Craig Barrett and Sandhills keep on a straight line and finish second in the 3* combined training class
It never seems fair when so much work from organisers, volunteers and riders has gone into putting on an event only to have the weather spoil things but sadly that’s what happened at SIEC today. The announcement came over the loudspeaker around 8am that the decision had been made to cancel the cross country phase, which basically turned the event into combined training. The only riders who completed their cross country phase were those in the EvA60 and EvA80 classes who rode in the rain of yesterday.
Tim Boland, President of the SIEC @ Sydney committee, said that safety of the horses and their riders was the most important thing and when the course had been looked at in the morning it was clear that it wasn’t going to be possible to open the course.
Spectators enjoying the show jumping ... in the hot humid weather!
“The water jump reminded me of the water jumps from years ago because the water was about a metre deep. We got the pumps out, but the water running off the hill (above the water) was filling it back up faster that we could pump it out. When Shane (Rose) looked at it and said ‘you can’t run cross country’ we knew it was time to pull the pin,” explained Tim.
(We’ll have an audio interview for you with Tim a little later in the week)
It may have looked muddy in the warm up arena but it didn't seem to worry the horses
Thankfully the grass arenas where the show jumping was held stood up really well to the wet weather and there was very little slipping seen during the day. And although the warm up arena looked like little more than a very large muddy puddle, the horses coped well, splashing through the going.
Mustang gives the fences a good bit of air to win the 3* combined training
At the end of the day Emma Scott and Mustang held onto their dressage lead after a lovely showjumping round to win the class ahead of Craig Barrett and Sandhills Brillaire. “I think I am starting to earn myself the title of 3* Combined Training Queen,” laughed Emma. “I won the Combined Training class the other weekend at Wallaby Hill and now I have won here. It’s a shame (they had to cancel the cross country) because I was really excited to be leading the dressage and was looking forward to going cross country but equally the conditions have to be safe so the right decision was made.” Emma will now take Mustang to some dressage and show jumping competitions before heading off to Albury CIC3* in April. “I just hope I can keep having the same results when it comes to actually running at a proper event!”
Emma Mason and Poker Face
Another Emma, this time Emma Mason, won the 2* combined training class with the classy Poker Face. “I was really pleased with the way he coped yesterday in the wet conditions and hopefully he will cope equally well in the next ten minutes,” said Emma on the way to the show jumping arena. The pair jumped a very classy round making the 2* John Vallance designed course look easy. Natalie Blundell enjoyed a good weekend (as far as combined training goes) finishing second in the 2* with the every enthusiastic Algebra and taking home the winners rug riding Girl with a Curl in the Australian Event Horse Centre section of the 1*.
Fiona Hughes (pictured above with Paul Biancardi) did a fantastic job as commentator for the whole weekend, trying to keep riders informed as to what was happening when. A good commentator can really make an event and Fiona, who seems to have a little bit of background knowledge on nearly every rider, is both entertaining and informative.
At the time of writing there was a problem with getting the scores up so we can’t fill you in on what happened in the rest of the classes. But we did see and hear from a very happy Felicity Cribb who had won an EvA90 class, beating her younger sister – Prue (Barrett) “Mmm, I think I needed the cross country to happen to make sure I moved ahead of Felicity,” smiled Prue.
Keep tuned during the week and we’ll bring you some more articles and photos from SIEC.
CLICK HERE for our interview with Tim Boland
