Prue and Sandhills Special at the Wallaby Hill Equestrian Extravaganza
The National Performance Director for Eventing, Prue Barrett may be busy coaching elite riders and with the management of the Equestrian Australia Eventing High Performance Program but she is still no slouch in the saddle herself. Having ridden at two World Championships, including coming ninth on Navarone at the 1994 World Equestrian Games in The Hague, Prue may not have as much time to compete as she would like but when she does, she loves riding her seven year old grey mare Sandhills Special
The homebred Sandhills Special is by Croftlea Artizan, a New Zealand purpose bred thoroughbred, out of Sandhills Secret, a mare by Staccato, the sire of Craig Barrett’s 4* winner Sandhills Brillaire and Stuart Tinney’s 4* winner Panamera.
“When we have new foals I try and name them with the mare’s initial so this one’s name had to start with S” says Prue “She came out as a black foal with a white star, I took one look at her and decided she was Special”
Apart from some time away as a weanling, Special has always been at Sandhills with Prue and her husband Craig and was broken in on the property. The mare has slowly been brought on as the riding and training has had to fit in with Prue’s busy schedule of travel both in Australia and overseas but despite that, Prue has high hopes
“She is one of the best horses I’ve ever had” she says “And maybe bringing her on slowly hasn’t been a bad thing – so far I’ve had no reason to believe she couldn’t go 4*”
If she does, it’s unlikely that husband Craig will be riding her as he and Special don’t really see eye to eye.
“It’s not so much that I don’t let Craig ride her – he just won’t! He has ridden her a couple of times in competition when I’ve been away - we thought we’d try it but it didn’t work out well at either event so he just won’t ride her anymore!”
On the other hand, Special and Oliver (Craig and Prue’s son and mad keen young eventer) get on very well.
“Oliver loves riding her and she loves it too’ says Prue “So sometimes at home Oliver and I swop – I’ll ride his pony and he’ll hop on Special”
Luckily Special doesn’t need much work before a competition and has been happily placing (‘we’re very good at coming second’) at events, even when Prue has just flown in the day before. Their groom Maddy will just keep Special ticking over with some trot and canter work around the home paddock if Prue is away but, as Special moves up the grades, Prue admits this is going to take a bit more management.
The pair will be competing in their first 2* competition at the Sydney Winter Eventing Classic this weekend and Special may joined on the competition circuit soon by her own progeny. She was put in foal when two years old and her now, recently broken, four year old will also be making an appearance on the eventing circuit soon
