Ready for the off - Seumas and Wild Oats
While the young, newly-wed Bek McDougall won the CIC3* at Tonimbuk Horse Trials, the Lowe Farms CIC2* was won by a somewhat a somewhat more ‘mature’ Victorian rider, Seumas Marwood.
Seumas and Wild Oats were having a warm up run for the 3* at Wandin Park next weekend (why does the eventing calendar work so that two CIC events are bang on top of each other in Victoria?) and, although the intention hadn’t been to go flat out for a win here, Seumas admits it’s always nice to go home with a rug.
Seumas and Wild Oats were the second fastest around the cross country but while the fastest combination, young Bessie Dimery on Ruban Son with only 3.6 time penalties looked a little frantic at times, Seumas just opened up the throttle and the mare effortlessly galloped along when he decided to pick up the pace
Seumas Marwood
Having withdrawn Kirby Park Impress from the 3* cross country, Megan Jones returned to the Start Box in this class on Sadie Michell’s grey Andalusian cross, History. They too made relatively good time on a course where no-one achieved the optimum time of 5 minutes 44 seconds to finish the day in second place on a score of 58.40 then there was a bit of a gap in scores to the third placed Linda Williams on the big dun Linbil White Russian, completing on 71.80.
Twelve jumping faults proved costly for young rider Molly Barry who finished in fourth place as they had a very good cross country with only 10 time penalties and her off the track thoroughbred La Muso picked up the prize for the Racing Victoria Best Performed OTT.
Another young Victorian rider Sam Jeffree had a good first 2* start here riding Jaybee Calypso, finishing in ninth place and Hannah Ramage was another to complete her first 2*, finishing in 17th on Jirrima Anchorman
Cassie Lowe may have spent a lot of the weekend looking after her and Rob Palm's baby Harry but she also managed to take home the top spot in the Pakenham Produce & Saddlery CIC1*. Cassie and Fairview Metallica were fourth after the dressage then jumped clear and had only six time penalties on the cross country which, she says, was fast for her!
Cassie and Fairview Metallica
While no-one made the time in this class either, several came much closer to it. Bianca Sigismundi riding Royal Chanel had only 1.6 penalties and Rohan Luxmoore was fast on both his horses, Woodpark Will Power and Bells ‘n Whistles, finishing in second and third places. Bells ‘n Whistles, the CCI2* winner at Melbourne 3 Day Event in 2013, has been out of competition for a while but Rohan hopes to be taking him back to Melbourne 3DE again this year
Rohan riding Bells 'n Whistles
Fourth placed Ellen Trigger was thrilled with her eight year old mare Dark Edge at her first 1* start. Moving up from 16th after the dressage, jumping clear and then adding only 5.2 time penalties was a great result but Ellen was even happier about having ‘turned the corner’
“There used to be a time when she was so horse shy that I’d think it wasn’t worth competing her even though I thought she was very talented. She was also very hard to manage on the ground but in the past few months her whole attitude has changed, something seems to have just clicked in her brain and I’m really hoping that this will be the one to take me past 1* level”
More to come from the EvA classes at Tonimbuk soon ...............
