It has been a crazy few weeks but we are finally on the road headed to Sydney, currently about an hour from the WA/SA border. We are only on day 2 of the 4 day journey and I am already counting down the hours! Yesterday we travelled 10 hours from Perth to Fraser Range Station. Being the shortest day of travelling I gave the horses (Trumby and Wally) some light exercise early in the morning before getting on the road. All going to plan we will travel 14 hours to Ceduna today, 12 hours to Mildura tomorrow and then about another 12 hours on Saturday from Mildura to our final destination- Bates Equestrian. The two boys are so far travelling well and will shorty have one of their first breaks for the day at the border where there are some yards for us to put them in for a rest.
Trumby jumping clear around the CT3* at Capel CNC Photo courtesy RedFoto
The last few weeks have been busy with competitions. We had both Capel CNC and WAYER CIC3*. Wally had a run in the 1* at both events and Trumby did the CT3* at Capel followed by the CIC3* at WAYER. The 3* at WAYER is a relatively new course, built by John Nicholson. It ran for the first time last year and because I was in NSW this was the first time I had seen it in action. The course looked amazing and my first impressions was that it was definitely one of the tougher 3* courses I had faced. The course however didn’t cause any troubles at all with all 6 combinations going clear. WA really does have a lot of exciting horses and riders that have stepped up to 3* and I think that really showed just how strong the competition is over there at the moment, with a lot of these horses going on to Sydney and Melbourne 3 Day Events.
Trumby at WAYER CIC3* Photo courtesy RedFoto
The only down side to travelling so much is my younger horses sometimes miss out a bit. I just have Trumby and Wally with me at the moment but I also have a great group of young horses who have been in work up until this week. Legal Precedent was my first bred baby, and although at 3 he has been the youngest horse in work he is certainly not the smallest! A bit of a change to what I am used to but I am really enjoying riding him, he seems to have inherited his fathers (Yalambi’s Carpino Z) amazing temperament and trainability.
We should arrive at Bates Equestrian on Saturday night which is going to give us all a week to recover from the trip and prepare for Camden CIC the following weekend. Wally is entered in the CIC* at Camden, Sydney and will hopefully run in the CCI1* at Melbourne. Trumby is running at Camden and we have our fingers crossed he might get himself a spot on the Oceania Team to compete at Taupo, otherwise we will wait to run him a bit later in the year.
I have been very lucky to add two wonderful business’ to my amazing group of sponsors, these being Prestige Loans/Wealth Creations and Prestige Farrier Services. Prestige Farrier Services (Ben Wheatley) does a great job shoeing all of my horses and has done for some time now. Prestige Loans/Wealth Creations have been very good sponsors in the past and it is great to have them back on board. Brett and Nicole Christie are not only great supporters of my career but are also great supporters of eventing in Western Australia. I can’t forget my other great sponsors who are all so supportive- Back on Track Brookleigh Equestrian Estate, Cadbury Fundraising-WA, Equestricare Equine Sports Therapy, Mitavite, Saddles Plus and Valley Equine Vet Centre.
