Sam and Happy Times at Land Rover Bughley Horse Trials 2011 Photo: Libby Law

When Sam Griffiths moved from Australia to England in 1995 it took him several years to establish himself as a successful known rider. It took several more years for his name to be recognised by riders back in his home country. But now as we make our way through 2012, with everything focusing on the London Olympics, Sam is now seen as a successful, well-respected, approachable rider across the world. As an added bonus he comes across as a really nice guy!

An Eventful Life recently caught up with Sam to find out what he has been up to lately and also his plans for 2012 and the build up to London.

“I went back to Australia at the end of last year which was really good fun. I try to get home most years but I usually use the time to catch up with family and friends, but this time I was more involved in the equestrian side of things. I did a bit of work with one of my sponsors, HorseQuest (an online advertising company) which was fun and I managed to get to Equitana and Adelaide as well. I also managed to do a bit of teaching at a great place called Wallaby Hill in the Southern Highlands of NSW. It’s a stunning property and the owners, Alex and Derek, were so friendly that it hardly felt like I was working at all.

When I got back home it was back to reality with lots of horses coming back into work. Lucy (my wife) and I have been on our new property on the Dorset/Somerset border for a couple of years but the place we had before that had an indoor school which spoilt us slightly. Now we have to work the horses outdoors – so that makes it a little tougher in the bad weather. This winter has been quite ‘mild’, at least by last year’s standards, so it’s not all bad.

My ‘London horse’ Happy Times had a good long holiday after Burghley and has come back into work feeling really well and at the moment I am just finalising with his owners and the Australian selectors as to exactly what we will do with him this year. I might take him to Badminton but if not there are quite a few big CIC’s we can go to.

Sam warms up for the showjumping at Burghley with the help of Prue Barrett

It has been good working with the ‘new team’ of Prue Barrett, Brett Parbery and Rob Brown. It always takes a little while to adjust to a new system or a new approach but I think all the riders are finding the change to be a really positive thing and now all we have to do is produce the goods!

We have a great group of Australians over here at the moment and we all seem to stick together and support each other. When we go to a three day event we tend to park together, walk courses together and of course party together … it’s really nice to have fellow Aussies around. Although I am very settled into living in England I will always call Australia home. I live here because for me this is the best place to do my job, so I think I’ll be here for a few years to come.

Looking towards London I think the selectors have a really hard job at the best of times but it must be made harder comparing results of riders who are competing across the globe. From my point of view I have always felt that a winning performance in Australia, say at Adelaide, would still be a winning performance in Europe. I think it is the margin between the next few placings that is different and that simply has more to do with the depth and numbers of competitors over here.

So now it’s onwards towards London and we just keep everything crossed that things go according to plan”

Watch the lovely test by Sam and Happy Times at Burghley and hear what Sam thinks of being drawn first to go in the interview with Matt Ryan at the end!
Video courtesy Burghley TV

Boyd Martin at WEG 2010 Photo: Toni-anne Collins

The USEF Selection Procedures for the 2012 Olympic Games are approved are now available on the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) website.

For eventing there are four selection trials remaining;

• Rolex Kentucky CCI4* presented by Bridgestone (which is also the USEF National CCI4* Eventing Championship),
• Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials in England
• Jersey Fresh CCI3* and
• Saumur CCI3* in France.

A final Mandatory Outing will be held at the Barbury Castle CIC3* in the UK June 28-July 1.
The USEF Eventing High Performance Training Lists were updated in November for the upcoming 2012 season and listed the following Athlete/Horse combinations.

A List

Phillip Dutton (West Grove, PA) and Bruce Duchossois’ Mighty Nice
Mighty Nice is a 7-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding

Sinead Halpin (Oldwick, NJ) and Carriag LLC’s Manoir de Carnville
Manoir de Carnville is an 11-year-old Selle Francais gelding

Boyd Martin (West Grove, PA) and the Neville Bardos Syndicate’s Neville Bardos
Neville Bardos is a 12-year-old Australian Thoroughbred gelding

Boyd Martin (West Grove, PA) and the Otis Barbotiere Syndicate’s Otis Barbotiere
Otis Barbotiere is a 9-year-old Selle Francais gelding

B List

Hannah Sue Burnett (The Plains, VA) and Jacqueline Mars’ Harbour Pilot
Harbour Pilot is an 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding

Jan Byyny (Purcellville, VA) and her own and Jo and Richard Byyny’s Inmidair
Inmidair is a 12-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred gelding

Will Coleman (Gordonsville, VA) and Jim Wildasin’s Twizzel
Twizzel is a 15-year-old Westphalian gelding

Tiana Coudray (Ojai, CA) and Jatial Inc.’s Ringwood Magister
Ringwood Magister is a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding

Buck Davidson (Ocala, FL) and Sharon Will’s Absolute Liberty
Absolute Liberty an 8-year-old Thoroughbred x Oldenburg Mare

Buck Davidson (Ocala, FL) and Carl and Cassandra Segal’s BallyNoe Castle RM
BallyNoe Castle RM is an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding

Buck Davidson (Ocala, FL) and Sherrie Martin’s The Apprentice
The Apprentice is a 7-year-old Oldenburg gelding

Phillip Dutton (West Grove, PA) and Nina and Tim Gardner’s William Penn
William Penn is a 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding

Phillip Dutton (West Grove, PA) and Team Rebecca LLC’s Ben
Ben is a 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding

Will Faudree (Hoffman, NC) and Jennifer Mosing’s Pawlow
Pawlow is a 12-year-old Irish Thoroughbred gelding

Will Faudree (Hoffman, NC) and Jennifer Mosing’s Fernhill Gloster Rebel
Fernhill Gloster Rebel is a 10-year-old Irish Thoroughbred Gelding

Becky Holder (Palmetto, GA) and Melissa and Phil Town, and Tom Holder’s Can’t Fire Me
Can’t Fire Me is a 12-year-old Thoroughbred gelding

Shannon Lilley (Gilroy, CA) and The Lilley Group’s Ballingowan Pizazz
Ballingowan Pizazz is an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding

Marilyn Little-Meredith (Frederick, MD) and Raylyn Farm Inc.’s RF Rovano Rex
RF Rovano Rex is a 13-year-old Hanoverian gelding

Boyd Martin (West Grove, PA) and Boyd Martin and Faye Woolfe’s Ying Yang Yo
Ying Yang Yo is a 15-year-old Thoroughbred gelding

Clark Montgomery (Fairburn, GA) and Holly Becker, Kathryn Kraft and Jessica Montgomery’s Loughan Glen
Loughan Glen is an 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding

Karen O’Connor (The Plains, VA) and The O’Connor Equestrian Syndicate’s Mr Medicott
Mr Medicott is a 12-year-old Irish Sport horse gelding

Julian Stiller (Thatcham, Berkshire UK) and her own and Jules Delvecchio’s Chapel Amble
Chapel Amble is a 14-year-old Hanoverian mare

Jolie Wentworth (Martinez, CA) and Tracy Bowman’s Good Knight
Good Knight is a 9-year-old Canadian Sport Horse gelding

Audrey and Mo (Belfast Mojito), Alexa and Ben (Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison). Just cause you're being prepared for the Olympics doesn’t mean you can't pose for photos with little people!

Fun, Friends, Families and Fires

These blogs we all do tend to be about the rich, the famous and /or the big flash events. In the process we tend to forget the grass roots riders and events; the kids on well, but scruffy, ponies just out for fun and who are “oh so excited” to get a ribbon of any description.

Bec Blythe - organiser extraordinaire

In about the second edition of Equestrian Life there was an article on pony clubs and the people behind them. One of the featured people was Rebecca (Bec) Blythe who had restarted Many Peaks Pony Club in Western Australia. Now readers of An Eventful Life will have heard of this club as it is where my pony club career started. Bec is a great friend of mine who, with her husband Jeff, have a cattle farm about 15 km from Parkiarrup (our home farm). They have, with a group of helpers, taken over the old rodeo grounds and turned it into what must be the least pretentious pony club in existence. We are talking the sort of club with a tyre swinging from a tree for the non-riding kids!

An essential piece of equipment - the tyre swing

For the club’s first excursion into running VERY unofficial competitions they hosted a show jumping day. Classes ranged from 30cm to 1.20m and were sponsored by Greg Johnson of Europa Saddlery, with prizes going to 6th in each class (if the class had that many starters). You should have seen the looks on the kids’ faces as they rode out with all their “loot”.

Ribbon Time = Grin Time

There was great support for the event with competitors coming from as far away as Katanning and Kojonup which are both a little over 2 hours away. Mostly the competitors were from farming back grounds. This was particularly useful when, part way through the day, we all realized there was a fire just starting up in the reserve near Blyth’s farm!  Of course around here the farmers are the fire brigade and the fast attack fire truck was in the shed right at the grounds. Bec stopped briefly from being course designer/ sponsor getter/ grounds man/ ring master and mother to poor Bianca and became fire control officer. I suspect that when Brett Ladyman left Katanning to bring his daughter down he hadn’t planned on going fire fighting, but that’s the country, so off he went!

Audrey and Mojo - the last time he competed, he won the CIC*** at Lakes & Craters!

As for my day, I think the most fun bit was when Rebecca Bell who, with her husband Simon, owns my wonderful 3* ride Belfast Mojito (Mojo) arrived with their four kids to watch Mojo. The two eldest kids had chucked in some riding clothes but no horses. On arrival they thought it would be fun to join in so ten year old Audrey jumped up on Mojo. They jumped the 30cm, and then got a 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the 60cm. What a smile! Fortunately she couldn’t read the terror on my face as I knew he hadn’t jumped since Lakes and Craters 3DE at Camperdown. Mojo however displayed his wonderful stock horse temperament and was a perfect angel before winning the 1.20 with me.

Audrey and Mojo

Meanwhile eight year old Lexi rode Edward, my 5yo 1* horse (who hadn’t jumped since probably September) in the 30cm class. I will admit that new working pupil John Hunter ran with her but Edward was a gem and it was smiles all around.

Lexi Bell, John Hunter and Parkiarrup Edward

At the end of the day those of us that had won bottles of wine from Montgomery’s Hill vineyard sat around and shared them. The fire fighters returned from putting out the fire and we scraped an exhausted Bec up of the ground, assured her the day was a great success but felt that it was probably wiser to leave it a couple of days before we asked her what date it would be running in 2013.

Cheers

Sonja

Sonja and young Gibby Bell

Here’s a great selection of photos from the day. Click on the individual photos below to view larger

A regular competitor at the Sydney events, Stuart Tinney brought his Olympic gold medal winning horse, Jeepster back to the Olympic venue to celebrate the 10th anniversary

In 2011 more than 1,000 entries competed over the four One Day Events held at the spectacular Sydney 2000 Olympic Course.

Sydney @ SIEC Eventing (SSE) was formed in 2002 with the inaugural national ODE  held in February 2002 using the wonderful facilities of the Sydney International Equestrian Centre (SIEC), a legacy of the 2000 Olympic Games. SIEC is the only Olympic Equestrian venue still in use around the world.

Since 2002 SSE has grown to four competitions per year, two in February and two in July. The event continues to grow in size and reputation each year with riders from all over Australia keen to compete at the amazing Olympic venue. In 2011 more than 1,000 entries competed over the four events.

SSE is proudly run by a friendly committee made up of many wonderful volunteers. SSE provides riders with a professionally organised event run in a friendly atmosphere at one of the best equestrian facilities in the country. The upcoming February competition has a prize pool of nearly $15,000 in cash and prizes, making it a prominent event on the NSW Eventing calendar. Many of the riders on their London Olympic campaigns will be in the line up including Sydney 2000 gold Olympic medallist Stuart Tinney and Christine Bates who won both the July 3* Class and the Sydney International 3DE at the same venue in September last year.

2011 Sydney International 3DE winner Christine Bates & Adelaide Hill (Photo by Furdography)

The Sydney Three Day Events are run by an separate group of volunteers, Sydney International Eventing. In 2012 there will be a 3DE in April, before the final selection of the Australian Olympic Team, and a final NSW 3DE in November. There will be a total of six complementary Eventing competitions held at the wonderful venue each year.

The committees of both the International and National events work together to ensure the course is maintained and upgraded on a regular basis, to provide an exciting and challenging track for all levels of rider. The hard working staff at SIEC see to the upkeep of the grounds, footing and facilities. SIEC remains in pristine condition, available for use by all equestrian disciplines and is the premier venue for equestrian events in Australia.

English course designer Mike Etherington-Smith designed the 2000 Olympic cross country course and has returned in 2012 to design an exciting new 3* track. He will also work closely with our designer Ewan Kellet and builder Brett Ryan in developing the Sydney course further. The SSE committee has contributed funds to the development of the new water complex and other cross country enhancements.

The newly elected SSE committee has many innovative ideas planned for 2012. Riders are invited to a sausage sizzle to meet them at the upcoming February One Day Event. Classes are filling quickly, entry is via Global Entries Online and  close on 9 February.

Volunteers are encouraged to come and be part of the SSE team. There are many roles available, from one hour to the whole week.

Limited sponsorship opportunities are still available for the event. Businesses are invited to contact SSE quickly to maximise their exposure and become involved in this exciting sport.

For more information please contact Rachel Smith  rjsmith(write @)furdography.com.au

Peter was also the driving force behind the long running Mid Western/Nyngan One Day Event. Our sympathies go to Mary and the rest of his family and friends.

Wendy Schaeffer and Koyuna Sun Set

The Team Sunburst Open Day was held on Australia Day, January 26^th and beautiful weather and a schedule that ran smoothly made for a great day! The format was geared to showcase the equestrian services that Olympic gold medallist, Wendy Schaeffer and her business Sunburst Equestrian can offer (including online training) and Wendy did demonstrations and instruction in all three disciplines of the sport of eventing. Fortunately the headset speaker system hired for the day worked!

Here is a summary of the day by Team Sunburst with some video from each of the sessions

Dressage

Starting with the dressage phase, Wendy rode “Zorro” a 14yo warmblood x TB who Wendy had been recently schooling for her sponsor, Jo Schneider from Animal Therapeutics Online. Zorro had recently won and placed 3rd in his Medium tests at the Dressage Club of SA twilight meeting so he was the most experienced horse for Wendy to ride on the flat. He was also the most spooky! Throughout the warm-up and work session Zorro took varying degrees of offense to the numerous sponsor signs that had placed around the arena which gave Wendy an ideal opportunity to show that horses are not machines and that riders often have to work with their minds as much as their bodies.  Wendy reiterated the importance of maintaining a rhythm and line or returning a horse to your rhythm and line as efficiently and harmoniously as possible as the case may be!

Zorro Dressage

After taking questions from the audience, which included the training of changes with horses who weren’t as naturally inclined to change as Zorro, Wendy then instructed her working student, Rachelle Verma on the young 4yo, Smokin’ Sun (Bertie). A big, gangly youngster, Bertie is at the stage where he needs to focus on staying in front of the rider’s leg, taking his head and neck out and down. Rachelle did a great job, especially his first transition into canter where he stayed both forward and round! Discussion from this session revolved around the need to firstly train such big horses to move their shoulders in order to be rideable as they are too big to ‘man-handle!’ Square turns using the outside rein on the horse’s neck in a ‘neck rein’ technique then sending them forward from both legs was advocated.

Bertie Dressage

An autograph signing session and general discussion then followed to enable spectators to learn about the Team Sunburst Support Group concept and view the interactive Team Sunburst Members portal on the soon to be released revamped Sunburst Equestrian website set up on a large computer screen in the stables. A feature of Team Sunburst Support Group Membership is exclusive access to a monthly training article and newsletter, a weekly blog and video links of Wendy’s training and competition in the lead-up to London. Many thanks to Jo Schneider, Wendy’s sponsor from Animal Therapeutics Online, who has not only taken Sunburst into the modern world of dynamic websites but has arranged a sponsorship with DVE, an IT company of which she is an Associate Director.

Jumping

Two jumping sessions on the arena were the next feature of the day where Wendy rode both her 6yo warmblood cross, “Sunhill Surprise” (by local stallion Glenrose Dionysus, from Cor de la Bryere lines) and her 5yo warmblood cross “Delamerie Sun” (by Majestic Supreme, Souvenir lines).

She went through a series of exercises leading to jumping a course of fences which Wendy stated was what these horses needed, given they were jumping in competition the next day. Wendy described the techniques she used to prepare both her horses and herself to jump; namely suppling exercises on the flat followed by cantering over poles set up down the long side at 16 (regulation 4 strides) then 20 (regulation 5 strides) paces apart. She then jumped a cross pole in one direction a couple of times before changing rein to jump the cross pole the other way which was then related to a small vertical some 24 paces away which was ridden in a steady 7 strides or a more open 6 strides.

Monty Jumping

This small vertical then became an oxer and once this was jumped satisfactorily (which in Surprise’s case took a few attempts to get the desired straightness), Wendy added other fences to form a mini-course.

Surprise Jumping

A full course was built up to after completing many of these mini courses. Wendy stressed the importance of softness in a horse’s body being imperative for it to jump successfully stating that a horse’s jump was really only an elevated canter stride. Both horses were quite different as types so it was interesting to view the different approaches taken to train them to jump at their best. The main gist of discussion with the audience centred around exercises to discourage the ex-racehorses from rushing their fences.

Another signing opportunity was given during the lunch break where Wendy signed some A4 photos of her London Olympic Shadow Team Eventing horse, Koyuna Sun Dancer and her Jumping mare, Koyuna Sun Set who is also qualified for the London Olympics. Several items were also made available for tender auction including riding lesson vouchers, Olympic memorabilia from the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympics (many thanks to Kirsty Withers, CEO of the SA Olympic Council for these!) and framed, signed photos of Wendy’s Olympic Gold Medal horse, Sunburst and her potential London Olympic horses. These items will now be available through an online auction on the new Sunburst Equestrian website in the near future. The Sunburst Equestrian horse truck was also opened up for perusal for interested parties.

Cross Country

The final riding for the day was done out on the cross country course which Wendy was fortunate to have built by world-class cross country course designer, Wayne Copping (current course builder of the Australian International Three Day Event CCI**** in Adelaide) back in 1998. Commencing at the water jump, this session included some demonstrations from Wendy on her young horse “Sun Bright” (Legs), a 4 yo by Koyuna Genesis (by well known jumping sire, Brilliant Invader who also sired many of Wendy’s top event horses including Koyuna Sun Dancer) as well as instruction. Wendy commenced by walking her young horse down the ramp into the water then turned around and jumped out up a small step before asking Legs to jump into the water down the same small step. She then schooled an arrowhead fence set at the edge of the water jump from dry land – firstly by cantering to the ‘wing’ then trotting on a steady turn to the ‘face’ of the arrowhead fence.

Legs

It was then jumped in relation to the small bank out of the water. Wendy then instructed both Fiona Guthrie on her 2* Event horse, “Crocadoo” and Rachelle on “Aussie Sun” a school horse preparing to compete at Preliminary level. These riders jumped a variety of fences in succession, beginning with some smaller options then building on that experience when the horse was deemed to be ready. Repetition of exercises to build a horse’s confidence was demonstrated to be an important tool. Wendy then used Rachelle and Aussie as a lead horse to follow when asking Legs to jump out of the water up two steps for the first time before repeating the exercise solo. She explained that this was another useful tool she used when teaching.

Following Aussie

Deemed a successful day for the first attempt, the Team Sunburst Open Day was a useful ‘prototype’ which has given them the experience and feedback to do it better next time!

For any further information on Team Sunburst, visit the website http://www.sunburstequestrian.com/index.html or follow on Facebook

Three Australian equestrian identities have made it to the finals of the Equestrian Social Media Awards (ESMA); Paul Tapner, Edwina Alexander and Henry Jota Hampton (yes, he’s a horse). Edwina and Paul are both nominated in the Professional Rider section but Paul is also nominated in Section 29. FEI Group VIII – South-East Asia and Oceania

The ESMAs were started last year and are a big hit with the online community voting for their favourites in various categories from Professional Rider to Events. So if you’re into social media (hope you’re following us on Twitter @eventfulifebook, Facebook facebook.com/AnEventfulLife and YouTube (aneventfullifebook), you’re going to love choosing who to vote for. You can vote for Paul, Edwina and Henny at http://www.equestriansocialmediaawards.com/voting

Thanks to ESMA we have also come across a real cutie. We know very little about her but her name is Beatle Payne and we figure that this young girl most definitely has a future in eventing and/or media!

Beatle lives in the UK and has been nominated in the Amateur Rider, Section 6 of the ESMAs. According to her website;

“My real name is Beatrice but right from the start everyone has called me Beatle. I was born in 1996 and I have been riding from when I was 2 years old”

As readers of An Eventful Life – Life Stories of Eventing Champions will know, we like to get behind the scenes of true life stories and we love this video that Beatle has put together. We figure this could be a British Emma Scott in the making!

As there are no Aussies in the Amateur Rider category (why not, we wonder – come on guys, get organised for next year), we suggest that you vote for Beatle and give her all the HELP you can to win

Edith Kane and Laura McMahon riding Welcome at the Equestrian Victoria summer training clinic

Edith Kane is an eventing rider who has been successfully been competing at 3* level for a number of years. She is a Level One NCAS coach with extensive coaching experience and last weekend she was one of the coaches at the Equestrian Victoria summer training clinic. Here she shares with us some tips for getting the most out of eventing clinics

To learn something new

To reinforce things already learnt (sometimes things said in a different way can click)

To harness the energy some of those riders can give

To try new things

To give experience to young horse

It always seems that the weather at Werribee Park is never perfect. It can be too cold, too wet, too hot and always too windy. So what is it that causes perfectly sane people to bring themselves out for two days over a weekend such as the one we just had at the Equestrian Victoria summer training clinic?

I’ve been riding in clinics for many years and more recently coaching at them. One thing always stands out about the participants. Everyone who is there is completely different and hoping for something slightly different out of the weekend, yet they all have one common goal… to leave with something more in the ‘bank’ than they started with. That something could be new information, a better understanding of some old information, inspiration, motivation, experience for young horses, or greater confidence in your own abilities and those of your horse. In particular they come for the opportunity to push themselves and their horses that little bit past their comfort zone in a controlled environment.

The best way to enter a clinic is with an open mind, ready to try new and sometimes seemingly unusual things. The aim of the coach at a clinic is not to try and completely change the whole way you ride in a weekend, but to give you fresh things to think about and small titbits that will hopefully improve what is already there. The coach is aware that they may not see the rider again and that the rider possibly already has a full time coach. They don’t want to send you away with your head spinning (just a mild churn). Never underestimate the power of ‘fresh eyes’ to see a fresh solution to an old problem. I always found clinics a great way to refresh old information as often the same thing said a different way can trigger a better understanding in the rider.

The clinics that stick with me the most have been the ones where I have come away with a feeling that I could take on the world. Sometime what you gain out of a clinic isn’t new information so much as a feeling of motivation and inspiration to be better and work harder. You will be set challenges, but your coach will make sure they are achievable, giving your more confidence in yourself and your horse.  Once the rider feels this they become addicted to that ‘sky is the limit’ kind of feeling and they leave the clinic hungry for more. The coaches themselves are also mostly inspirational people who all have a story to tell. Listen to everything.

Clinics are a great opportunity for riders to test their skills on tougher fences before making the step up to then next level.  Clinics are also a fantastic opportunity to expose young horses to a different environment before adding the hype of competition (particularly if you’re sharing windy Werribee with the polo and a horse show).

Clinics are like anything… ‘You only get out what you put in’.

Impress and respect your instructor by being neat, clean, smart and ON TIME. Listen to everything (try to avoid the chatterbox on the horse next door) and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Try everything and be prepared to work hard.

Eventing Victoria runs summer and winter training clinics which are always well attended so book early and make the most of this great opportunity.

Edith is based at GlenOwen Equestrian in Macclesfield Victoria and is available for private tuition or clinics. Her contact number is 0407864896

NSW Eventing Coach Jade Findlay explains the finer points of riding cross country. Jade is co-owner of HP Leilani, ridden by Chris Burton, who is on the short list for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Photo by Furdography

The Sydney International Eventing committee, all hardworking volunteers, dedicated yet another weekend of their time to organise a popular cross country clinic at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre.  Over 200 riders took advantage of the unique opportunity to train their horses at the venue where Australia won gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Twelve of NSW’s best Eventing coaches worked with a variety of levels, from Newcomers through to One Star riders. Groups were guided through elements such as the water, the bank and some of the more difficult lines on the lower level tracks, giving them the confidence and skills required for safe riding in both One and Three Day Events. This level of training was well received by competitors at the beginning of the 2012 Eventing season.

All proceeds from the clinic will be put towards extensive upgrades planned for the course in 2012. A number of new jumps, a new water complex and work on the footing will be completed over the next few months in time for the Sydney International Three Day Event in April. A number of sponsorship opportunities exist for businesses interested in becoming part of Australia’s Olympic legacy, with Adopt-a-Jump packages proving very popular.

“We were thrilled with the turn out at the clinic,” said Angela Shacklady, a volunteer on the SIE committee and owner of the Olympic Silver Medal winning horse All Luck ridden by Shane Rose in 2008. “It is essential that the course in Sydney continues to be one of the best in the world so that our horses and riders can continue their winning tradition at the Olympic Games. All money raised from the clinic will be used to help fund the significant course changes but sponsors are also needed to complete the upgrade.”

International Course Designer, Mike Etherington-Smith from Great Britain, who designed the original Sydney 2000 Olympic course, returned to Australia this month, thanks to support from Equestrian Australia and the High Performance Program, to begin the process of giving the famous track a new look for 2012 and beyond. Whilst in Sydney Mike also worked closely with Australian course Designer Ewan Kellet and builder Brett Ryan on plans to develop the course further, providing a wonderful opportunity for riders of all levels to compete on world class courses.

The 3* Class at the April Sydney International Three Day Event is the final qualifier for Australian and New Zealand based riders aiming for the London Olympics later this year. The event is set to be an exciting show down between a number of the short listed competitors, including Sydney 2000 Gold medallist Stuart Tinney and 2008 Silver medallist Shane Rose.

Thank you to the Eventing coaches who attended the clinic – Hamish Cargill, Annabel Armstrong, Jade Findlay (pictured), Aaron Moyes, George Sheridan, Sandy Lucas, Tallara Barwick, Judy Fasher, Sam Fasher, Fiona Hughes, Peter Gillis and Sam Lyle.

Don’t forget!

Upcoming Events – Sydney (@SIEC) Eventing

Midweek (22nd-23rd Feb) and Weekend (25th -26th Feb) February 2012 – classes from Newcomers to 2*

Entries open on 16 January and close at 9pm on 9 February 2012.

More information at http://www.sieceventing.equestrian.org.au/?ID=23758