in the meantime, what's wrong with this picture?
Sheridan Sullivan has a slight wardrobe malfunction but the super cute Artane Murphy (as cute as you can be as one of the biggest horses on the eventing circuit) just carried on. Hat, what hat?
