Horses over for the day now it was time for Shane to take his turn with baby Harry
Yesterday Shane lay first and second after dressage and at the end of today he was still in the same position – the only difference was his horses had changed positions and it was Taurus who took home the winners rug in the Randwick Equine Centre CNC3*. While CP Qualified collected four time penalities on cross country and took a rail down show jumping his stable mate clocked up the fastest time of the day on cross country finishing just four seconds over the optimum time of 6.13 and produced an impressive clear round show jumping.
The show jumping phase has been a bit of a stumbling block for Taurus on some previous occasions but it would appear that some help from a friend and a new bit has had a dramatic effect on this undoubtably talented gelding.
We’ll let Shane explain more (please excuse the fact that I said to Shane that his horses had changed direction today – the word I was actually looking for was positions … maybe I was distracted by Shane’s cute little son Harry!)
In third place was Rebel Morrow riding Hillgrove Enviable (above), a horse who just keeps getting better and better. The pair were seventh after dressage, went clear show jumping and cross country, picking up just 4.8 time penalties. Rebel also looks to have a promising back up to Hillgrove Enviable in the good looking grey Ivy Bank Casper who was taking part in his first 3* event. After going clear cross country they did take a few more rails down in the show jumping phase than they would have liked but it was still a performance that showed lots of hope for the future.
Several riders in the CNC3* didn’t enjoy the best of cross country rides with nine of the 21 strong field having problems early on in the course at fence 4a, a skinny brush on top of a short uphill run. One of the riders to have problems at fence 4 was Stuart Tinney and Pluto Mio, who had been lying third after dressage. Sadly Stuart’s problems didn’t end there and a few fences later he found himself walking home after missing a fence on the course. Although it was a situation that none of us expected to see Stuart in it was possibly not surprising as he had spent countless hours on all the cross country courses as the course designer. To then come out on various horses to ride various courses was asking quite a lot of this very professional rider. Thankfully at the request of the Australian High Performance team Stuart was asked to run round the course again, which he did successfully.
Lauren and Guido on their way to a 2* win
In the Ariat CNC2* the successful 1* combination of Lauren Balcomb and Guido Hatzis proved that they had made the transition to 2* quite easily as they picked up the winners prizes. “He was just really good,” said Lauren. “I’m aiming for Adelaide 2* at the end of the year and then I’ll just see. I have never ridden a horse like this before and I just love him. He feels to me that he has the talent to move up the grades and there were certainly a few questions out there today on the cross country course but he coped with them really well.”
Although Sam Lyle didn’t take home any winners rugs he certainly went home with a good handful of ribbons including a second place in the CNC2* riding Satch Hill, who moved up from ninth after dressage thanks to a clear cross country ride and just one rail down show jumping when many other riders took down several rails.
Time to head for home after a good weeked for the Barrett family
(minus young Jesper who wouldn't come out of the truck!)
Prue Barrett stayed in her third dressage placing all weekend and although she was happy with her cross country she was less pleased with her show jumping round. “If I’d gone clear and finished third I would have been more happy that I am to have finished third but with a few rails down. Never mind we (Craig, Prue and Oliver) all finished with ribbons so things could be worse!”
Watch out Shane - your wife is hot on your heels ...
Shane added yet another rug to his collection (what does he do with all those winners rugs …) this time for his win in the CNC* riding Purbeck Diesel. In fact there were two Rose’s in the top two as Shane's wife Niki, riding Glenorchy South Park, finished less than one penalty behind her husband.
The happy winner of the EvA95 section D - Brielle Dawson
We managed to catch up with a couple of the lower level riders who had been happy with their performances this weekend. One of those was Brielle Dawson who won the EvA95 D riding Embezzled. We asked Brielle, who was keen to run away from our approaching microphone, to tell us more about her weekend.
Amelia Coates and the very cute Tetley
The other rider was Amelia Coates who had enjoyed a win yesterday in the EvA60 riding her mothers horse Hooked On Oats (otherwise known as Dufus) and today finished fourth in the EvA95 riding her own Little Rock (otherwise known as Freckles). Sitting with her very cute ‘pound puppy’ Tetley, we asked Amelia to tell us more about herself and her horses.
Huge congratulations to the Sydney Eventing team who once again managed to put together a wonderful event which gave hundreds of riders a weekend of fun and enjoyment … I wonder when they’ll start running three mid-week and weekend events in a year? …
