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JUNE03 - TAUPO 2003
The final team to Taupo ended up being something of a surprise, and as I write this there are still a couple of days before the horses fly out so it could change again. But right now the team includes Tarsha Hammond and Fuzzy Logic. Tarsha went through some drama in the run up when after being named in the team, Fuzzy was on three legs, and Tarsha was drinking enormous amounts of red wine. However three days later – miracles do happen – the horse was 100% sound. They couldn’t book the horse into the vets for three days, so Tarsha didn’t eat, and drank nothing but red wine. Then in a total daze of despondency and misery, she took the horse to the vets, and to her great embarrassment, no matter how they twisted and turned, and pulled and flexed Fuzzy Logic; they couldn’t get him to take one step lame. They ultra sounded and x-rayed the horse from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, and he came through in flying colours. Tarsha doesn’t know quite what went wrong but she thinks the red wine binge may have helped. Anyway last I heard, Fuzzy Logic was fit and sound and headed for Taupo.
Will Enzinger had a great win in the CIC*** at Albury on Ace II. Ace had a great clear at Adelaide in the four star, but had a terrible showjumping round – it was so terrible that I don’t think Will was on any list. However he redeemed himself and had a wonderful run at Albury and was rewarded when the first of the horses named in the squad withdrew. I can’t believe it but that horse was my Flame! Flame is out at the moment, it is not serious big picture, but it certainly was enough to take me out of Taupo – and I am seriously depressed about it. That’s just horses.
Niki Chapman and Striking Heights are looking good. In the past couple of years, Niki has had two CCI*** wins, which is seriously an achievement and for her to go well in Taupo would be an enormous step forward as she keeps the momentum happening to break through to the ranks of the top riders in Australia. Niki is the first Queenslander to make a team of this calibre for the past 13 years. They’ll go well.
Claudia Graham and Diamond B Vogue are still on the team, and that is brilliant. She is looking very focussed and very on form.
Rebel Morrow has been included on the team on Groover. Again an unexpected inclusion following Megan Jones and Jester dropping out. I think it is Chris Hector our editor, who says that Megan must have been a very wicked person in her past life to have so much bad luck in this one. She keeps getting so close to being in an Australian team. Poor Megan, there are lots of people who after having such bad luck would be looking to quit. I can tell you the difference between an Olympic rider and a dreamer – and some of the dreamers have enormous talent – is that the dreamer, the ordinary person, when they feel they are drowning then they give up, but talk to Megan and there isn’t a thought further from her mind. She is relentless, she is of the highest calibre, she is what an Olympian is made of, and her turn will come, there is no question about that. She is distinctly different from 99.99% of the riders out there, and many of them think they are serious Olympic riders – but it is the steely resolution inside Megan that makes her different.
The other person still in the squad is Wendy Schaeffer, and Sun Glo, even though I put a question mark over her last month, as I understand it she has magically managed her horse and things are looking good. It has been a long time since Wendy has been on an Australian team, and hopefully this is Wendy on the comeback trail to international competition.
It is a very good squad and it will be fascinating and exciting to follow their progress in New Zealand. My tip is that they will take Taupo apart, and I am predicting that it could end up with at least four of the top eight places going to Australians, and if any of our six are out of the top ten, they will be disappointed. It could be Australia one-to-six, then the New Zealanders. I wish our squad all the luck.
I was watching and commentating on Sydney Three Day event, and there were a couple of alarming things for me, and they related to the qualification issue. Take Sarah Fitton and her mare, Carisbrooke Lady. They were relegated to the two star because she wasn’t qualified to run in the three star. This is really a disaster. Sarah had come all the way from Queensland to run in the three star, and when you look at her performances, she went around Adelaide four star, not two, not three, four star! She was clear on the cross-country at Adelaide but the horse had an over-reach and didn’t make it to the showjumping. Between Adelaide and Werribee events Sarah – who lives in Queensland – has very limited opportunity to do CICs or international one day events. Because the horse is so experienced and good, Sarah hasn’t chased one-day events to conserve her mare’s soundness, which is correct management of a seasoned horse. However the result is, if after two years you haven’t renewed your qualifications, you are then demoted, and not only was she demoted from four star but back to two star. She went around the two star and what a total waste of a top horse and rider. She was the fastest of the two star combinations, showing enormous confidence and skills way above what was needed at that level.
These rules were put together with a view to safety. Now this is a very clear example of it being totally inappropriate, in actual fact it’s demoting the sport, in particular with Sarah, it’s happening the country over. Another example occurred at Sydney with Blair Richardson and his horse Souvenir, and he fell at the apex in the water, where the horse came down, so that means that Blair was eliminated and that’s fair enough, I have no problem with that ruling. But what happens, because Australia has so few three day events, Blair and Souvenir are trying to double up and head back into Melbourne 3DE some 4-5 weeks after Sydney, now that’s certainly a little bit close. The big problem is that Blair’s going to be in the same position as Sarah, if he doesn’t start his qualifications are going to run out.
BOX
Qualification of Competitors and Horses (Art 506)
1 Jan 03
As of 2002: not more than 75 penalty points in the dressage test (and not less than 50% of Dressage good marks before 2002) not more than 20 penalties at obstacles on the Cross Country Test, not more than 90 seconds exceeding the optimum Cross Country time, not more than 16 penalties at obstacles from 2002 (and not more than 20 before 2002) on the Showjumping test. A qualifying result can be achieved by finishing within the top 25% of the starters.
Qualification can be maintained by achieving one qualifying result at that same type/level of competition (except for 4 star where the result can also be achieved at 3 star level). The qualifying result(s) will keep alive that qualification for 2 calendar years following the year in which they were achieved without any need of any further qualification.
END OF BOXSo these qualification rules that we have are primarily developed for the Northern Hemisphere riders where they have many, many 3DE opportunities. They are showing signs, in my opinion, of being seriously inappropriate here in Australia, in terms of demoting or demeaning the performances of some Australian competitors. Australian competitors are severely disadvantaged by the very few events that we have and also in the Blair Richardson situation, I think these rules were supposed to be there to promote safety. Forcing an Australian rider to have to consider going to another event within that short time frame, I think, it’s doing the welfare of the horse a disservice. Now I do feel that the Australian Eventing Administration is showing all the signs of repeating what we did in the past. I think some of the innovations and cutting edge techniques that we used, they were always almost controversial, but they have held us in great stead. Now it’s all been taken over by the administrators and so they are no longer controversial and cutting edge; they are well defined. They have built boxes around those techniques and ideas and they fit snugly into public servant type programs. So I have to say the whole eventing scene in Australia is certainly taking on just of little bit of staleness and yesterdays news and I think it is really really dangerous. I can promise you the rest of the world is really good and as soon as we just come off-the-bit so to speak, they’re going to make minced meat of us. I really feel that the sharp innovation controversial sort of bi-lateral thinking that has been there in the scenes since the early 80’s, is in real danger of not being the driving force.
And certainly one of the examples that I would use is the insurance problem that we have. I would argue that the insurance problem has been perhaps developed into a perceived problem as opposed to representing a real problem, but as the meeting here at the Sydney 3DE pointed out, even if there is only a perceived problem, it is still a problem.
So we have an insurance problem, who cares what the story is, but it has meant that certain events in NSW have been cancelled. And in days gone by, there would have been an enormous surge from the eventing community to rectify that instantly because those events are so critical to our riders and to maintaining the momentum of the sport and the training of our horses, and that just didn’t happen. Now I think at the Sydney 3DE, Russ Withers, the National EFA President and Franz Venhaus, EFA CEO, actually handled the meeting very well. I thought they were very positive and people came away feeling that the whole problem was going to be actioned and resolved, and that was great from a national point of view. But I feel that certainly just in NSW, that five years ago it would have been dealt with so quickly and efficiently and with such resolve. Now today it is a terrible worry and it’s waited too long and let the negative influences in the sport be given so much room to have such an effect on the sport. Once upon a time they would have been given no room whatsoever.
So I do really worry about eventing in Australia and I think all of us need to take a long hard look at it and realise that if gold medals are going to continue, then we are going to have to shift our butts and get off the programs we are sitting on at the moment and lance out into unexpected territory and bring in a bit of good old Australian innovation and controversy if we are going to repeat our results. And the administrators are going to have to remember they’re the tails and certainly the moment the tails start wagging the dog, then we are dead meat!
Cheers,
Heath