Lucy leads National Young Rider class

Plenty of action on a much nicer day at the National Equestrian Centre in Christchurch and there were plenty of changes on the leader board.

Lincoln’s Lucy Turner has not only a good grasp on the National Young Rider title, but on her well-performed horse Carbon, she also leads the Ultimate Design and Renovation CCI2* Championship.

Lucy, who is also a Canterbury representative hockey player, made the course look easy and said she really went out there and attacked it. “I wanted to give him a good ride, as he is a good horse and it was a pretty tidy round,” she said. “He has pulled up perfectly, and I have no concerns for tomorrow at this point, but time will tell. I was looking at leading the Young Rider title, but to lead the two-star as well isn’t too bad!”

Overnight leader in the two-star class Angela Lloyd had a fall off Lyrical at fence 14 so was eliminated. Both horse and rider are fine. Courtney Davis (By Hoki) and Lydia Truesdale (Allander Rocket) both charged around the course looking very accomplished, and have moved up into second and third place.

Donna Edwards-Smith, from Te Kauwhata, has hit the lead in the CCI3* class on DSE Cluny but is only 0.3penalties ahead of Christchurch’s Kirsty Sharapoff on Shoot the Breeze so there will be no room for error in tomorrow’s show jumping.

Donna was delighted with Cluny’s round. “He was very, very good, I didn’t push him for time since he hasn’t started for April,” she said afterwards. Although the weather was vastly improved on yesterday, it was still quite chilly, especially for riders from the North Island. “My hands were completely numb the last half of the course,” Donna said. It is four years since Donna has been down to compete here, and she said she really appreciated what the South Island organisers are doing, especially as she hopes to take Cluny to the four-star Adelaide event, depending on how he finished up here. She had bought a big team of nine horses with her, some ridden by her working pupils who had “ups and downs” but “it was all good,” she said.

Kirsty was rueing going a little slow at the start. “I was a bit tentative t the beginning, too slow off the mark,” she said. “He finished as strong as he started, and he just sussed out those flags and went for it.”

Emily Cammock did really well to even get out on the course on Shaw Lee, as she was struck down by a stomach bug her two children had suffered from earlier in the week. “I was really unwell, and nearly didn’t start. He was awesome though.” Emily did have a run out early in the course. “He slipped when he landed over the combination, and perhaps I wasn’t as mentally sharp as I rode him forward instead of sitting up.”

The leader after the dressage, Brent Jury and SE Hedge, had a couple of run outs so has dropped back to fourth place. He also wins the save of the day when he nearly came to grief over a fence, even pushing his horse’s bridle off but managed somehow to get back from in front of the saddle to the right place, and the bridle back on his horse without touching the ground so could continue on. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any photos of that!

Christchurch’s Jordan Shrimpton has moved into the lead in the National Junior Rider Championship on Ka Pai Kiwi with Georgie Dickson (Tigerherz) second and Cambridge’s Jasmyne Speake (DSE Beyond Compare) third. Oamaru’s Paige Hardwick (Ivanoff) is right behind in fourth, and the show jumping will be very important for these youngsters tomorrow.

The Bates Saddles CCI1* Championship is now led by Spookee Possum, ridden by West Coaster, Eve Hawes after a great round today.  Eve also leads the Dunstan CNC95 Championship on her younger horse, the Enchantress.

Tomorrow morning the horses have to pass a veterinary inspection before being able to continue through to the show jumping round which starts at 9.30.