With over 450 riders taking part in Eventing Equestriad the pace was hectic at Camden’s Bicentennial Park, the venue for this great event. There were 15 dressage arena’s, several showjumping arena’s and some of the lower level classes did their cross country today and will show jump tomorrow.
In the top class – the CIC3* Tim Boland leads the field on a score of 45 riding GV Billy Elliot. Tim will be hoping for better luck than he had at Sydney when the pair had a couple of stops on cross country day. Stuart Tinney has four horses in the 3* and is lying second on Panamera only marginally behind Tim on 45.8. Kevin McNab and Gameplay are lying third on 47.9 while Shane Rose who is riding five horses this weekend and organising the event rode APH Moritz into fourth place on a score of 48.3. Maybe Shane’s mind was on what he had to do next as he had an error of course during his test and one of the flying changes wasn’t the best. However a few other riders also added a couple of penalties to their score by going the wrong way in the arena so Shane wasn’t alone!
“I am so impressed with what Shane and his team have done here,” Helen Christie (CCI3* Ground Jury member) told EQ Life. “It’s a couple of years since I have been here and looking around the cross country course everything looks new. I think they have done an amazing job. The course, designed by Wayne Copping, is a good honest three star track. With this event coming after the World Cup and before Melbourne CCI3* it needed to provide the riders and their horses with a good fair run and that is hopefully just what this course will do tomorrow.”
As well as all the horse action spectators took advantage of the great hospitality on offer with some wonderful cuisine provided by Chef Lee Hokianga. Children were not forgotten with a bouncy castle and face painting keeping them amused while their parents took a stroll around the trade stands.
The action continues tomorrow with the CIC3* going cross country from 12.45pm followed by the two and one star combinations
