{"id":23492,"date":"2015-06-25T14:33:05","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T04:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=23492"},"modified":"2017-02-10T11:08:19","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T00:08:19","slug":"2015-melbourne-international-3de-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/06\/2015-melbourne-international-3de-report\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 Melbourne International 3DE: REPORT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Atmos2\"<\/a>\"Header\"<\/a>Report by Christopher Hector and Photos by Roslyn Neave & Derek O\u2019Leary<\/h3>\n

Last year was year one of the fancy PR company\u2019s grand five year plan to transform the Werribee that we\u2019ve come to know and love. Instead we were to have the super big Badminton style event, drawing tens, nay hundreds of thousands of spectators and taking over the four-star mantle of the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

Of course there were a few old cynics who\u2019d seen it all before and predicted the project would end in tears. I guess even the most cynical would have given them more than one year to learn the error of their ways, but no, one show and the contract dissolved into the air, and the gee whiz PR crowd went off to find new gee whiz marketing opportunities\u2026<\/p>\n

So far as I can see, there is a core crowd that comes each Queens Birthday Weekend to enjoy the 3DE, come rain, hail or shine, and they were there this year again, although the percentage of young, horsey (like they were wearing jods)<\/em> fans seemed higher than previous years, which bodes well for the future.<\/p>\n

Sadly for the immediate future of Australian eventing, we were not to see one of our rising stars, Virgil, since his rider, Shane Rose got into an argument with one of his \u2018breakers\u2019 in the round yard, and ended up in hospital with broken ribs and damage to a few vital organs. Still Shane will recover (\u2018when will he ride again,<\/em> said long suffering wife, Niki, could be two days, could be six weeks\u2026<\/em> though given the damage, six weeks looks the more accurate estimate\u2026) and it just adds further spice to what is shaping up as a spine-tingling selection trial at Adelaide in November.<\/p>\n

In the Pryde\u2019s Easifeed CCI*** there were some sweetly ridden tests from the top half-dozen riders, then it started to fall away fairly dramatically. Katie Roots, riding Trevalgar II, the Fleetwater Opposition gelding she imported from the UK, ended the day in the lead on 46.6 for an elegant test that just lacked that extra oomph that we need to start scoring the sub-40s we need to cut it with the big boys in Rio next year.<\/p>\n

\"KatieRootsTrevalgar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Katie Roots and Trevalgar, leaders after the dressage<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Western Australian, Belinda Isbister had another sweet flowing test on Holy Bruce, an off-the-track star, by Woodman, to finish on 48.<\/p>\n

Christine Bates\u2019 task was made somewhat more difficult on the notoriously spooky Adelaide Hill (by the Warmblood \/ Thoroughbred cross, Stirling Sprite) when one of the score sheet gathers ran across behind the judges boxes, with papers flapping in the wind. The chestnut looked just a little tense, and the canter suffered, but it was again, a very accurate precise show for a\u00a048.6.<\/p>\n

(As an aside, there was much made in web land in the lead-up, about the attempt by EA (Victoria) to limit the number of commercial photographers littering the scene by asking for a license payment. There was never any suggestion that real press photographers should have to pay to cover the event, just the ones, who like the stall holders, come to the event to make money selling their pix, which is surely not such an outrageous idea\u2026 Although one of the worst offenders when it came to coming much closer than the required 10 metres from the arena fence, was a specialist equestrian photojournalist who at one stage was practically standing on the C\u00a0marker!)<\/p>\n

Murray Lamperd was fourth on Don Skipcello (by the imported Warmblood, Donautraum) for another tidy test and a score of 50.3.<\/p>\n

I was critical of Cara Witham\u2019s judging at the CDI in Sydney, but here at Werribee, I thought she was spot-on in her assessment of Katja Wiemann\u2019s BP Flamboyant (by the Hanoverian Triathlete, out of a Thoroughbred mare). It was far-and-away the most stylish of all the tests. Okay there were a couple of moments of tension, but overall the work was super, and Ms Witham scored it a 72.31%, while Lyn Roycroft had the horse on 59.81% and the Kiwi judge, Anne Tylee, was mean on 63.27%. Katja finished on 52.3, just in front of Stuart Tinney and another star in the making, War Hawk (another Warmblood\/ Thoroughbred cross, this time by the Kiwi stallion Ramirez, although luckily the grey looks nothing like his dad, a somewhat old fashioned son of Ramiro) on 53.6.<\/p>\n

\"WeimannFlamboyant\"Katja Weimann and Flamboyant, were they robbed?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Something very good happened between Katja\u2019s test on BP Cosmopolitan at SIEC on the weekend on the Sydney 3DE, and her appearance with Cosmopolitan at the Trans Tasman in Taupo \u2013 Katja rode so much better, so much more sympathetically. It seems she \u2018clicks\u2019 with Eventing co-ordinator, Prue Barrett who warmed her in at Werribee with a similar result, this time on Flamboyant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"PrueBarrett\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christine Bates and Adelaide Hill had been left out of the Trans Tasman team after they were eliminated at Camden, and I guess Christine felt she had something to prove, and prove it they did in the best possible way. Clear and under time to rocket to the lead. Stuart and War Hawk were hot behind them, just 0.8 time to lie second going into the showjumping, with Katja and Flamboyant, third with just 2.4 time. Dressage leader, Trevalgar dropped down the leaderboard to 4th with 10 time.<\/p>\n

Prue was pretty happy with Werribee as a test in the run up to next year\u2019s Olympic Games\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty pleased with the result. I think we\u2019ve got some horses here that would really suit the Olympic format, in that they are careful jumpers. I think the cross-country course that Ewan (Kellett) built was really appropriate for where we are at, and what some of those horses needed. There were some tough questions around the course, it wasn\u2019t isolated to one area. They were able to jump a couple of bigger fences, answer a couple of questions, then get jumping again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the horses we need to jump clear rounds at Olympic Games, they need cross country courses that are going to improve them all the time, and not scare them, so I am pretty pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Atmos\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was nice to see Christine\u2019s horse answer a few of the questions that were floating around after Camden\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah \u2013 that\u2019s the difficulty, when you get into the area where you are riding horses that are capable of winning medals at those championships, they are going to throw things at you that are a little bit more complex than what we have seen of old. Christine has worked really hard, she\u2019s been on a plan, she\u2019s produced the horse, and it is really nice to see her execute the plan well, and the horse will be better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AdelaideHillBates2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christine Bates and Adelaide Hill, home clear and under time<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stuart\u2019s horse looked lovely\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat horse is amazing cross country. It goes without saying, that Stuart is as well. Stuart just gets them so wanting to do it, and that horse, it stepped up to three-star last year, it\u2019s still struggling a little with the dressage, but to see it just canter around the cross country is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WarHawk\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stuart Tinney and War Hawk, another cross country star for the master…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Katja seems to have turned a corner at Taupo\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think Katja works really really hard, she\u2019s got horses that are good movers, that are good jumpers, and it is just about tidying it all up and pointing it all in the same direction. She\u2019s a really good rider, and it is just about having a particular focus and steering it all in the same direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a pity we didn\u2019t get to see Virgil\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBig pity, I\u2019m sure Shane\u2019s thinking that every minute right at the moment. That horse has looked really good this year, so he was really ready to come to Melbourne. A huge disappointment for Shane, but it is not all lost. The horse has been competing really well, it didn\u2019t have to do Melbourne to go to Adelaide. In a way it is still on track, but it is just killing Shane not to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelaide is shaping as a very interesting event\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will be really good. I think it will be tough in all areas. It is going to be hard to win, so there really is going to be some competition at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do we need to do to get back on the pace on dressage day?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to score sub-40. Some are, Shane did at Taupo, there is certainly the potential to do it. It is really unfortunate for Sam Griffiths to have just lost that horse because that was certainly a sub-40. We\u2019ve got others there that definitely can do it, but they\u2019ve got to get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are you going to look around for another dressage specialist to help the team?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got Gareth Hughes on board, and he works quite closely with the UK guys. Clearly he can\u2019t live in two continents at once but he\u2019s trying to come to Australia two or three times this year. I went to Taupo with the team and worked with them, and that will continue through to Adelaide. It\u2019s a balancing act making sure everyone is getting what they need. It\u2019s a joint effort, the dressage coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point I was sick of pretending that I didn\u2019t know that Mike Etherington-Smith had signed on to become Australia\u2019s UK based selector. The EA board has been dithering around for too\u00a0long\u2026<\/p>\n

Good to have Mike ES on board the team?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly will be. He brings something to the table in so many areas \u2013 in the course design, he has just got experience in so many areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he is such a good people person\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s great, and he just loves Australia, and Australians, that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CooperEvergladePerfection\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Cooper and Evergem Perfection, fourth with a clear clear cross country run<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As if by magic, I had just finished talking with Prue, when Stuart Tinney appeared, the next victim to feed my digi recorder\u2026<\/p>\n

You were the unlucky one in the two-star, held up for ages when Alex Townsend was hurt when her face hit a tree branch, after that you decided your mare Queen Mary was better off going home\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cShe got very cold, I was out there for 40 minutes, and when I got her back, her temperature was very low, standing around in the freezing cold. I trotted her around a bit, but I couldn\u2019t keep her warm in that freezing wind. It\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your three-star horse, War Hawk, he looked simply wonderful cross country\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was, he felt really classy, and very focused. He\u2019s very good in front and quite a nice jumper so you feel quite confident coming into those verticals down hill and stuff like that. But he was very focused on the narrow jumps and he felt super.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his breeding, he is a very fine Thoroughbred type\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe actually feels quite Thoroughbredy. He looks Thoroughbred, feels Thoroughbred, gallops well. I think on the dam\u2019s sire he is Thoroughbred, and he has thrown to that quite a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cStill just working on him, he needs to work on his changes, that\u2019s the main thing with his dressage \u2013 it\u2019s getting better all the time, he is nice and trainable now. Maybe looking at Adelaide with him. He jumped around here as nice as any horse I\u2019ve had, and he is quite confident in his ability, so I think he\u2019s ready for Adelaide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BPFlamboyant2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Katja and Flamboyant, looking just that!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Is he your main hope for Rio?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got Pluto (Mio), and Anna (Annapurna), and him. Pluto is still there, he\u2019s going well, he\u2019s ticking along at home, and he\u2019s been in work the whole time \u2013 he\u2019s been out showjumping \u2013 and he\u2019ll be going to Adelaide. Same with Anna.<\/p>\n

Three at Adelaide?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll keep me busy but I\u2019ve done it before. Twice before actually, so it can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that hard mentally, re-focusing from one horse to the next?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo it\u2019s more physical than mental. You get used to them. They are certainly different rides, all three of them\u2026 at least it is only one course to walk!\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks Stuart, and right one cue, here\u2019s Christine Bates to tell me about her great run on Adelaide Hill\u2026<\/p>\n

I was talking to Jo Bridgman, that great finder of eventers in New Zealand, and she was saying that all the great ones she\u2019d found had been quirky \u2013 if that is true, Adelaide should be the greatest super star ever foaled\u2026 I mean he puts your husband into hospital twice just in the breaking in process, and that\u2019s just the beginning\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely. I had a little bit of practice when I first had Newsprint, he was my introduction to the world of riding quirky horses, then along came Adelaide. He defines the word \u2018quirky\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was lucky to get through the breaking, I guess most people would have sacked him then\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, and I think it is one of those things. He was lucky he ended up at my place, and I have been lucky that I\u2019ve ended up with him. It is very much a partnership. He has all his little idiosyncrasies and quirks, but that\u2019s what makes this partnership special. I trust him, and he trusts me. I don\u2019t think you would normally get such a careful horse being a top four-star horse. It\u2019s unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a bit scary when you went down the centre line in the dressage, and some goose ran across right at that moment\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the shock was that I had managed to trot a lap around the arena, canter a lap around the arena, and there was no one there between the judges\u2019 boxes, and then I\u2019ve cantered up the centre line, halted, it was great, trotted off, and then I realized there was at least five people standing in between the judges\u2019 boxes, and just as I am about to turn off the centre line, a sheet collector ran, put her vest on, carrying bits of paper, and the wind caught them! Adelaide just caught it out of the corner of his eye, and he genuinely got a fright. I think most horses would have reacted to that. What was nice is that he let it go, and continued on, and the further he went, the better he got, the more rideable and relaxed he became. It was not the ideal thing to happen as you are going up the centre line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TimBoland\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tim Boland takes out the 2* on Napoleon<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You had something to prove? Camden wasn\u2019t fun\u2026 left off the team for Taupo\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a really mixed year with him. Obviously he was not out competing last year. He had done Adelaide four star in 2013 – I hadn\u2019t planned on riding, I\u2019d fractured my finger quite badly, had to have surgery, then three weeks before the event, I decided I would ride him. He was fantastic, except I felt really out of practice. I hadn\u2019t had a three-star, even a one day event run, in 18 months, and I had time faults. It still plays in the back of my head that I let him and me down by being slow. This year, his performances have been mixed. I tried a different bit on him at his first start at SIEC, and we picked up 20 penalties, the bit had actually split open his tongue, we didn\u2019t realize until I finished, not surprisingly, he felt awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he came out and he won Scone three-star, went to Albury, won the two-star there, then at Camden, I didn\u2019t ride him as well as I should have for the type of fence it was, and probably under-estimated how tough the fence was, and also forgot how sensitive Adelaide is at the first combination on course. It was very disappointing at the time but it was probably a really good wakeup call, that there are still things that I need to do in his training, because he is so careful, to keep him brave cross country. That made our chances of going to Taupo very slim. I was named as a reserve and I was still prepping him for Taupo. I thought when Tim\u2019s horse was withdrawn, that I would be a good chance to go, but they took Isabel (English) instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s felt like I\u2019ve had a few roller coaster weeks in the lead up to Taupo. Then coming into Melbourne, he had a virus ten days ago! It\u2019s another wakeup, this is what it is like being back at that level again as an elite athlete, and the things you\u2019ve got to deal with. On top of that we moved house last week, and being a parent, and a wife, live is manic, you\u2019ve got to take it in your stride and keep chipping away each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my test I was a little disappointed, he has consistently scored low 40\u2019s all year, so to be sitting third was a little disappointing for all the work that has gone into him. In saying that, it wasn\u2019t a bad test, I thought the judging was a little inconsistent. The surprising thing is reading the three sets of papers, is that they each saw completely different things. At that level, you\u2019d like to think that a three-star ground jury can actually see the same things. They didn\u2019t. I think only one judge commented on the spook up the centre line\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RobertPalm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A win for an Off the Track Thoroughbred in the Off the Track 1*, Koko Pop and Robert Palm<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Were you always going for the time cross-country?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYes. I came here to win, and that\u2019s what I plan on doing. We\u2019d set Melbourne, right back in January as a goal. Not Sydney because when he ran at Adelaide 2013, he hadn\u2019t had enough one day runs and he wasn\u2019t fit enough. This time I didn\u2019t want to take any chances with the fitness, and I thought with Melbourne being that little bit later, it gave me more time to make sure he is 100% fit \u2013 and despite having had the virus ten days ago, he pulled up amazing yesterday. He made the time easy. I was actually able to just cruise home in the last minute. I\u2019ve just hopped on and given him a little ride to get him right for the showjumping this afternoon, and I can honestly say it is the best he\u2019s felt at a three-day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been weighing him a lot more regularly in this preparation. Swimming is part of his program, and literally since January, he has done canter \/ gallop fitness work every four to five days. He was really fit right at the start of the season for the one-day events. I\u2019m trying to be a bit smarter about his weight. Over summer we had heaps of feed, so he was locked up during the day and only out at night, obviously now we\u2019ve switched. I had to really monitor his food, but what is good is that he feels the strongest he\u2019s ever been. Even though it is the leanest he\u2019s been, he\u2019s kept his topline and the muscle condition. I think he\u2019s matured physically, he was still growing as a six-year-old. I think he is a late maturer and each event I do with him, I learn something new about him. One of the things I did yesterday, which Prue suggested, was to work him in the morning before the cross-country. I got on him to take him out to the warmup and I knew straight away, that he was \u2013 yep, off we go. He didn\u2019t spook, he didn\u2019t carry on. You never stop learning, and you can get better\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChristineBates\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christine Bates and Adelaide Hill, what a way to win!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Now Adelaide is the name of the game?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYes. Originally I\u2019d hoped to take him overseas this year, but we had to make a decision. I\u2019ve got quite a big team of horses going at the moment, and I needed to upgrade the truck. I only had a three horse and now we\u2019ve gone to a seven horse. So it is back to being poor again. We have to make sacrifices. Adelaide is coming back from injury, and I\u2019ve got a great team of young horses coming up, so I felt that spending the money on the truck to get them to competitions was just as important as competing Adelaide. Look, I\u2019ve always stayed in Australia, and as much as overseas looks fantastic \u2013 and I\u2019ve been to all the major events around the world as a spectator \u2013 this is home and I would love to be able to do it from\u00a0here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christine duly jumped clear on Adelaide, Stuart dropped one to move to third, while Katja edged into second place with a lovely clear round\u2026 No doubt, all three of them will be major players next November in Adelaide, and all three will be serious contenders as we head to Rio\u2026 I think I can hear that Samba beat kicking in, right now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year was year one of the fancy PR company\u2019s grand five year plan to transform the Werribee that we\u2019ve come to know and love. Instead we were to have the super big Badminton style event, drawing tens, nay hundreds of thousands of spectators and taking over the four-star mantle of the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23492"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32512,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23492\/revisions\/32512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}