Well a great deal has happened in the past two months, the main focus has been to prepare Beauford Miss Dior (Willie) for selection onto the Australian Team for the Athens Olympics. The two main competitions were Taupo (NZ) CCI*** in May and Sydney CCN*** (Athens format) in June. We felt if Willie performed well at these two competitions she had a good chance of being selected for the Games.
Willie is such a seasoned traveller having competed all over the world, she handled the flight to New Zealand with ease. The other Australian to make the trip were Nikki Richardson, Catherine Davies and Olivia Bunn, everyone was there to perform well and put their hand up for selection for the Olympic. Malaysian rider Husref Malek who is based with Stuart Tinney also made the trip to NZ hoping to perform well to improve his chances of becoming the first Malaysia Event rider to compete at the Olympic Games. It was a great group to travel with all the riders and support crew shared a house in Taupo, it was a fun (unofficial) team environment. Wayne Roycroft (National Coach), Dennis Goulding (National Vet) and Sandy Parker (National Farrier) were also in NZ to assist the Australian horses and riders, they joined us in the house for many entertaining evening.
Eventing is a great sport, it is always amazing the amount of support that competitors give to each other. Shane has been lucky to have the help of Stuart Tinney, Stuart has been working with Shane and Willie to improve her dressage and jumping. Stuart was in NZ primarily to help Husref, however he generously gave his time and helped Shane and Willie, his assistance without doubt helped Willie perform a great dressage test and lead the competition after this phase. The going at Taupo is fantastic and the Cross Country course was well designed and built. Willie jumped around the cross country course without jumping faults, she did pick up 4.4 time penalties very unusual for Willie! and Shane! However Willie had overreached in the steeplechase and Shane felt she was not 100% so he let her travel around the course at a comfortable pace, rather than pushing her to make time when she was not quiet right. These time faults dropped Willie into third place. That night Willie was a bit sore on the overreach, however she is a tough girl with a bit of ice, she trotted up well on Sunday morning and was passed by the ground jury. Shane only jumped a few showjumping warm up fences to try and do as little as possible on Willies sore overreach, in the competition arena Willie had two down which was disappointing however understandable considering she was not feeling 100%. This performance was good enough to have Shane and Willie in overall 3rd Place and qualify them to compete at the Olympic Games.
Olivia Bunn was the overall winner with Kiwi Matthew Grayling in second. Willie travelled home well and we took her to the Vet Clinic for a complete check up during the week following the Taupo and she was given the all clear, her x-rays and scans all looked very good. The overreach had already started to heal, so the new focus became Sydney CCN*** (Athens Format) this was to be the final Olympic selection trial. After two weeks of R & R Willie was back in work aimed to Sydney CCN***.
The draw of Sydney CCN*** read like the who’s who in Australian Eventing, everyone was keen to put in a strong performance in front of the National Selectors to gain selection for the Games.
Unfortunately the dressage test at Sydney was not Willie’s best work, however she went cross country like a woman processed and jumped fantastic. She pulled up great, thankfully with no overreach this time! Which made groom Cissy Lawrence’s job a lot easier. Willie showjumped like we know she can, jumping one of the few clear rounds in the first round, as this was a ‘Athens Format’ type of competition, their was a second round of showjumping Willie again jumped very well with just a toe on a rail that added 4 penalties to her score.
Willie and Shane finished in 3rd place behind the overall winner Rebel Morrow and second place-getter Claudia Graham. On Monday after the competition Willie was examined by Australian Team Veterinarian Dr Dennis Goulding, Willie had pulled up from the competition very well and should no sign of lameness. Shane was overall very happy with Willie’s performance and was hoping the selectors were equally impressed. However, on Wednesday morning Shane was informed that he had not been selected for the Olympic team and for whatever reason he was also not a reserve for the team.
This was very disappointing news, Willie had performed so well recently and her competition record in the past has been impressive to say the least. In the past 4-5 years Willie has had a fault less cross country jumping record and finished in 6th place or better at every event she has competed at. Unfortunately some one has to miss out and on this occasion it was Shane and Willie, very disappointing for Willie’s owner and Shane as Willie will be too old for the next Olympics.
There are many good Australian horse and rider combination and it would be a very tough job selecting the team. The selectors have done a great job and selected a very strong team of Andrew Hoy, Phillip Dutton, Stuart Tinney, Olivia Bunn and Rebel Morrow.
We were just hoping that Willie had performed well enough to earn the trip to England for the training camp and be there as an experience and competitive reserve combination should a problem arise with one of the selected team horses. Any way the selectors have decide this was not to be the case. We have discussed with Willie’s (very disappointed) owners Pam and Ron Slade our plans now and as Willie is very sound and enjoying her work we have decided to continue to campaign her and will probably head towards the Warwick CIC-W*** and then Adelaide CCI****.
Other happenings at the Sydney Three Day Event were Shane and Angela Shacklady’s exciting young horse ‘All Luck’ performed beautifully and convincingly won the CCI**. (picture middle and right)
Charlotte Mottram’s Thanks a Billion also went well in the CCI** to finish an impressive 4th place.
(picture left and right)
Other events during May and June were the Coffs Harbour CIC, the organising committee went to extraordinary lengths and put on a professional competition. It was a great weekend and our horses performed well Shane won the CIC** on All Luck and was 6th on Thanks a Billion. I finished 2nd in the CIC* with Dane W Brown. Dane has now been sold to junior rider Gabi Kuno, I am sure they will have a great deals of success together. I also finished 1st and 2nd in the Prelim at Coffs with Statford Mantovani and Ladybrook Remington respectively.
Worrigee Event was on in June, this is Shane’s old stamping ground, he had success with All Luck 4th in the CNC**, and 3rd in the Pre Novice with Gandalf the Grey. I had a second placing with my mum’s horse WP Flawless in the intro and Ladybrook Remington had his first Pre Novice and jumped a great clear round, however time penalties kept us out of the placing’s. Statford Mantovani (picture left) also had his first Pre Novice competition and performed very well, however a pause at the dam drop added 20 penalties to the score and take us out of the placing’s.
At Silver Hills, Shane, Margaret Ledner and Julie Drew’s Galdalf the Grey had his 1st Novice start for a fourth placing, this horse is still only 4yo, he is a star in the making. Veronica Hazelton’s Statford Novalis, an Irish Sport Horse Stallion had his first start and finished in third place in the Prelim, just behind our groom/working pupil Michelle Robson and her horse No One Knows. Also having his first start was another Irish Sport Horse Stallion, Raffles that Shane is campaigning for his owner, Raffles went well in the prelim. Joanne Markwell’s Ladybrook Remington has made the step to Pre Novice with ease and we finished in 4th place at Silver Hills.
It has been a busy two months and we are now looking forward to a quieter time in July, although we will be heading up to Warwick (Qld) for the CIC competition.