Seumas Marwood and Wild Oats (above) and Nat Blundell with Algebra (below) catch their flight to Badminton
Who is heading to Sydney International Horse Trials? Well we are of course and we’ll be bringing our 4* members full daily updates and snippets from Thursday 24th when it all kicks off with the trot up at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre, Horsley Park.
Let’s take a look first at who won’t be there. Natalie Blundell’s Algebra and Seumas Marwood’s Wild Oats have headed over to the UK and are safely ensconced in their ‘homes away from homes’ with Christopher Burton (Seumas) and Andrew Hoy (Natalie), having arrived safely after a long trip. These two have taken the option of competing at Badminton in the second week of May while another notable name missing from the CCI3* is Mr. Sydney himself, Stuart Tinney.
Sydney Olympic gold medallist Stuart has re-routed his horses to the Melbourne International Horse Trials in June, which no doubt the organisers of the MIHT are very pleased about. He will be playing a big role at Sydney however in his capacity as the cross country course designer for the CIC 1*/CIC2*/CCI1* courses and Assistant Course Designer to Mike Etherington-Smith for the CCI2*/3*. He’ll also be donning another hat – a top hat and performing the CCI 3* test ride on Pluto Mio and the 2* test on Annapurna.
Stuart Tinney with his dressage hat on
There are several other Olympians who are competing in the Equestrian NSW 3* at Sydney including the very in-form Shane Rose with both Taurus and CP Qualified, Sonja Johnson with her Normandy squad horse Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison and the talented stockhorse Belfast Mojito, Megan Jones riding the eye-catching Flowervale Maserati and Rebel Morrow with Hillgrove Enviable. Added to that list is Olympian Heath Ryan, an amazing man with a great sense of humor. His knowledge of the horse industry and all that it involves goes well beyond what so many of us will ever know. His passion for equestrian sport is not only catching but it really comes from the heart and he is never afraid to state to the powers that be what so many of us may be thinking. He has taught and encouraged so many riders over the years and was such a well-deserved recipient of the Life Achievement Award for Coaching at the recent Equestrian NSW Awards Night
You can hear more from him about Aspire R, the horse he will be riding at Sydney in the interview below with Alison Duthie. Truly a man who can multi-task, Heath manages to talk, swipe Alison with his whip, keep a close eye on what his team were doing with Aspire R at the end of the cross country at Albury and give a great account of his ride on Aspire.
As Alison says " Interviewing Heath Ryan is always entertaining and in my defense and before you listen to this interview which we did with Heath at the Albury Wodonga International Horse Trials I would like to point out that I never really think of Heath as old … I just think of Heath as … well Heath really! Put all that to one side for a moment and Heath really is a great person to talk to although it did take me a moment to get over the fact that he called me an ‘old’ journalist who was going to ask ‘old people questions’! Luckily it takes a lot for me to get offended!"
Heath Ryan talks to Alison Duthie at Albury
Heath and Aspire at the end of cross country at Albury
You can guarantee that Alison won’t be asking ‘old person’ questions of Heath at Sydney!
The 2012 Australian International 3DE 4* winner Craig Barrett wrote in his blog earlier this year that “In the show jumping at the last three major events I have had the last fence down which, on two occasions, meant I lost the event” and this will no doubt be something he has been working hard on leading up to Sydney with the super homebred mare Sandhills Brillaire. Everyone will be willing that last fence to stay up on Sunday for this popular combination, especially his son and fellow riding blogger Oliver
Clarke Johnstone and Balmoral Sensation on their way to a win at Kihikihi
Another rider who is no stranger to success but has had a bad run with horse injuries in the past two years is Clarke Johnstone who will be flying the flag for New Zealand. Clarke has had a dream run on Balmoral Sensation, an impressive grey horse recently acquired from Donna Smith, winning the NZ Eventer of the Year in March and the very demanding Kihikihi Horse Trials 3*. There is no doubt that, although now based back in New Zealand, he has set his sights firmly on Normandy with this horse and is hungry to get back to the top
There are also some international riders in other classes with Naphatra Lerdsilpjaroen from Thailand riding Tainui Lad and Usman Khan riding Al Buraq representing Pakistan in the Horsepower CCI1*, the class that also includes the IRT Junior Rider.
The Alltech CIC2* includes the Mitavite Young Rider class and also sees the final of the Alltech Equine Advantage Series. Thirteen combinations qualified at five events in 2013 and one of these thirteen will win a trip to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian GamesTM 2014 as a guest of the title sponsor, Alltech although a few of the finalists seem to be missing from the starter list. We’ll find out more once we are at the event but at this stage it seems as if Shane Rose, Nat Davies, Katja Weimann, Tallara Barwick, Eleanor Osborne and Chris Height are taking part
There will also be another winner of a trip to Normandy drawn on the weekend with Event Director Rose Read drawing our very own competition at 3pm on Sunday in the Indoor Arena. There are exciting times ahead for two lucky people ………………..
Click here to see the full draw for Sydney International Horse Trials
