![\"Sydney_3DE_2016_1065\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Sydney_3DE_2016_1065.jpg\")
The smoke haze drifting in from the Blue Mountains, teamed up with heavy cloud in a show of eerily misty pathos for the re-run of the Sydney International Horse Trials after the tragic fatal accident of Caitlyn Fischer…<\/strong><\/p>\nBut it was more a case of the phoenix rising from the ashes for Australian eventing. \u201cThis is for me the Australian spirit first, and the eventing spirit as well,\u201d enthused Christoph Hess.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really think it\u2019s the spirit of Australians, not to resign, but to start again. This weekend has been a 10. Perfect! 100% opposite to last week so you can see how quickly life can change. I think it was good that we made a cut. It was not the second part of the last competition, it was a new competition. The riders were top. I saw many happy faces; riders, owners, sponsors, trainers. The officials are very happy. I think this was the right answer that we needed. The decision was made last Saturday evening. It was the right decision to continue immediately. I got a lift to the airport last weekend with Chris Webb and even then he was ringing judges and coming up with a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise it\u2019s a depressive situation. We are such a small family, the eventing family, that it was a shadow over everything. We called Catrin Norinder last weekend when she was in Kentucky, just before the 4* track. I know that when we called again yesterday, she was very happy to have this good result then she could start properly into Badminton,\u201d explained Christoph.<\/p>\n
Chairman of Equestrian Australia Judy Fasher was also obviously relieved and happy that things had run smoothly.<\/p>\n
Judy, it\u2019s been a positive end to a traumatic week?<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a terrible few weeks actually since Olivia\u2019s death and it\u2019s been very hard for the whole sport. But we\u2019re an amazing group of people for pulling together. This event, when it was cancelled last weekend, there were doubt as to whether we could get it together, but as soon as you start talking to people; Shane (Rose) came onboard and with Michelle Hasibar\u2019s help we got the Camden volunteers involved. Everyone put their best foot forward. The most amazing thing was that Christoph was able to rearrange things to come back and be with us on the ground jury. He\u2019s been an absolutely amazing support and he\u2019s given us all confidence that we were doing the right thing, because there\u2019s always anxiety in these situations, whether people are exposed and maybe they\u2019re affected in the way that they ride. There was quite a lot of anxiety about that. But once we decided to go ahead we noticed that people actually got better, and said we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI supposed the most amazing thing of all is the bravery of Caitlyn Fischer\u2019s family. Mark and Ailsa rang on Friday morning just before the trot up and said to me that they wanted everybody involved in the event to know that they wanted it to go ahead. They particularly felt that it was important for the young people that it went ahead, but for everybody really, and that they absolutely endorsed it. I had to walk around the block a few times before I could actually announce it. I thought, this is going to be a very messy announcement! They\u2019ve been marvelous. I noticed everybody just breathe, and then we could get on with it. I\u2019m sure they didn\u2019t see it as permission for us to go ahead, but that\u2019s how we received it. It made a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was it a hard decision to go ahead before their acknowledgement?<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was an instinctive decision that we had to keep going; that we had to do it and that we wanted to do it and the riders wanted to ride. I think we all felt that Caitlyn was a very gung ho, young girl and her enthusiasm for eventing was enormous and I think we felt she would have\u00a0 wanted that too, and certainly her family made it perfectly clear to us that that\u2019s what she would have wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we would be human if we all didn\u2019t feel terribly on edge, and I think that applied to everybody involved in the event. It was a great relief when the first few riders went round cross country without problems. When the last horse had finished, Sylvia who was the course designer for this event and I held each others hand for quite some time!\u201d<\/p>\n
And I hear there\u2019s a celebration planned for Caitlyn next week?<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cCaitlyn was actually a working pupil for Christine Bates and she had some friends in the Wilberforce area in NSW and Caitlyn\u2019s family is coming to pick up Ralphie, the horse. He\u2019s been resting after the event. He\u2019s been under veterinary observation, but he was also resting in a place where he was comfortable to be. Mark and Ailsa accepted Christine\u2019s invitation, so we\u2019re all going to a BBQ there on Saturday night and Mark has insisted that the dress code is thongs and jeans so everyone feels comfortable! I think they\u2019re going to quite considerable preparations to make it a great\u00a0night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head of Equestrian NSW Bruce Farrar and his team had a lot at stake trying to rerun such a massive event, but he and his committee were definitely up to the job.<\/p>\n
You did it!<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cRebecca, it was a remarkable experience after what happened last weekend. The fact that so many people made themselves available to come back. Christoph Hess, instead of going back to Germany, came back here, Geoff Sinclair, Helen Christie all came along. The organising committee were in two minds as to whether to hold it, but we spoke to the riders, we spoke to the volunteers, and together we made the decision we would re-run the event basically for the riders and the sport. We were blown away by the support we got from the riders. We came up with number where we would run it for a minimum of 50 and we ended up with in excess of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an important qualifier event as well?<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t have a big impact for Rio but there were lots of riders here who needed a qualification to go to Melbourne or Adelaide. The Olympic hopefuls needed a run, so it was worthwhile to go ahead. We were unbelievably impressed with all the people who came together. We had 70 volunteers here yesterday (for the cross country). For the first time we had too many volunteers! It was\u00a0sensational.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had two tragedies in seven weeks but it was important for the sport to move on and show people that those tragedies were unusual and the sport will get back up and running, and we were very, very pleased yesterday. We had some sensational riding from our elite riders. We didn\u2019t have any falls. We had encouraged riders to go cross country schooling during the week so Shane Rose and Alexandra Townsend made their facilities available for riders. All those little extra things made it all possible so they were able to turn up yesterday having had a bit of a hit out during the week and go into the start box really, really positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Virgil\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Virgil.jpg\")
<\/i><\/p>\n
Shane Rose and Virgil<\/i><\/p>\n
And by all accounts it\u2019s been successful?<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cIn every way\u2026.except financially! Even during the conversation with my board, I said this is going to be a bit of a disaster financially but they said, \u2018Bruce, it\u2019s what we do, it\u2019s why we exist. We\u2019re a competition driven organisation so we have a duty to do what\u2019s right for the riders.\u2019 The board had no hesitation in proceeding this weekend knowing it was going to be a bit of a struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
With just the 2* and 3* events running, it was a small but enthusiastic group of riders who turned up at SIEC. Olympic hopeful Sonja Johnson from Western Australia had an exceptional weekend winning the CCI3* on Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison and coming third on her youngster Misty Isle Valentino. I spoke to her just before the showjumping.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve had a good weekend!<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cI have had a good weekend so far, but it\u2019s not over yet, so let\u2019s say I\u2019ve had a good Friday and Saturday. I was really pleased with how much better the boys were in their dressage. Both horses knocked at least five penalties off their score from a week ago which is just an indication of how useful it is to get good quality, consistent coaching with Christoph then Gareth Hughes then Prue Barrett\u2019s been pulling it all together. The nice thing is that I know there\u2019s still more to come yet. I know we can get it better. On Christoph\u2019s score he was on 41, so we can keep improving that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were both super cross country. Valentino is only quite young at this level, and he\u2019s never galloped over this terrain and at the end it was so funny because you could feel the body was tired but the spirit was so willing! I came through the finish line and said to him you can stop now and he replied with no, no, I can keep going, it\u2019s alright I can do another 10 minutes!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle Benny (Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison) doesn\u2019t really register tired. He\u2019s just a guru and we were slowing down and well under time. The one second of time faults on Valentino was because my watch didn\u2019t start. It started a bit later, so in the end I was slowing down because I thought I was too quick, but it turned out that I was over. So when I was about to go cross country with Ben, Prue said, \u201cPlease start your watch. Do you know why I want you to start your watch? Because otherwise you\u2019ll go 40 seconds under time with him!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve both pulled up really well and are both happy. Now we\u2019ll just focus on the showjumping. I came here with the goal of getting Liaison under a 45 and finishing on it and Valentino getting him under the 50.\u201d![\"Stuart](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Stuart-Pluto.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Stuart Tinney and Pluto Mio<\/em><\/p>\n You\u2019re big on fitness for your horses you told me at Equestriad.<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m neurotic about fitness. I just can\u2019t stand riding unfit horses. I don\u2019t want to have to come into the last half dozen fences on a hill thinking holy shit I hope they\u2019ve got enough in the tank. So, I do really, really drill fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n Excellent neurosis to have! What\u2019s your routine with them?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cI gallop every four days, and at home I have the most amazing hill which is why I love being home for the fitness work, but I\u2019m loving being over here for the coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n You need a private jet for you and your ponies!<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cYeah that would be really good, or at least a really good\u00a0sponsor!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have this wonderful hill at home. It\u2019s 1.2km long and increases by 70 metres in elevation. And it\u2019s not just dead straight, you\u2019ve got to twist and turn through trees so that makes them very rideable. So, before a major championships, they\u2019ll go up that six times. It takes me about one and a half minutes to gallop up it and eight minutes to walk back down. They\u2019ll do that six times. That\u2019s after they\u2019ve trotted up once. It\u2019s a hangover from long format I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you miss that?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cNo! I never want to do another long format in my life, but it\u2019s almost a shame we haven\u2019t got it, because I think it taught people about getting horses fit, and it also taught them in the steeplechase, you\u2019ve got to be able to gallop down and just jump the fence in a really good balance and open and that\u2019s a skill you don\u2019t see so much these days; the ability to just keep coming and jump out of a rhythm. I think it\u2019s a shame, but in terms of the horses, I think it\u2019s much better. I mean there\u2019s no way Jaguar would have been able to do an Olympics at 18 and a World Championships at 20 if we were still doing long format.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI fully understand why organisers don\u2019t want to do it too. But I almost wish through to 105m and 1* we still had long format three days. It\u2019s not going to happen, but I just think it would be so good because nowadays so many people eventing live in cities, and they don\u2019t get horses really fit, and they can get away with it at low levels, and they go up levels with unfit\u00a0horses.\u201d<\/p>\n So do you go home now?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cI was going to go home straight after last week, but if I took the horses home now, they\u2019d only get three weeks before we\u2019d need to come back for Melbourne. So, I\u2019m flying home tomorrow for two weeks. There\u2019s a heap of sheep work that needs doing, and I need to check the crops and things like that; the stuff that makes money to pay for all of this! The horses will have a week off and then Sarah Dawson, Shenae Lowings and Jess Manson are going to keep them going between them. Shenae doing dressage on them for a week, they\u2019ll probably be better. Jess is going to take over the ride on my little 1* horse and take him up to Tamworth for me. Then I\u2019ll come back, get some more intensive training in with Prue and go and see if we can\u2019t do an even better job in Melbourne. If you say it quickly it\u2019s easy!\u201d Shenae Lowings and Ballyhoo<\/em><\/p>\n Shane Rose was collecting ribbons in the CIC3* with a first on Virgil and second on CP Qualified.<\/p>\n Good weekend.<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cMy top horses Qualified and Virgil have been good all weekend. I\u2019m just a bit annoyed with myself. I went the wrong side of a lane on Qualified and got a few unnecessary time penalties. I just had a couple of mistakes on my young horses, which was disappointing. South Park was just a bit tired at the top of the hill and jumped a little left of the double corners, which made the angle really acute for him. Just a little green on his part. He hasn\u2019t galloped on hills like that over a 3* course. He\u2019ll be better for the experience. I made an error on Shanghai Joe. He would have cantered in nicely under time if I hadn\u2019t made that little mistake at the\u00a0water.<\/p>\n \u201cBut all four have pulled up great and hopefully they\u2019ll jump well and we\u2019ll head down to Melbourne.\u201d<\/p>\n How was your training this week? Hard coming back to do it again?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a very different experience. Not so much for the CIC horses but for the CCI horses, you prepare them to peak at a certain time and then everything gets thrown in the air. It\u2019s hard as a rider, but it\u2019s a small price to pay and we\u2019re grateful for the opportunity. It\u2019s great that the committee and all the volunteers could come back and put the event on for us at short notice. It\u2019s not like postponing an event, it\u2019s like putting on a whole competition. It\u2019s a massive event to put on, and the committee has done an amazing job.<\/p>\n \u201cI was desperate for a start on the two CIC horses. This was always part of their plan, first start for the season so if I was to miss this, it would have been difficult so I\u2019m really, really\u00a0grateful.<\/p>\n \u201cIn five weeks we\u2019re off to Melbourne. All the horses have pulled up really well so hoping to reload and do a better job down there.\u201d<\/p>\n Another Olympic hopeful Stuart Tinney was also grateful for the run with three of his horses.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really pleased with how the horses went. Pluto Mio and Carlchen went around the CIC3* and they were very good and I was very pleased with their tests as well. War Hawk was actually just wonderful yesterday. I just rode the wrong striding into the water. I tried to do four strides instead of five, which was a silly mistake. Otherwise he was super too.\u201d<\/p>\n Was it hard to keep them motivated this week?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cYeah it\u2019s hard because you\u2019ve got to try to fit in another jump and give them another canter as well, but they seemed to have coped very well.\u201d<\/p>\n Was there a good vibe here this weekend?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been great actually. The organisers have done a great job to get it up and running again. It\u2019s been wonderful that we can come out and do the event, and those horses that needed to qualify could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Who are you taking down to Melbourne?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cCarlchen and Queen Mary in the CCI3*. Having done the CCI3* here, War Hawk, he won\u2019t go. Pluto Mio will do the\u00a0CIC3*\u201d Judy Clarke and Diablito<\/em><\/p>\n Another inspiring story from the weekend was Judith Clarke. A sixty-year-old grandmother, Judy gave the \u201cyoungsters\u201d a run for their money finishing third on Diablito in the CIC3*<\/p>\n \u201cI think people are in awe because I\u2019m 60 but I don\u2019t feel 60. I look at myself in the mirror and get a shock sometimes! I try to keep fit, I regularly go to the gym, but I\u2019ve always been stronger and more active than most people my age. I had three brothers so grew up a tomboy!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been riding all my life. I did my first one-day event in 1988 in Oberon and won it. It was a prelim, but I was hooked from then on. I\u2019ve had some really nice horses and I\u2019ve been in 3* before, but I had a break from 3* for about 15 years. I was riding 2* but didn\u2019t really want to take that next step, but now I\u2019m kicking myself.\u201d<\/p>\n What made you go back to 3* then?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cThe horse. He\u2019s amazing. I got him from a friend of mine who basically didn\u2019t want him anymore. He was nine years old and had only done prelim dressage, and had never jumped. He\u2019s rising 19 now so neither of us have a lot of time\u00a0left!\u201d<\/p>\n Will you head down to Melbourne?<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cYes I will. I was undecided. I wanted to see how we went here. I got a late entry for this event. The horse is older, so I don\u2019t want to end up with a really good lame horse, but I\u2019m going to give it a go.\u201d<\/p>\n A minute’s silence for Caitlyn Fischer<\/em><\/p>\n Although it could be argued eventers are the tough ones of the equestrian world, both the emotion and relief were palpable on Sunday. All prize winners were present in the arena at the end of the show jumping when there was a touching minute\u2019s silence for Caitlyn. More than one tear was shed and there was a real sense that the eventing community had gone through this tragedy together and come out the other side. The rerun of the Sydney International Horse Trials really was a cathartic event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rebecca Ashton returns to the re-run of the Sydney International Horse Trials…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26898,"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":[362,1244,1493,463,1491,1494,906,1492],"class_list":["post-26893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-christoph-hess","tag-eventing","tag-judy-fasher","tag-shane-rose","tag-siht","tag-sonja-johnson","tag-stuart-tinney","tag-sydney-international-horse-trials"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26893","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=26893"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32187,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26893\/revisions\/32187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Shenae](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Shenae-Lowings-Ballyhoo-2.jpg\")
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