Taupo dished out almost everything it had in terms of weather during the 2019 National Three-day Eventing Championships, and the flagship DVS Home Ventilation CCI4* had the closest of finishes, Madison Crowe and Waitangi Pinterest edging out defending champions Muzi Pottinger and Just Kidding.
The pair finished on the same penalty score of 34, but the win went to Maddy as she was closer to the cross-country optimal time.
Unfortunately, the Trans-Tasman clashes did not go New Zealand’s way under the new (and frankly, ludicrous) team scoring format that the sport’s international body, the FEI, has come up with in an attempt to secure its place in the Olympics. If it was supposed to make the eventing scoring simpler and easier to understand, it’s a big fail. With reserve combinations being substituted for eliminated pairs, but copping an additional 200 penalties, it resulted in Australia’s Gold team (Shane Rose, Sonja Johnson and Emma Bishop) winning the Senior Oceania contest, on 207.3 penalties, to the NZ Black (Madison, Muzi, Bundy Philpott) score of 325.5. But under the traditional rules of four to a team, three best scores to count, New Zealand Black would have had a thumping victory, 128.3 penalties to Australia Gold’s 202.5.
There was a similar situation in the Junior contest, with Australia’s team emerging as victors.
The new format also creates the horse-unfriendly situation of requiring each team combination to show jump twice, and – in another head-scratcher – some of those eliminated on the cross-country for rider falls, were able to trot-up and show jump the next day for their teams which seems contrary to the entire point of three-day eventing.
We will have full coverage in our upcoming June/July issue of NZ Horse & Pony magazine, but enjoy these action images from www.takethemoment.co.nz
