The 2014 eventing year review – July

We take a look back at some of the highs and lows, best interviews, event highlights and top training tips of 2014 from the world of international eventing, month by month, in our series of articles. Click on any highlighted text to take you to any of the articles mentioned to read in full

One of the WEG casualties - Craig Barrett and Sandhills Brillaire were out of contention for selection

It seemed that almost as soon as selectors picked their teams for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games fate intervened with some blows for riders in July. Team GB suffered one of the first WEG squad disappointments, with Izzy Taylor’s horse Allercombe Ellie being withdrawn from the British line-up and later in the month lameness ruled Pippa Funnell’s talented Billy Beware out of the British eventing squad

Despite completing at Aachen, one of Sweden’s top horses was been ruled out of contention for Normandy due to an infection affecting his heart. Niklas Lindback’s Mister Pooh, who was part of the Swedish team at London 2012, was found to have an infection that affects the heart's ability to work optimally under heavy load and only days after the Australian National Eventing Selectors advised the six horse and rider combinations to comprise Australia’s Eventing Team for Normandy 2014 Craig Barrett and Sandhills Brillaire (Sparkle) had to withdraw from the Australian team selection process. Soon after the three reserve combinations for Australia's eventing team were announced as Stuart Tinney, Nat Blundell and Andrew Hoy

Outside of team selection and withdrawals which seemed to dominate the news, one day of note in July was International Helmet Awareness Day which seems to grow in profile each year and we consulted Joe Cocker (and the FEI) for some advice about leaving your hat on during prize giving ceremonies (which, as you can see in the above photo, Craig Barrett does well)

In other FEI News, Britain's Daisy Berkeley finally became the FEI Eventing Athlete Representative after the second ballot

Features

Our earlier article on Amanda Young’s eventing horse Bijou led to a New Zealand adventure, links to Mark Todd and finally discovering the background of ‘the little black’ pig hunting horse when Amanda was put in contact with previous owners and his breeder and decided to go to New Zealand to find out more

We caught up with Clarke Johnstone who told us why he had decided to move into a coaching role and how he’s finding the experience as well as explaining some of the thinking behind New Zealand’s approach to ‘growing your own coaches’ and another well known coach (and rider) Prue Barrett. Prue may be busy as the National Performance Director for Eventing in Australia but she still finds time to ride a Special horse from Sandhills

Despite being the daughter of a very well known rider, Emily King faces many of the dilemmas that any young rider faces as they make the transition from junior ranks to senior competition. At the recent Barbury Castle International Horse Trials she finished seventh in the CIC3* in some very good company and she told us that, although familial support is important, she has certainly not been handed everything on a plate

“I am a very independent person. Ever since I was tiny I was determined to do everything on my own and hated being told what to do (which probably was the longer route to success!) but I learnt from my mistakes and I still strive to constantly improve” she says in our article on Emily

Another young rider in the spotlight was Nina Griffiths when we spoke to her at the Victorian Eventing Fundraiser where she was riding HP Chocolat. It seems the only way that Vanessa Griffiths may get this talented young eventing horse back is if her daughter Nina gets the ride on Uncle Sam’s Badminton winner, Paulank Brockagh!

Training Tips

In our training tips section we looked at how a horse’s gallop can be improved by simply addressing the rider’s position Sonja Johnson gave some tips to encourag riders to identify the rhythm (the beat) and the tempo (the speed of the beat) of their horse’s gallop when things were going well and also when things weren’t going so well. By recognising these factors, the riders can start to address problems they are having, both at the gallop and when changing the pace (for example, on approaching a fence) by working on their rhythm and tempo first.

After your horse has given his all, you can step in and give him everything he needs nutritionally to support his recovery; Zoe Fieldhouse explained how and why in Nutrition for Your Horse’s Recovery

Events

A bumper crowd came to enjoy the varied entertainment – eventing, inter-hunt relays, show jumping and even a sheep show – at the Barbury International Horse Trials where the popular local combination of Andrew Nicholson and Avebury didn’t disappoint the crowd. The New Zealand rider, who lives just down the road at Lockeridge, made it their third consecutive title at their local event and they did it with ease. Leading from the start with a personal best score for Avebury of 34.8, they show jumped clear and then handled the pressure of jumping the cross country in reverse order on the Sunday. Andrew opted for the long route at the main water complex, adding 4.8 time penalties to his score but it was a wise decision.

Francis Whittington, who led after the first day of dressage on Catherine Witt’s grey Easy Target, made up for their four faults in the show jumping phase by adding only 1.6 time penalties on cross country to put them back up the leader board and into second place. Only two combinations completed the track without jumping or time penalties; Paul Tapner riding Yogi Bear VIII (above) and Beanie Sturgis on Lebowski. Despite his size, the 17hh Yogi Bear is very fast and Paul calls him his ‘one day specialist’, having consistently placed at CIC events in the past few years – that weekend he finished in third place, having steadily moved up from 20^th after dressage

Another Australian also had a good weekend with Chris Burton finishing only one second over the time to emerge the clear winner of CCI** Section D on Sue Lawson and Carolyn and Anthony Townsend’s Nobilis 18. The nine-year-old Hannoverian by Nobrexx, who was competing in his first two-star competition, was bred in Germany and formerly competed by Dirk Schrade and Olympic champion Michael Jung.

Read our full daily coverage of Barbury International Horse Trials here

Chris was also aiming for a hat trick himself – this time at Aachen where he had won the previous two years. However it was Sandra Auffarth, for whom it has been a case of so near but so far in the past two years as Chris has clinched the DHL Prize individual title, who not only won the individual title but helped the German team triumph in the FEI Nations Cup. Sadly Chris was already out of the competition, withdrawing Graf Liberty from the competition before the final cross country day due to a virus.

Read our full daily coverage of Aachen CICO here

In Australia Hazel Shannon and Clifford beat her coach Heath Ryan to take out the CNC3* at Tamworth International Eventing where hardy winter eventers enjoyed new jumps at all levels and the Saturday night show jumping (as well as the bar) and a little further south, eventers were enjoying some winter competition in NSW and Victoria.

Shane Rose was first and second place after the dressage and at the end of the competition at the Sydney Eventing Winter Classic he was still in the same position. The only difference was that his horses had changed positions and it was Taurus who took home the winners rug in the CNC3*. While CP Qualified collected four time penalties 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. Alison Duthie caught up with Shane and various other winners and riders at Sydney on Saturday and Sunday in our two day event coverage of Sydney Eventing Winter Classic

We discovered that the Pony Club Association of Victoria Interzone Teams Horse Trials was not just about Grade 3 and 4 riders competing to win the Teams competition for their zone; it was also about making new friends from other clubs and plenty of fun around the camp fires and at the Victorian Eventing Fundraiser, an unexpected visitor in the shape of a helicopter caused some hair raising moments during cross country. Paul Buckland riding Freedom Grandeur won the EVA 105 Division B but it was Alex Gillies riding Zabellen in this class who won the ‘unflappable’ award of the day. As they headed out on course an unannounced helicopter decided to land in the centre of the polo fields around which the first few fences run. Alex and Zabellen jumped fence three with the helicopter descending immediately overhead. Nat Davies had no such problems in the main class of the weekend the CNC1*, winning on her lovely Chatswood Design, moving up from seventh after the dressage with a clear show jumping and cross country round.