Callum and Joie du Lys take their champagne home to celebrate
The Young Event Horse (YEH) class at Wandin Horse Trials was first introduced in 1989. Open to owners of 4 and 5 year old horses, the class is designed to encourage breeders and trainers of top eventing horses and is judged in four parts by four different judges. This year the judges were Barry Roycroft (Conformation), Sue Tufnell (Dressage), Margaret Sperrin (Showing of Paces) and Mary Jane Crabtree (Show Jumping).
This year the class was won by Callum Buczak’s Joie du Lys, a 5 year old 17.1hh bay gelding who won on a score of 82.54. The second placed horse was Bee Bee Deeva (79.88), shown by Will Enzinger, and third place went to Cassie Lowe with Koko Story (77.54).
Joie du Lys was bought as an unbroken 3 year old from Russell Johnstone at an Auction of the Stars by Callum, who was delighted with win, having done all the work with Joie du Lys since buying him. He is by the German bred but Danish owned stallion Champion F.P. (Champion du Lys x For Pleasure), currently being campaigned by Marcus Ehning in Europe. Champion F.P.’s grandfather For Pleasure was extremely successful with Marcus, winning team gold at the 1998 WEG in Rome and also the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Joie du Lys is out of a Daley K mare and is her only progeny.
Judge of the dressage phase, Sue Tufnell commented that this young horse was the ‘stand out’ entry in the YEH this year.
“Joie du Lys just looked like an athlete from the moment they entered the arena, light and balanced with impressive natural paces at this early stage of training”
Sue Tufnell at Wandin Park
Sue has been an avid supporter of the Wandin YEH as either a competitor or breeder over many years and she believes that the concept is a valuable part to the annual eventing scene. In the past this event has highlighted top class horses at the beginning of their eventing careers such as Darien Powers and Kirby Park Irish Hallmark.
This year the entries for the class were down and Sue wonders if a few minor changes would improve the quality and number of horses entered
“Over the last few years the class seems to have been relegated to a minor position in the programme with green young horses being asked to dressage and show jump on the side of the hill. Also the riders with a string of horses often find it just too hard to juggle the YEH phases and allocated times between their higher level rides, which I feel may affect the number (and perhaps quality?) of entries” she commented
As many people, such as Ewan Kellett and Kate Farrell, pointed out over the weekend, the hardworking Wandin committee put on a sensational event which is close to the heart of so many in the eventing scene and should be commended for continuing the YEH class, but perhaps a few small changes would see the class right back up there as a guideline to the eventing stars of the future?
