Eventing weekend wrap April 2-3

Hawke’s Bay Eventing

Eventing Hawke’s Bay and Northern Hawke’s Bay held their one day event over the weekend – and it was hot! Temperatures of 28 degrees were reported and there were some hot competitions too, although just two entries in the CNC2*+, both ridden by Samantha Felton. Ricker Ridge Escada won, with Ricker Ridge Pico Boo second after incurring 20 penalties for a run out on the cross-country.

In the Hygain CNC2*, Louise Mulholland on her trusty Mr McTaggart had a good win, leading after dressage and adding just 2.8pen to her score. Good to see ESNZ Eventing Chairman Todd Gloyn out competing again, and doing well with a second on Air Hill Bambi in the two-star and a third on his Ten Talents in the Livamol CNC1*, which was won by Jessica Woods on LV Defies Logic. While the cross-country jumped very well, time was definitely of the essence and had a big influence in the final placings.

In the Steed Health CNC105, evergreen Bryce Newman won on Bates Game Keeper, finishing on his dressage score, as did Sally Gunn on Kiwi Highlight to win the CNC105 Amateur.  Two other winners who added no faults to their dressage scores were Abigail Long on Belmont Holy Smoke in the Forbes & Co CNC105 under 21 years, and Nicki Boyd and Sunset Dancer in the Vet Services Hawke’s Bay CNC95A class. In the B section, Jessica Woods had another win on LV Balou Skye and was second on LV Hat Trick. Great to see Jessica back in the winner’s circle after taking some time off to have her baby.

Tiegan Holt on Pintado Overland won the CNC95 under 18, Penelope Ewart on Wairua Jubilee won the PGG Wrightson CNC80 A section, with Tayla Mason winning the B section on Waimanu Highlights.

The gallery (thanks to Take the Moment) is below, with the full results at the end of this post.

Hawkes Bay April ODE

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Pony Club Eventing

The Timberlands North Island Teams Event moved location this year and was held at the Fiber Fresh National Equestrian Centre, Taupo, run by the Taupo & District Pony Club.

Nineteen teams of up to six riders took part, with the top four scores counting.  Well done to Pointways Pony Club who won the competition, keeping their lead established after cross-country. The team was made up of Elise Quinn (Secret Trick), Gracie O’Leary (Willesden Green), Hannah Smith (Aqua Pura), Savanna Stirling (SD Vincitorio), Scarlett Pulham (American Flyer) and Scout Lodder (Lightning). Dannie Lodder was the coach.

Second was Te Kuiti Pony Club, 13 points behind Pointways, with Heretaunga CHB/Horowhenua third by just 2.2 points. Franklin Districts Pony Club was fourth and Auckland District Pony Club fifth.

Natalie Dawson on Silver Fox from the Taupo Club won the NZPCA 1A 95 class, Gracie O’Leary on Willesden Green from Pointways won the NZPCA 1B class, with the IC class (95) won by Zephania Steele on Resolute EM. The ID 95 class was won by Tayla Moss on Gee Si (Auckland), 1E was won by Storm Harris on Cajun (Te Kuiti), and 1F by Brett Morrison on TMH Cuzzie Bro from North Taranaki.

The 65cm 11 years and under was won by Antoinette Taylor on Midnights Dark Secret, while Katie Graham on Simba won the 65cm 12 years and over.  Kelsey Chesswas on Donny won the 80cm, 14 years and under, and the 15 years and over 80cm class was won by Sammie Smith on Rubyx Cube.

Here’s our gallery of images thank to Barbara Thomson Photography.

Timberlands Pony Club Teams Event

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Kihikihi next on calendar

Many New Zealand eventers now head to Kihikihi next weekend, where there are 14 entries in the Waipa Home of Champions CIC3* class, including the current ESNZ Super League series leader, Katharine Van Tuyl on Double J Sunshine. The AON CIC2* and the Horselands CIC1* each have 35 entries.

UK Eventing

Tim Price won an OI class at Burnham Market on Obos Cooley, with Jock Paget 17th in the same class on Clifton Promise. William Fox-Pitt was also in that class, and jumped clear but slowly across country; it was good to see him back after his bad head injury last year. In another OI class, Jock was fourth on Clifton Signature, and ninth on Angus Blue with Sir Mark Todd 11th on NZB Land Vision, Lucy Jackson 12th on Mercury Bay and Andrew Nicholson 14th on Teseo. Lucy had some good placings in lower classes too.

In the CIC2* Sir Mark Todd was fifth on Obos Colombus with Tim Price seventh on Danturano K. Australia’s Sammi Birch won the class on The Court Jester. Tim Price rode this horse a lot last season with some great results when Sammi was having her baby.

In the CIC3*, Ollie Townend won on Cooley Master Class and came second on Note Worthy.  Sir Mark was the best-placed Kiwi on NZB Campino, seventh after having a rail and 5.6 time faults cross-country, a good pre-Rolex Kentucky run. Blyth Tait had his Badminton hopeful Bear Necessity out and finished 19th, also with a rail and 4pen. Blyth on Darius and Andrew Nicholson on Perfect Stranger opted for quiet rides across country, and both incurred 20+ time faults (but clear jumping) to finish well down the list. Allora and Jock Paget had a nasty-looking fall in the water complex, getting very wet, but walked away. You can check this out from a series of photos on this link.

There were six New Zealanders in the top 10 in the Advanced section at Burnham. Tim had Wesko out for a run, and was beaten by Bettina Hoy on Designer 10 by 1.2 in the dressage. While both of them incurred a few time faults, it wasn’t quite enough for Tim to overtake his friend Bettina. That was a good run for Wesko building up to Rolex, as it also was for Tim’s Bango, who finished fourth. Sir Mark was fifth on Leonidas, Jonelle Price sixth on Classic Moet; both these horses are entered for Badminton. Megan Heath with St Daniel is currently on the Badminton wait-list but had a good run, finishing eighth. No Badminton wait-list for Nereo, though, and he had a good run with Andrew to finish ninth. Andrew was also 14th on Qwanza. Andrew did test out his surgeon’s work when he had a fall off Swallow Springs, but reports from his camp say that both are fine. The horse lost his footing on the cut up ground.

Dan Jocelyn elected to take a few of his team to Goring Heath for their ODE and finished 10th and 12th in the Open Novice in a large field.  Tim Rusbridge was 14th in one Novice class and 12th in another. Emma Beresford on Prince Keel was second in a BE100 Open, again a large field.

The UK eventing season is really swinging into gear, and Kiwi riders are off to many events across the country, including Portman on Tuesday, South of England and Larkhill next weekend and Belton on April 15 where the feature event is the Grantham Cup. Clarke Johnstone will be giving Balmoral Sensation his first UK run at Belton in the CIC3*.

Australia

Over in Australia, the eventers were out at Albury.  Shane Rose took his two Rio hopefuls, CP Qualified and Virgil, out for some dressage and show jumping, but withdrew before the cross-country. CP Qualified seems to be maintaining his high standard of dressage, recording a 37.10 score, which put him in the lead after that phase. Shane won the CIC3* on Shanghai Joe, with Stuart Tinney, sporting a beard, second on Pluto Mio. Good to see Amanda Ross stepping up to three-star with her exciting young horse, Dicavalli Diesel (incidentally, produced by Shane Rose), who she won the CCI2* at Adelaide with. Kiwi Blair Richardson was 16th. Full results can be found on this link.

Full Results from Hawke’s Bay