View our full day one photo gallery from SIHT here
Heath Ryan riding Aspire R (above) lead the Equestrian NSW CCI3* at Sydney International Horse Trials on a test which he described as ‘the best one yet’.
“Aspire is still a young horse but he continues to get better and better all the time, so I’m happy. I think tomorrow’s course is really good and looks a little softer than the CIC3* course we jumped at Equestriad a couple of weeks ago (where we had a fall at fence 5). The going is really good and I’m looking forward to seeing how I go tomorrow against all the ‘young guns’ that are in the class.”
Heath’s test scored him 49.6, which was just 0.7 ahead of Shaun Dillon (below) who rode a lovely test on GV Anzac. “Although there is still plenty to work on, GV Anzac is a really quality horse and as a partnership this pair are really growing in confidence and harmony,” said the judge at M, Peter Shaw.
Isabel English will be kept busy tomorrow with two horses in the small CCI3* class along with a 1* horse. Her dressage performance on Feldale Mouse left her in third place at the end of the day on a score of 52.6 while her second ride Grand Andi finished sixth.
Isabel was delighted with her test on Feldale Mouse
We spoke to Isabel, who was named as a reserve for the upcoming Oceania Eventing Championships with Feldale Mouse, after her test on ‘Andi’ and discovered that her two 3* horses have very different personalities.
Elizabeth Lowery (above), who won the CIC3* at Lynton last year, looked very happy as she left the arena on the 14 year old KL Kismet and had this to say about her test.
Once again Sydney International Horse Trials attracted a strong contingent of riders from WA and two of those, Makayla Wood (AEL blogger) and Michaela Martindale competed in the CCI3*. This is the first CCI3* for Michaela and her horse Kinnordy Gatow and although there were some stressful moments for the pair during their test this talented WA rider will no doubt be aiming to put that behind her and focus on their cross country round tomorrow.
Makayla leaves the arena under the watchful eye of Rod Winchester
Makayla Wood, admits that although she is very much a WA rider she does seem to spend a lot of time over on the east coast and was happy with her little mare Early Days, who can get quite hot in the dressage phase. We asked Makayla how she felt her test had gone.
Despite the recent rain the going at Sydney is looking as close to perfect as you could hope for and although rain was predicted for today the sun shone through, which everyone hopes will be repeated for cross country day.
The CCI3* cross country track has once again been designed by Mike Etherington-Smith while Stuart Tinney has been busy on the one and two star and although many riders commented on the CCI3* being on the softer side they all felt there were still plenty of challenging fences.
We were lucky enough to be given a quick drive around the course, thanks to Anwen Keeling, who has spent much of her time in the past few months painting cross country fences. When we came to fence 11 for the 1* class (Chloe’s Cannon) Anwen told us the story behind the cannon balls, known to her as ‘Stuart’s balls’ and why she feels so protective over them!
Although we just missed seeing the winning test from Shane Rose and Purbeck Diesel in the Tarraleah Park CCI2* it must have been pretty special because the tests produced by Christine Bates (Ned O Reilly) and Tim Boland (Napoleon), who are lying second and third, were both lovely.
“I was stoked with Ned,” said Christine. “Mind you I think I had to make up for what I did at Equestriad when I had two errors of course. So today I was determined to do it right. I am a little dyslexic so I sometimes struggle when I’m learning multiple tests and can even start to combine tests together – which doesn’t help! So this weekend I made a point of only looking at one test at a time!”
This method seemed to do the trick as Christine is leading not only the CIC2* on Adelaide Hill but also the CCI* class on Brightnight.
As Tim (above) left the arena we asked him how he felt his test on Napoleon had gone and checked that all was on track for the Oceania Championship where he is a member of the Australian team with GV Billy Elliot.
Overall Champions of the Wade Equine Coaches Young Event Horse Championships
were Rachel Lee and Amigo
The three Wade Equine Coaches Young Event Horse classes were run and won today Charlie Brister and Wychwood Just In Time winning the four year old class. Last year Kim Leibowitz and Widgee Total Tribute won the four year old class and this year they repeated that success taking out the five year old class. But it was the winner of the six year old class, Rachel Lee riding Amigo who won the overall Championship.
“We couldn’t be happier,” said Rachel’s mum Debbie. “It’s a great start to the weekend. We feel as if we came first and second in the six year old class because Rachel bred the second placed Tarraleah Kokoda and sold her about 18 months ago to Carrie McInnes and Ashley Adams, who is riding her, did a lovely job today. Amigo was imported from Germany by Rachel and only arrived in Australia in February so we are delighted with how he has gone today and we have great hopes for him in the future.”
