Sunburst Equestrian Newsletter - May/June/July 2009
May fortunately began in a more inspired way than April had ended, when the Sydney Eventing organizing committee agreed to have me ‘on board’ as a guest commentator for both the World Cup Eventing and Showjumping qualifiers. It was great to feel useful again (yes, I had only been broken for a week or so but was very much over it by then!) and I very much enjoyed the work I did both commentating and interviewing riders for a package from the Sydney Eventing Qualifier to be put onto the FEI TV. Megan Jones on her ever-improving veteran “Kirby Park Irish Jester” had a great win from the start posting the only sub-40 dressage score of 39.2 for a 7 pt lead going into the Cross Country.
The ‘short format’ course built by AI3DE course designer, Wayne Copping, was excellent and challenged riders to hold their line in a correct, consistent rhythm with the FEI fence consisting steeply angled brush fences in the main grass arena being a highlight. The course also followed a new track which was steeper & shorter, somewhat different to the long format track used at last year’s Olympic selection trial & the track for the 2000 Olympics.
Megan & Jester also produced the smoothest, fastest round across country for 6.4 time to extend her lead when Shane Rose & “All Luck” had an unexpected stop at the water fence. Georgia Clifford and Stuart Tinney had excellent rounds on “Its Monty” and “Vettori” respectively to come up into 2nd and 3rd positions heading into the Show Jumping which they held with classy jumping rounds. Megan & Jester made their solitary mistae for the competition when decking the last fence in the jumping but a 9 point victory reflected her dominance of the competition. To show she is also a producer of top class youngsters, Megan also ran 4th on “Kirby Park Allofasudden” to take home a cool $20K for the weekend!
I returned from Sydney determined to make best use of my enforced ‘break’ and threw myself into the long-term project of sorting out my arena, to which I will add Lou Verway’s “Soiltex” surface to the existing river sand. No sooner had we received delivery of the product than the heavens opened and gave us enough rain to highlight the inadequacies of my 30 year old arena base! No doubt a timely reminder that I was heading for disaster if I put the new surface down on an inadequate base, it was nevertheless frustrating and will now have to shelved until the summer when it is most practical to do the major works necessary.
I did teach clinics in both WA and Port Augusta, SA during May which was a little challenging on crutches but rewarding! A trip up to help out at the Naracoorte Horse Trials was also well rewarded when I managed to sell my young 4yo ex-racehorse “Joey” to a lovely young rider from Mt Gambier who I’m sure will do really well with him.
The other major news was the announcement from the AI3DE Board that the 2009 event was facing imminent cancellation unless a $100K budget shortfall could be met...this just the mission I needed & proceeded to throw myself into making sure the 2009 not only ran but that I did all I could to ‘brainstorm’ and network contacts to further promote our sport. Fortunately the Australian Equestrian community has rallied extremely well to support the event, to the extent that the Board was able to make the committment to run this year’s event.
Many fundraising efforts have been initated, I was particularly excited by my success in arranging Australian legends - Australia II Skipper John Bertrand and Sports Commentator extraordinaire, Bruce McAvaney - to be keynote speaker and Interviewer at a function to launch this year’s AI3DE which I hope will both give sponsors and patrons of the event added value and act to further publicise the event.
June began more positively as I was now back riding albeit quietly on the flat on 2 -3 horses/day. I had had my cast removed on May 25 and was put into a CAM walker for an undefined timeframe that I’m sure my surgeon was hoping would have been longer than the 5 days it was worn for! I had invited my good Physio friend up for a family BBQ/horse ride on the Saturday and had told him I was not happy in the CAM walker & didn’t believe it was going to be good for my rehabilitation as I wouldn’t build up calf muscle strength quickly enough to get me back riding efficiently! He did make some rude comment about my haste but did assess my leg that afternoon and stated that he couldn’t believe how stable the fracture was and that I was probably safe to come out of the CAM walker...that was great news especially as I had a black tie function to attend that night in high heels! The Cancer Council “Glitz and Hammer” Ball was a great event and being in the total networking mode that I was in, I made many new acquaintances and bailed up an equestrian artist I was introduced to on our table to do a painting of our 3 SA Olympic Equestrian heroes to sell for the AI3DE fundrasing effort!
The main event for June was the Melbourne International - having not had my offer to guest commentate taken up, I took it upon myself to speak at the Rider’s Forum about the importance of the ‘Adelaide effort’ and then spent a very productive 3 days honing my networking skills in the VIP tents. Natalie Blundell, winner of the first ever CCI**** in Adelaide introduced me to her owners, John Glenn and Julia McLean who I then spent many hours with on Cross Country day with their corporate guests providing further insight into our wonderful sport. I have kept in regular contact with John who has proceeded to mentor me in a sales & marketing role which I certainly need! Out of adversity often comes opportunity - for me personally as well as for the Adelaide event, which I’m now very excited about from the viewpoint of potential business partnerships and sponsorship opportunities. Still, there is much work to do!
Following the Melbourne International, I stayed on in Melbourne to teach a clinic at the Broadhangar Equestrian Centre organized by Carol Kernaghan. I very much enjoyed teaching though was grateful for the Indoor arena on the Wednesday when there was extraordinarily heavy rainfall & hail! I finished June riding much more confidently with my leg now much stronger, having no doubt benefited from the week off riding in Melbourne. I started jumping again 8 weeks post fracture and competed at a small Show Jumping training day and an official Dressage Day in preparation for my trip to Sydney for their ‘double header’ of CNC competitions where I felt it was important that I competed again this season.
July began in Sydney with beautiful weather of bright blue skys & sun...this was while Adelaide was having torrential rain & hail so I was very lucky to be out of that! The competition was a success with my leg holding up well & only giving me some grief when my young horse spooked in the Cross Country warm-up, jarring my ankle joint into dorsiflexion.
I just rode two young horses in a Prelim & a Pre-Novice class in the mid-week event for a win and a 6th place before adding my two 3* horses, “Koyuna Sun Magic” & “Koyuna Sun Storm” to the mix for the weekend event as well as upgrading youngsters “Sun Showers” to her first official Pre-Novice competition and “Kirsyl Sun” to his first 1*. Sun Magic did a lovely dressage test to lead the 3* class while Storm was 3rd before a slower and a faster Cross Country round and double clear Show Jumping rounds respectively saw them swap places with Storm winning the event and Magic finishing a close 3rd on a countback from Stuart Tinney’s “Ari de Ghawir” which was some 12 seconds faster than Magic but 11 slower than Storm who was an absolute gun! I was very pleased with Magic as he has had some issues in the past 9 months.
Storm grows in confidence with every outing, Sydney 09 being her 3rd 3* win in 3 starts! I am very excited about her potential as a world class event horse. Kirsyl Sun also starred in his first 1* start only adding 2.8 time XC and 1 time SJ to a competitive dressage score which saw him just a couple of points off the lead in 3rd place. Sun Showers had a couple of run-outs at a skinny fence when I set her up too much (as I would on an experienced horse) but was otherwise excellent in her jumping phases and well behaved if not yet established enough in her Dressage.
I now just have a speaking engagement to further promote our sport in general and the AI3DE in particular at an Adelaide Crows pre-match function this coming Saturday before I leave for a 3 and half week teaching holiday in the USA. This will be great to recharge my batteries before a Spring/Summer season of Eventing and Show Jumping that promises to be very intense!