Eventers were out in force over the past few days at Aldon, Somerset and Lincoln in the UK
Andrew Hoy at Tweseldown,UK recently. Photos: blog.talkinghorse.net
Australian riders had a good showing in the Advanced Intermediate Section U at Aldon, taking the top four spots with Andrew Hoy in first and third riding Cheeky Calimbo and Rutherglen, Paul Tapner riding Inonothing in third spot and Lucinda Fredericks in fourth on the very promising grey, Mr Miller. Paul was also 10th on Kilronan and 14th on Wickstead Didgeridoo who he says was ‘well behaved”.
Other Aussies in the class included Chris Burton on Underdiscussion (21st) and Kinnordy Rivaldo (24th) and Sam Griffiths on Happy Times (22nd). It was a power packed class with the likes of Andrew Nicholson (4th on Mr Cruise Control and 7th on Calico Joe), Pippa Funnell (6th on Billy Shannon and 18th on Mirage d’Elle) and Mary King (15th on Imperial Cavalier and 27th on Apache Sauce) competing, many of them for the first time this season.
Andrew Nicholson took the win the Open Intermediate Section R on Viscount George and placed third in the OI Section S on Tristar
Chris Burton scored a win in the lower levels on a horse named Opposition Sky Law in the BE100 Section B.
Not Australian but being trained by our very own Wendy Schaeffer, young David Doel won the Open Intermediate Under 21 on King’s Cross and came third in the same class on the Australian horse previously ridden by Wendy, Koyuna Sun Magic.
Sammi McLeod and Bill Levett attended Lincolnshire and were 17th on KIntara and 15th on Ballymore Rich Cat respectively in the OI Section T, won by Mark Todd and NZB Grass Valley. In the OI Section S, Bill took 12th place with One Two Many NJ and Brook Staples was in 27th with Ever So Clever III. Again these classes were heavily populated with big names in eventing such as William Fox-Pitt, Ruth Edge, Piggy French and Caroline Powell but it was the UK Olympic hopeful, Laura Collett riding her top horse Rayef who won the Open Intermediate Section S. She finished comfortably ahead of William on Oslo and Piggy French on Jakata, who were third and 15th.
