Hazel Shannon and Clifford
24 year old Hazel Shannon not only came home without jumping cross country penalties and only 0.4 time penalties in the Adelaide CCI4* today but she did it with her bridle only attached to one side of her horse’s bit. The chestnut thoroughbred gelding owned by Wendy Ward carried on regardless and, thanks to his slightly unorthodox way of going, the bit stayed firmly anchored in his mouth until the end of Mike Etherington-Smith’s course. As soon as she finished the course Hazel jumped off and trotted at the side of her horse back to the cool down area where so many friends and helpers cooled the horse down that they ran out of buckets!
Hazel and Clifford finished the day on a score of 52.50 and we spoke to her about her ride at the cool down area
Hazel Shannon
Will Enzinger and Wenlock Aquifer
Will Enzinger led the class after the dressage yesterday on Wenlock Aquifer, the first horse out today. They incurred just 3.2 time penalties, dropping them to second place on a score of 55 but Will was still delighted with both the bay thoroughbred and Britannica MVNZ who is now in fourth place on 67.80.
For Will, it was really important that the horses achieved what they did today without being pushed past their limits and that gave him a great feeling of satisfaction (and currently lying in second place is pretty good too!)
Andrew Cooper and Evergem Perfection
Another 24 year old, Victorian rider Andrew Cooper, was the second rider on course and he was the only one to make the optimum time of 11 minutes and 25 seconds. His big grey warmblood cross gelding Evergem Perfection doesn’t look particularly fast but his manoeuvrability on this twisty, turny course where riders have to duck branches as they weave through parts of bushland proved to be the key. Last year Andrew didn’t have the best cross country ride here but it was a very different matter today
Emily Gray and Jocular Vision
Emily Gray moved up from tenth place into fifth today thanks to a clear jumping round although they did pick up 11.2 time penalties, which is a great result for the 22 year from Western Australia who was eliminated during the cross country last year. Emily came home to cheers from her support crew and she pumped the air as she went through the finish flags – one happy girl!
Four competitors will be cursing one fence in particular which brought them unstuck – Fence 14. The Horseland Hollows at 14ab, a ditch to skinny brush, caused glance offs for Olympians Shane Rose and Stuart Tinney as well as Rohan Luxmoore and New Zealand rider Andy Daines, and Shane also had a problem at Fence 25 on Glenorchy South Park. It is all part of a learning curve for these less experienced horses says Stuart, who earlier in the day had been watching his daughter Gemma ride the CCI2* course to maintain her lead in that class
Tegan Lush jumped clear around the course and was joined at one stage by a small dog snapping at the heels of Tempus Fugit who seemed to take being chased quite well. However there were moments when Tegan seemed to be struggling with her brakes which no doubt contributed to her 57.6 time penalties, leaving her in eighth place heading into tomorrow’s show jumping.
There is less than one rail between the top two which will probably cause another morning of feeling sick for poor Will Enzinger!
