Oliver Townend (above) and William Fox-Pitt (below) took part in the Royal Canada Horse Show Indoor Eventing last weekend
Photos courtesy Ben Radvanyi Photography
Exhibition Eventing, as it is known in Australia, is a fairly recent phenomenon. The basic concept is that eventing riders take part in a two part competition; a dressage test followed by a jumping test including show jumps and cross country style fences against the clock.
The concept started in the UK with Express Eventing a few years ago but the series was dealt a blow with the death of Mary King’s Call Again Cavalier at a competition in Wales in 2008. In 2011 the event final was held indoors at HorseWorld Live! in London and won by Lucinda Fredericks, there was no event in 2012 and this year it moved back outdoors. Held at the CLA Game Fair in Warwickshire in July, Lucinda was once again victorious on her nippy little mare Headley Britannia
In Australia there were two qualifiers in 2013 (at Royal Melbourne Show and Wallaby Hill) for the Be the Influence Equestrian Grand Final - Exhibition Eventing which is held at Equitana each year and run by Equestrian Australia. This year it is being held in Sydney and 14 riders have qualified or been given wild cards to compete on Friday 8th June.
The hot favourite is Shane Rose who has not lost an Exhibition Eventing round so far but Shane said in a recent interview that he is not that confident of a win this time round. With the Australian International 3 Day Event only days after Equitana this is a busy time for Australian riders who have to juggle various commitments while preparing for their biggest event of the year in Adelaide.
In Canada last weekend their version of short format eventing took place indoors at the Royal Canada Horse Show and had the added attraction of two top UK eventers joining in – Oliver Townend and William Fox-Pitt. The event, which takes place at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto was won by Canadian Waylon Roberts who took his seventh title as the Horseware Indoor Eventing champion (and you do not want to get in the way of this guy)
Captain Mark Phillips was the course designer in the pretty tight arena and you can see how it rode in the following videos thanks to Horse Junkies
We also can’t resist including an interview with Oliver Townend just because he makes us smile...........
