News and Events

Wodonga

This show should be most famous for its Betty Mcbeal Memorial showjumping class but these days I think it’s more famous for the Fish Bowls at Taco Bills, which, if you ask me I think is responsible for some very good riding the next day (and some not so good).
We arrived on Thursday with our team of five noble steeds, Landsong, Quantum, Higgs, Lovesong and Zenith.
The first day of competition was a mix of indoor and outdoor with Greer having her two, Zenith and Lovesong in the 1.25 speed class out doors which had a field of around 60 riders so Greer was just a little too slow for the placings but the horses jumped well for the first day of competition.
Danielle was in doors on both her horses, Quantum was in the B and C and Toby was in the 1.35, Brian was also in the B&C with Greer, who we did not anticipate to actually get stronger in the smaller environment of the indoor.
Cruise jumped an amazing round but had 1 time fault and Danielle had a bit of a doozer with Toby not feeling too confident about the whole atmosphere.

On the second day Danielle had young riders indoor with Cruise and Toby and Greer had Brian and Lucy in the 1.25 out doors (Danielle was trying to stay in doors as much as possible as she had the world cup on Saturday night and Greer was staying out doors as much as possible as she had the Grand Prix).
Toby was much better indoors the second day but had a time fault and Cruise was amazing and came second, well done to Georgie Lucas and all of the other place getters.
Greer jumped 2 clear rounds on Lucy and Brian but wasn't’t fast enough in the jump off.
On Saturday Greer had Lucy and Brian in the Futurity which was a hard enough track but plenty went clear and as usual the jump off was humongous (going from a 1.20m to 1.45m is a bit extreme) but Greer managed to get 6th on Brian.
As I had said earlier in the article Danielle had been jumping indoors to get used to it and keep her mind on the job…I think maybe she had her mind on the wrong job Saturday night.
In the warm up she was getting oodles of help from George Sara and Greer about how to ride the indoor lines and the sort of canter she had and how that felt underneath her and the power and the energy and the impulsion, Danielle was ready for the world cup.
As she went in there and trotted around looking at all of the lines and thinking about how its not that high and this arena is bigger than she thought trying not to psyche herself out while she waited for the officials and ground people to get a new cup that had broken from the previous round. As she started the class we were all really nervous as it was only the 2nd or 3rd world cup she had done on the horse, as she came to fence 4 and did 5 A B we started to relax and thought…this is looking pretty good, I think that’s what everyone was thinking which made the “jinx” about 56 times worse. As she jumped number 7 and came around the corner keeping her powerful canter which was energetic but not too fast so that she’d lose control she found a great distance and flew over part A and cleared part B but wait….I thought this was supposed to be a triple, where’s part C and then it dawned on her that she had gotten the perfect distance…TO THE WRONG COMBINATION!!
The first thing she said when she came out of the arena was “why didn’t anyone tell me?” and Sara said “because I’m pretty sure your supposed to know the course”.

Equitana

The atmosphere at Equitana is always amazing and it was tripled as the showjumping was held in doors this yearr.
We were only in there for 1 day, literally. We unloaded all of the horses and all of there gear and we were there for 8 hrs which was a bit of a bother but well worth it.
First off was the young riders which consisted of 20 riders from around the country, the first round was about 1.10 wit one double and a couple of tricky lines, half the field went clean including Greer and Danielle, the jump off went up about 3 holes and seeming to be a bit tricky as no one had posted a clear round yet.
Greer went in on Sue and was doing great time but sue unfortunately hung her front legs (which she only does every 20 or so shows) and had 7A down.
The pressure was on as Danielle came into the ring everyone had already told her that all she had to do was have a clear round, there were a few funny spots but Cruise tried his best and had a clear round and Danielle won the class.

Toby was then in the Grand Prix and he jumped amazing again but had 1 rail in the first round and then about 3 in the second round :-s

Equitation

Danielle instead of going to Sale decided to defend her title as young rider state equitation champion on Cruise.
The tasks were much harder this year with a counter canter around a corner to an oxer.
Cruise was a star as usual and took Danielle to victory and was the only combination to do the counter canter task successfully.