Sunburst Equestrian Newsletter - January 2010

Newsletter January 2010

What a year 2010 promises to be! My major focus will be on gaining selection once more to the Australian Team for the FEI Alltech World Equestrian Games to be held in Kentucky, USA September 30 - October 7. Which discipline?! I currently have two Event horses - Koyuna Sun Magic and Koyuna Sun Dancer - on the Elite Squad and two on the Development Squad - Koyuna Sun Shine and Koyuna Sun Storm while my Jumping mare, Koyuna Sun Set has also been elevated to the Elite Squad following her win in the Grand Prix class at the 2009 National Show Jumping Championships. While it would be my ultimate goal to ‘do a Mark Todd’ and represent Australia in both the Eventing and Jumping Sports, it is most important that I represent in one!

To this end, I have decided to remain in Australia for the first part of the year to campaign both the jump mare and my event horses at the Australian-based selection trials before I take the major step of flying the jump mare to Europe to campaign towards the final selection trials at two premier German Shows - Muenster and Paderborn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Koyuna Sun Set at 2009 Adelaide Royal Show World Cup (2nd place) and winning Canberra National Championships Grand Prix, October 2009

The year has begun in a very positive, productive way with all horses back in work a few days after Christmas and, by remaining home over the holidays for the first time in the past 4 years, I have been able to invest significant energy into re-establishing business goals and stable protocols and re-staffing my business at Sunburst Equestrian. 2010 sees young Amarah Henderson-Wilson step up to become a 2nd rider for me (on a part-time basis as she is also undertaking her final year of secondary education!) and two lovely foreign girls, Rebecca Burrel from the UK and Laura Kelly from Ireland who are both finishing off a travel year abroad. We are also looking forward to the arrival of young Charlotte Lobb from the UK who is looking to escape a country with ‘dire weather & no summer anymore!’

The opportuntity to train with American Jumping Coach legend, George Morris and our National Eventing Coach, Wayne Royroft mid-late January was a great kickstart to this all important year - it had me motivated to prepare the horses well for an early season start and has now provided much food for thought regarding both technical specifics and management practices in general. We picked up a day of jumping at the Dapto Show on the way home to test new skills and had a very good day at the office with Sun Set winning the Grand Prix by some 5 seconds, Sun Shine placing 3rd with a slower double clear and Sun Dancer 5th!

Unfortunately the day after the George Morris clinic had ended and before we traveled home I had to make the devastating decision to have my younger, up & coming jumper, Lord of the Sun euthanized due to an infected Navicular bursa which became septic despite the best efforts of all at the Morphettville Equine clinic. A tragic end to an injury that I had absolutely underestimated in its severity. Always a larrikin and into trouble, he somehow managed to pick up a random farriers nail driving it up through his frog piercing the navicular bursa. On finding the nail next day we made the mistake of pulling it out, allowing infection to track up, and did not treat it immediately aggressively, as we should have, with surgery as an absolute emergency. Four days of conservative treatment before surgery simply meant the infection had got too strong a hold. I learnt a hard lesson that any penetration of the sole, particularly the frog, requires immediate specialist assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lord of the Sun at Royal Adelaide Show Grand Prix 2009

On a more positive note on January 26, we finally put down our new Soiltex arena surface & the horses love it! A big thank you to both Lou Verwey from Soiltex & John Bailey from Echunga Earthmovers who have played a big part in making it happen! It was great to be ‘in partnership’ with the Heading family who have recently moved into “Tilling Hill” and were also having both their indoor & outdoor arenas resurfaced.

A short holiday break in Portsea with good friends, Andrea & Bruce Dumbrell, Jan 28-31 has provided a perfect end to January, reviving me to carry on the year on the high that it has begun! Or the way it finished off in December, after a disappointing Australian International3DE result, both Sun Magic and Sun Dancer made amends with a win to Fox in the CCI3* after leading the dressage phase and Dancer was a close up third.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventing Prospects for WEG 2010 - Koyuna Sun Magic (above), Koyuna Sun Dancer (below) and Koyuna Sun Shine ( bottom)