THE HORSE MAGAZINE

MARCH03 - WHAT A NIGHT!!

I had hoped and prayed and hoped and prayed that February 1, 2003 would be a night to remember. I was scared silly. What if people just didn’t/couldn’t actually turn up on the night???!!!
Only about 25% of the 420 people had actually paid. The rest of the bookings were just promises! That is $42,525 worth of promises and we had gone ahead and committed to the caterers and facility and marquees and band and audiovisual, and I thought I would die!
But guess what?
Not only did everybody who was anybody turn up, we got extras. These extras got squeezed into unexpected corners and from the very moment the doors tentatively opened at 6 pm on that memorable evening, the place raged.
The night was to be:
1. A salute to the little clubs and organizing committees throughout Australia who are in actual fact wholly responsible for nurturing the Australian rider to what we are today. What’s more, it is they who are the guardians of what we riders will be tomorrow.
1. A salute to the Australian riders who time after time have reached out to the limits of their thresholds, physically, mentally, and financially, in their pursuit of excellence. They are Australians of whom we can all be proud and who have given their very best shot from the depths of their souls.
2. And finally the night was a salute to one of our family, one of the riders, one of our friends who has suffered a terrible accident whilst in pursuit of those dreams. Dreams which take us out of our normal responsible safety zones and have terrible consequences when just the tiniest mishap occurs. Yet this final Salute was in recognition of this individual’s defiant spirit and irrepressible courage as he fights back against odds which are unimaginable. It was, and is, a Salute to Guy Wallace.
The evening started with video footage (put together by Peter Haynes) of Australian riders performing all over the world at Olympics and World Equestrian Games, set to really rocky and uplifting music. It also had amusing moments (well sort of) with lots of overseas riders falling off or in rather compromised situations. Unfortunately there was also rather clear footage of me hitting the deck and I would like to say that I did in actual fact take note of all those that laughed. George Riley also featured where he clung to his horse’s neck, virtually upside down as he valiantly tried to worm his way back into the saddle for quite some considerable time before eventually flopping unceremoniously onto the ground Now that was funny.
The video also introduced the five club beneficiaries: Alexander Park, Hunter Valley Dressage Club, Singleton Dressage Club, Dungog Horse Trials. Each club had a representative who spoke briefly on the video wishing the dinner a good night.
The video then switched to an all-Australian Theme that was followed by Bryce Hocking delivering the poem, Spirit.
The video then moved on to Guy Wallace. It started with footage of Guy competing and winning and galloping over big fences, technical fences and being a star. It then crossed to the now Guy in his hospital bed and the agony and difficulty of Guy going through a physio workout, not able to stand, not able to open his hands, not able to straighten his head, and then the video would flash back to him in full gallop on a cross country course surrounded by Australia, alive and beautiful, then back again to a single white bed in a hospital ward. It was the saddest footage I think I have ever witnessed, and I think it is accurate to say that 420 people wept in shock and horror. The tape finished with Guy delivering a message from his bed with his newfound voice:
"I was riding Archer and all the other horses and winning too. I will be back so enjoy it while you can… so look out."
With that the crowd lost its last remaining shreds of self-respect and openly cried.
The video went still, yet the accompanying music, ‘The eye of the tiger’ pumped on for another eternity… maybe 5 seconds.
Guy was then wheeled out onto Centre stage, with his mum, Jill Wallace, his brother, Ross, and Melissa Hughes, who has been with Guy throughout.
Briefly the Guy story was recalled, from the accident on April 3, 2002 – an accident which is still a mystery. Guy was found unconscious and not breathing by Melissa some 20 minutes after Guy had gone out to work a horse. He suffered some 50% brain damage through small bleed which is a result of no oxygen for too long. He didn’t however have nasty bruises that should have come up on the Cat scans in keeping with such a horrendous accident. Nor did he ever have any bruises on his body.
What the hell did happen on that fateful day? I did question Guy on this in front of everybody as whether or not he was any closer to remembering this. Guy said, no but perhaps I should ask Tiffany. Who is Tiffany? Well Tiffany is the dog who was there when it happened. I did at this point get a nasty suspicion that Guy was making fun of me in public!
The other question I asked was did he hear us talking to him, and understand us when he was unconscious. We had been told by the medical staff that hearing was sometimes the first sense to fully recover in an unconscious person, so we had all embarrassed ourselves by talking to him in those days.
Guy’s answer was simply ‘No.’
So that’s it. I’m not going to embarrass myself and talk to an unconscious form again. Guy thought that was funny.
Guy’s bother Ross spoke about the first sign Guy gave of being aware of the outside world - at the five week mark, when Ross had gotten up from the side of the bed and said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow Champ’ and Guy, without opening his yes, had given the thumbs up sign. It was a landmark moment.
Guy’s Mum, Jill spoke about how at the six month mark, they had experimentally offered Guy a McDonald’s Milkshake and he had not only slurped its entire contents down but had refused to give up the empty cup.
Melissa spoke about how the Wallace family had been informed that Guy would probably never talk again, and then one week later on October 23rd, Guy did a ‘Guy Wallace’ and started talking.
On the night of the Ball, it was 10 months and 28 days since the accident.
Mandy Bishop then sang to Guy, unaccompanied, the two most beautiful songs, ‘Everybody hurts’ and ‘You’ll never walk alone’ in the most beautiful and powerful voice.
And so the evening moved on with enormous purpose and power. All night the passive auctions became very competitive and then the live auction with the crowd supporting the donated goods and services with passion and enthusiasm. I had announced at the start of the night that we wanted to raise a $55,000 profit. Every half-hour the race call would sound, and Sharna Glover would beam up on the two big screens just what had been earnt at that stage of the night and just what needed to be raised to make that target. The crowd rallied. By 9.30 pm we passed through the target and the crowd cheered and rallied again.

By 10.30 we had raised a staggering $72,000. It was unimaginable. You had to be there to see a crowd in what can best be described as ‘Bull Run’.
FEI vet, Brett Jones gets his head shaven by Natalie Blundell and Brie Smith, whilst Dave Irvin sings on the microphone rounding up money. Cohorts to this little charade include Pat Cohen, Peter White and Greg Irvine Brown, who ply the crowd for money money MONEY. They pull another $3,000. The crowd has gone mad!
The dancing that follows can best be described as frantic as everybody hits the floor. It’s wild.
For those of you interested in final prices paid for Auction items, they can be found on www.nominate.com.au that is where it all started with Lloyd Raleigh. He was phenomenal.
Also Equimania which is happening in Sydney on May 23-25 at the Superdome have announced Guy Wallace will be an official beneficiary to receive 5% of all profits. All the business houses supported the evening, no matter who they did-or-didn’t sponsor in real life. Saddleworld and Bob Broadhurst and Manfred Dobrow were fantastic, as were Horseland and Ken Hoskins. Bates Saddles through Ken have given a leather Isabell Werth saddle to be raffled for the cause and my little team reckon they’re going to get another $10,000 with this saddle. They’re mad!!! (I need to say that Ron Bates has always supported me for what seems 100 years, what a sucker, and thankyou Ron!)
And what of the money split up? Well it is ultimately up to the committee who worked like nobody’s business. Every single one of them paid their $135 for a ticket on the night yet most of them did not get a seat and did not get a meal. They will get the final say on how the money is to be split but initial indications are that we will donate $6000 to each club, as was our initial aim, and the rest to Guy Wallace which just might climb as high as $50,000
I am deeply moved and to all, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Ryans Rave Index

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	AUSTRALIA'S NUMBER ONE EQUESTRIAN MAGAZINE
		MARCH03 - WHAT A NIGHT!! I had hoped and prayed and hoped and prayed that February 1, 2003 would be a night to remember. I was scared silly. What if people just didn’t/couldn’t actually turn up on the night???!!! Only about 25% of the 420 people had actually paid. The rest of the bookings were just promises! That is $42,525 worth of promises and we had gone ahead and committed to the caterers and facility and marquees and band and audiovisual, and I thought I would die! But guess what? Not only did everybody who was anybody turn up, we got extras. These extras got squeezed into unexpected corners and from the very moment the doors tentatively opened at 6 pm on that memorable evening, the place raged. The night was to be: 1. A salute to the little clubs and organizing committees throughout Australia who are in actual fact wholly responsible for nurturing the Australian rider to what we are today. What’s more, it is they who are the guardians of what we riders will be tomorrow. 1. A salute to the Australian riders who time after time have reached out to the limits of their thresholds, physically, mentally, and financially, in their pursuit of excellence. They are Australians of whom we can all be proud and who have given their very best shot from the depths of their souls. 2. And finally the night was a salute to one of our family, one of the riders, one of our friends who has suffered a terrible accident whilst in pursuit of those dreams. Dreams which take us out of our normal responsible safety zones and have terrible consequences when just the tiniest mishap occurs. Yet this final Salute was in recognition of this individual’s defiant spirit and irrepressible courage as he fights back against odds which are unimaginable. It was, and is, a Salute to Guy Wallace. The evening started with video footage (put together by Peter Haynes) of Australian riders performing all over the world at Olympics and World Equestrian Games, set to really rocky and uplifting music. It also had amusing moments (well sort of) with lots of overseas riders falling off or in rather compromised situations. Unfortunately there was also rather clear footage of me hitting the deck and I would like to say that I did in actual fact take note of all those that laughed. George Riley also featured where he clung to his horse’s neck, virtually upside down as he valiantly tried to worm his way back into the saddle for quite some considerable time before eventually flopping unceremoniously onto the ground Now that was funny. The video also introduced the five club beneficiaries: Alexander Park, Hunter Valley Dressage Club, Singleton Dressage Club, Dungog Horse Trials. Each club had a representative who spoke briefly on the video wishing the dinner a good night. The video then switched to an all-Australian Theme that was followed by Bryce Hocking delivering the poem, Spirit. The video then moved on to Guy Wallace. It started with footage of Guy competing and winning and galloping over big fences, technical fences and being a star. It then crossed to the now Guy in his hospital bed and the agony and difficulty of Guy going through a physio workout, not able to stand, not able to open his hands, not able to straighten his head, and then the video would flash back to him in full gallop on a cross country course surrounded by Australia, alive and beautiful, then back again to a single white bed in a hospital ward. It was the saddest footage I think I have ever witnessed, and I think it is accurate to say that 420 people wept in shock and horror. The tape finished with Guy delivering a message from his bed with his newfound voice: "I was riding Archer and all the other horses and winning too. I will be back so enjoy it while you can… so look out." With that the crowd lost its last remaining shreds of self-respect and openly cried. The video went still, yet the accompanying music, ‘The eye of the tiger’ pumped on for another eternity… maybe 5 seconds. Guy was then wheeled out onto Centre stage, with his mum, Jill Wallace, his brother, Ross, and Melissa Hughes, who has been with Guy throughout. Briefly the Guy story was recalled, from the accident on April 3, 2002 – an accident which is still a mystery. Guy was found unconscious and not breathing by Melissa some 20 minutes after Guy had gone out to work a horse. He suffered some 50% brain damage through small bleed which is a result of no oxygen for too long. He didn’t however have nasty bruises that should have come up on the Cat scans in keeping with such a horrendous accident. Nor did he ever have any bruises on his body. What the hell did happen on that fateful day? I did question Guy on this in front of everybody as whether or not he was any closer to remembering this. Guy said, no but perhaps I should ask Tiffany. Who is Tiffany? Well Tiffany is the dog who was there when it happened. I did at this point get a nasty suspicion that Guy was making fun of me in public! The other question I asked was did he hear us talking to him, and understand us when he was unconscious. We had been told by the medical staff that hearing was sometimes the first sense to fully recover in an unconscious person, so we had all embarrassed ourselves by talking to him in those days. Guy’s answer was simply ‘No.’ So that’s it. I’m not going to embarrass myself and talk to an unconscious form again. Guy thought that was funny. Guy’s bother Ross spoke about the first sign Guy gave of being aware of the outside world - at the five week mark, when Ross had gotten up from the side of the bed and said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow Champ’ and Guy, without opening his yes, had given the thumbs up sign. It was a landmark moment. Guy’s Mum, Jill spoke about how at the six month mark, they had experimentally offered Guy a McDonald’s Milkshake and he had not only slurped its entire contents down but had refused to give up the empty cup. Melissa spoke about how the Wallace family had been informed that Guy would probably never talk again, and then one week later on October 23rd, Guy did a ‘Guy Wallace’ and started talking. On the night of the Ball, it was 10 months and 28 days since the accident. Mandy Bishop then sang to Guy, unaccompanied, the two most beautiful songs, ‘Everybody hurts’ and ‘You’ll never walk alone’ in the most beautiful and powerful voice. And so the evening moved on with enormous purpose and power. All night the passive auctions became very competitive and then the live auction with the crowd supporting the donated goods and services with passion and enthusiasm. I had announced at the start of the night that we wanted to raise a $55,000 profit. Every half-hour the race call would sound, and Sharna Glover would beam up on the two big screens just what had been earnt at that stage of the night and just what needed to be raised to make that target. The crowd rallied. By 9.30 pm we passed through the target and the crowd cheered and rallied again. By 10.30 we had raised a staggering $72,000. It was unimaginable. You had to be there to see a crowd in what can best be described as ‘Bull Run’. FEI vet, Brett Jones gets his head shaven by Natalie Blundell and Brie Smith, whilst Dave Irvin sings on the microphone rounding up money. Cohorts to this little charade include Pat Cohen, Peter White and Greg Irvine Brown, who ply the crowd for money money MONEY. They pull another $3,000. The crowd has gone mad! The dancing that follows can best be described as frantic as everybody hits the floor. It’s wild. For those of you interested in final prices paid for Auction items, they can be found on www.nominate.com.au that is where it all started with Lloyd Raleigh. He was phenomenal. Also Equimania which is happening in Sydney on May 23-25 at the Superdome have announced Guy Wallace will be an official beneficiary to receive 5% of all profits. All the business houses supported the evening, no matter who they did-or-didn’t sponsor in real life. Saddleworld and Bob Broadhurst and Manfred Dobrow were fantastic, as were Horseland and Ken Hoskins. Bates Saddles through Ken have given a leather Isabell Werth saddle to be raffled for the cause and my little team reckon they’re going to get another $10,000 with this saddle. They’re mad!!! (I need to say that Ron Bates has always supported me for what seems 100 years, what a sucker, and thankyou Ron!) And what of the money split up? Well it is ultimately up to the committee who worked like nobody’s business. Every single one of them paid their $135 for a ticket on the night yet most of them did not get a seat and did not get a meal. They will get the final say on how the money is to be split but initial indications are that we will donate $6000 to each club, as was our initial aim, and the rest to Guy Wallace which just might climb as high as $50,000 I am deeply moved and to all, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Ryans Rave Index