There is something about the Australian International Horse Trials that makes me want to come back every year, with as many as horses as possible – I think it must be the size of the WA cheer squad!

This year I only took over Murph, to have a crack at the 4star. So a week before the stables opened, myself, my mother slash full time groom and our 2 dogs, Flash the corgi and Toby the kelpie made the trip across the Nullarbor.

For those of you who don’t know the drive across the Nullarbor is a long one – Day 1 for me is quite different to most Perth residents, as we drive south to Esperance rather than going to Kalgoorlie, to get to the Eyre Highway. The first stop overnight is on a private station, Fraser Range, which has a number of horse yards available. From there Day 2 starts very early, with over 1000km to cover and a time difference of 2.5hours we constantly chase the daylight. Overnight we stop at Ceduna Racecourse, who over the years have collected ‘honesty’ payments, and been able to put the money to good use, building 2 sheds with large rubber lined yards – perfect for long distance travel! Day 3 becomes slightly easier, no time differences to deal with and back under the 1000km of travel, it feels quite nice to reach civilisation again!

Yards at Ceduna

Long distance travel like this can be very tiring for the horses, with items like Equissage and Red Light Therapy pads almost becoming essentials. The biggest concern is keeping an eye on hydration and temperatures and keeping feed as basic as possible (removing powders/supplements etc). You also get to know little tricks that work for your horse the more times you travel, for example with Murph I know that he doesn’t like to have a drink until he has been for a walk, stretched his legs and starts licking his lips.

Once in SA we pulled into Kersbrook Equestrian Centre, owned and run by Nicki Stuart, just out of Gawler to rest and recoup before heading into the stables at Adelaide. It is a beautiful property, with National Park next door I got to stretch my legs doing lots of hiking with Toby the kelpie in tow, even spotting wild deer on a couple of occasions. We also took a trip into Gawler and had a walk around Dead Man’s Pass where all the old XC fences are still standing!

Dressage Day at Adelaide

So, onto the event – my dressage was as to be expected really, yes more relaxation and less tension (or spooking at the big screen!) would be nice, but it’s all a learning process for us both. I liked the course, with lots of black flag options it was nice to know if I got an ‘A’ element wrong I had the option to detour. However that wasn’t needed, and whilst I didn’t wear a watch or go for time, I did go through all the straight routes and am extremely happy with my round. Showjumping has left me with lots to work on, including my nerves!

Upon returning home on the Wednesday I unpacked and repacked for our State Young Event Horse Championships (because I hadn’t done enough travelling already!). It seemed like a good idea when I entered, but it was a big ask – however I am glad I went, as it was a great lead up to Eventing in the Park and my Australian Stockhorse Touchstone Felix even came home the 6yr old champion!

Australian Stockhorse ‘Buzz’ attempting his first ODE

Well after last month being busy helping out committees, this month has been busy competing!

As a lead up to Western Australia’s premier event (the Perth Horse Trials Three Day Event) I took Tempus Fugit (Murphy) to the Gidgegannup CNC**. Not only do I like to use these events as fitness runs, I also like to use them to run through ‘mental strategies’ for me and as training runs for the horse.

In this instance, I had a few mental things to work on with the dressage, including trying to be a bit more blasé in the warmup in order to cope with variables I can’t control. My other task was to ‘let go’ of the canter, to try to develop a slower tempo with more groundcover (easier said than done!).

The aim with the XC was to walk out of the start box! At events where it doesn’t matter if I make the time or not, I like to use them to ‘school’ the start box – something that is hard to do without an atmosphere. I was very lucky when I was younger in that one schoolmaster I rode was very naughty in the start box, and he taught me that a horse that doesn’t rear and leap around at the start is a blessing. It is my belief that constant fast starts (especially on ex-racehorses) can create a demon and by walking out and slowly picking up canter can help defuse them.

Hope Springs ridden by Elizabeth Moore

The weekend finished well, and my young horse Major Moment finished up 3^rd in the EVA105. I gave another one of my horses, Hope Springs, to good friend Elizabeth Moore to compete whilst he is on the market – after dressage she sat in third place behind me on Major Moment. However, by the end of the weekend and double clear jumping she moved up into second, pipping me at the post! I must say being on the owners side of the fence is actually good fun – I didn’t realise I would enjoy watching him go around as much as I do, the thrills of cross country, the nerves for the show jumping, I rode every stride! Hopefully it has given me a bit of insight and makes me a better choice for future owners.

From there we had a weekend with client’s horses at the ‘Little’ Gidgegannup – the EVA80 and below classes, as limited parking space means that Gidgegannup committee split their event over two weekends. They both enjoyed a ‘spooky’ weekend away learning the eventing ropes.

Tempus Fugit warming up for dressage with Peter Shaw

From Little Gidge, we frantically unpacked, washed and repacked to head to the Three Day 4 days later. I had Major Moment in the CCN105 and Tempus Fugit in the CIC***. Through trot up and onto dressage, it seems my work at earlier events is starting to pay off – Tempus Fugit put in some great work with Peter Shaw in the warmup, and we managed to hold it together nearly to the end of the test to take the lead on 50.6.

Cross country day dawned, and what I thought was a tough CCN105 track, proved to be so! Major Moment was his usual confident self, and was just having way too much fun on course. The third last fence was an apex dressed with pine trees, that when I walked the course thought was really tough, and apparently Major Moment thought that too – uncharacteristically leaving a leg, and leaving me on the ground! This has to be the first time in four years that I have come off on cross country.

It took me a while to convince the medics that I didn’t need to get X-rays  (I wasn’t in enough pain for anything to be broken), and after making me lay still for an hour or two to let the adrenalin die down, they got the Doctor to take a look and he cleared me to continue on. My body vest was torn apart during the fall (well placed hoof as you can see in the video below!) so I was crazily running around trying to find another one so I could take Murph out on cross country (thankyou Felicity Heggarty for lending me yours!).

wooroloo crash of the day from Darren Dawes on Vimeo.

I will admit I was nervous as Murph isn’t the easiest ride, but thought I would take each fence as it comes and pull up if necessary. After about jump 5 I slapped myself on the head and mentally yelled at myself ‘stop sitting and start bloody riding!’ which helped, as we jumped clear just adding some time and holding onto first place.

Monday morning dawned and a very stiff me realised I had to trot up! The Ground Jury did have a giggle when I presented, assuring me they wouldn’t judge my ‘trot’. But we passed through even if the rider was held!  By the time my showjumping came around I was really worried about my strength levels, as at a Three Day Murph can often gain a lot more get up and go, and can be quite strong for the showjumping. However, I whispered in his ear ‘please take care of Mum’ and he show jumped beautifully! The only one to jump clear in the 3star, we held onto the lead – boy was I glad the Medics didn’t get to say ‘I told you so’.

Clear!

So, after our rough start to my relationship with Murphy earlier in the year all the ‘marriage counselling’ and persistence has paid off, as I am now well and truly infatuated again – I don’t think any other horse would have looked after a nervous me the way Murph did, and I don’t think I would have trusted any other horse as much as I trusted him that weekend! Now, it’s to keep the love coming all the way to Adelaide!

Photos and videos with thanks to Redfoto

In the office at Future Eventing, with fellow Eventful Life blogger Makayla Wood (event secretary) and Felicity Heggarty (event president)

It’s July which means it’s time to evaluate those New Year Resolutions (who thinks about them at this time of year!). And my new blog resolution this year was to bring you the little things that I am learning each month – and this month has been a big month of learning!

I’ve actually only made it to one event since my last blog, the Dryandra CIC. This is my ‘local’ event (which means its less than 2 hours away), and I put my hand up to help out the committee. The events Co-ordinator Jacqui Early is one of WA’s most amazing volunteers, and a very good delegator making her a joy to work with. I was in charge of helping out with the dressage for this event, and boy can I tell you there is a lot that goes on – and Pythagoras theory will be the death of me!

However once we got dressage arenas set up, most of the hard work was done (for me) with just a little bit of running around between dressage tests on Saturday morning, and I was enjoying helping out the committee. I had 2 horses run in this event, both in the top 3 after dressage.

All I need is a parrot to complete the look

Sunday morning loomed early, and my first ride around XC resulted in me trying to go around a slow rider (who I thought had some trouble on course), and not really paying attention to where I was going – which resulted in jumping into a low hanging branch and catching my face. I managed to finish the course, one hand holding my face and ran to the ambulance where I learnt that I had a scratch to my eye and wasn’t cleared to continue riding. They flushed it and gave me an eye patch to rest the eye, and after a couple of hours I was cleared to finish the day.

My last ride for the day was Tempus Fugit going XC – after how the morning started my plan was to just jump around, enjoy myself and get home safe and in one piece. It worked really well for my psyche, and I had a fabulous run XC, realising after fence 4 there was no need to go slow and coming home with only a few time penalties, we secured the win. There is no other feeling in the world quite like jumping around a tough 3 star track that easily with that much enjoyment.

Tempus Fugit cruising around Dryandra CNC*** (photo credit Reset Equine)

Since then, I have been working hard as the Cross Country coordinator for the Futures Eventing Committee. Futures Eventing is a committee created last year by Felicity Heggarty, made up of young riders, to give back and ensure the future of the sport (hence the name!). My role as the Cross Country Coordinator consists of booking and working with a course designer/builder, helping with flagging and dressing, jump judges, liaising with the TD, organising crash crew and horse ambulance etc.

I also took on the role of Chief Cross Country Judge – a role that I was told is really good for riders who aren’t competing at that event, to be the liaison between riders and jump judges, who may have a query or a complaint. I wasn’t riding so I put my hand up thinking ‘it doesn’t sound that hard, it’s only for 3 grades’. Boy was I wrong! The scorers had lots of questions for me, and 90 percent of them were resolved straight away, but it was amazing how much I was needed. It quickly became an incredibly busy day.

Our event finished without too many dramas (that we let you see!) and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of it. All of those that aided the committee, including our TD Jenny Brett, were extremely forgiving towards us and really encouraged the learning process, which made me feel a great sense of personal achievement – and being the ever perfectionist, to try and do better next time.

My last words to you, I ask, have you ever thought about putting your hand up to help the sport you love? It doesn’t have to be a big role, it could be something as small as making yourself available to confirm dressage judges, to help flag the cross country course or to be someone’s off-sider for the day. I dare every rider out there to put their hand up to help out a committee, just one event a year, and I think we would all learn to be more forgiving once we realise what an incredibly tough job it is to get our sport off the ground.

Til next month…

The Futures Eventing Committee having some fun at the end of the day (photo credit Wayne Edwards)

At the end of the last blog it appeared that the experiment had worked – I had attended some training days and some clinics with coaches like Jon Pitts and all was going well. But the real test came at the next competition.

Wooroloo CNC was Murphy’s first competition with me back in the saddle, running in the CNC 3 star class. And I have to say, the experiment seemed to work!! Feeling rather nervous for the dressage, the aim was to work on keeping the tempo of the test the same as the warm-up and work on the rideablility. He put together a good test, with some really nice moments to score 52.2.

The aim XC was to not focus on time, but work on control and rhythm – all things were going great until halfway around we pulled a shoe, watching it go rolling past us at a million miles an hour, and the jumping quality after that was not great – which resulted in me seeing my life flash before my eyes as we jumped into an A element of angled rails Murphy uncharacteristically left a leg…

Thinking I was definitely eating dirt, and hitting my head on the flag of the B element, somehow Murph being the superman that he is, managed to jump the B element with me half hanging off him!! Very grateful right in that moment for having a freaky chestnut pony under me!

      Phew!!

We finished the event in 1^st place and some great photos to take home! The next event was 2 weeks later, travelling all the way to Moora (some 6hours from home). We seem to have really bad luck with cars/floats and tyres and going to Moora, always managing to blow one either on the way home or in this case on the way up.

Murph was entered in the CNC 2 star alongside some flash horses. The aim for the test was to again work on rideablility, and to not be so tactful in the warm-up. It worked a treat, the trot work was great, we walked the entire walk without jogging, and halfway through the canter work I started thinking ‘wow this is going really well just stay calm’ and I forgot the part about ‘keep riding’ and he broke back to trot!!! Finished the dressage day in the lead on 51.9.

XC at Moora started in the fog, a lot like Melbourne of previous years, and our aim this time was to establish a rhythm right from the start and maintaining it all the way around – as I sometime start slow, finish fast. This also worked a treat, and I had the best XC run I have ever had aboard Murph, zooming home. We also showjumped clear to finish on our dressage score and win the event!

So I guess it is safe to say that the experiment worked a treat, and Murphy is now becoming so rideable. The aim now is to work on consistency and re-establishing our partnership (yes more marriage counselling work!) – the motto for Murphy at the moment is

‘Don’t ruin the 95% to get the extra 5%’

Which seems to be working well…I am currently writing this blog from inside my gooseneck at Brigadoon CNC where Murphy and I are on a personal best dressage score of 47.9!

Thanks Ben!

All photos courtesy of Red Photo.com.au

So, it leads me to ask myself, how can I improve my blogs? A blog is a website containing a writer’s experiences, observations, opinions. They can be informational or personal. Which led me to think how can I make my blog more interesting?  Rather than just posting a monthly recall of events that have happened in my life I would instead like to be more engaging. So my New Year’s blog resolution is to try and provide you with equestrian items that I am learning or have learnt each month, to pass on information that I have found useful, and perhaps you might too.

In saying that, it has been a quiet start to the year, with the horses coming back into work in dribs and drabs depending on what their year finished like in 2013. The start of the New Year also brought with it a new sponsor for me – my long standing equine therapist – Reset Equine – is expanding and has come on board to support Lush Eventing. 

Nancy, the head hauncho of Reset Equine has been working with Murph on and off for a while now and even in a short time I cannot support her work enough. The difference to the horses is amazing – which has led me to really follow the mantra of what I do for myself as an athlete, do for the horses, including physio!

   Murph enjoys a session with Nancy

Also this month we made use of Yalambi Stud Farm owner, Rory Hovell, being home from Europe and took Murph and Bradley over for some lessons. I have been going to Rory for a few years now to help with not only the jumping but the flat work as well. And it was a bit of a lightbulb moment/weekend, with everything that has been drilled in me the past few years starting to make sense and make a difference in the way Murph travels (although there is still A LOT of work to do!).

We did some jumping exercises on the Sunday with curving lines between a vertical and an oxer trying to keep Murph relaxed and rideable to keep the canter the same – it sounds simple, and basic, and it is, but for Murph who sights a fence from 300m away and believes he is Superman, it was a really good exercise. It also highlighted how far away from the fences Murph was landing – with Rory telling me straight “this is the difference between eventers and showjumpers”.

So what did I learn? Not only do eventers have longer take off spots, we also have a long landing spot. The solution – to put a placing rail behind the jump but not in front, forcing me to ride to a decent take off spot and to help Murph control the arc of his jump and land appropriately.

Check out the video below to see us in action.

And last but not least for the month is the arrival of a new addition! Last year I leased an older broodmare who, after many attempts, didn’t manage to fall pregnant (with everyone telling me welcome to breeding!). So she returned to the owner, and instead we purchased the mare’s daughter – an Australian Stockhorse filly named Touchstone Vegas, (see photo below) who will be broodmare for me and performance horse for Ben Mitchell later in life.

Tempus Fugit enjoyed some time out in the paddock as well, due to accumulating many minor injuries after Melbourne 3DE all adding up to some serious time off. He commenced work late last year and is ticking along nicely. We are really excited to have him back for 2014 and are aiming for either Sydney or Melbourne in the first half of 2014, following up with Adelaide CCI4star at the end of 2014 – all things going according to plan!

Hope Springs didn’t have a good end to the year – he suffered a bad slip XC (in more wet conditions!) where he managed to break his stud girth and shatter his confidence resulting in some time out. And then deciding that he didn’t want his holiday over we awoke to find him with a deep puncture wound to his knee. It was extremely touch and go as to whether he would live, but the team behind Warwick Vale did a great job. Bradley has been allowed to recommence work, and is also going really well. We don’t have any goals for him at this stage as we want to see how his knee will hold up to being in full work.

So as usual with horses it is onwards and upwards, back to the drawing board, reset some goals and enjoy the journey.

That was my luck at this year’s Melbourne Three Day event. We took two horses over, Touchstone Felix in the One Star and Murph in the Three Star. We had a great trip over, but it all started with getting bogged at our first overnighter! We got out luckily, but it was a bit hairy! Then we had arranged to pull into Kirby Park (the home of Megan Jones) to give the guys a few days in the paddock to rest. It was a good idea on paper…but it rained, and rained and rained – boy did it rain!! I haven’t seen rain like that for some time, and never in my home town. It rained for nearly 36 hours. So my poor boys didn’t get much rest, if any! Luckily by the last 2 days it stopped raining, we got a few rides in, and headed to Melbourne.

Felix was the super star of the event – doing a good test, absolutely zooming around the cross country course and adding one rail showjumping to his score. He finished 7th! A tough showjump course saw a few rails fall, and even with one rail down we stil managed to move up a few places. I was very very pleased with how he performed!

Murph on the other hand, continued the bad luck run – he did a good test, although we were all holding our breath in the walk! Final score of 54. Cross country however was another story. He started out good, really listening, which in hindsight isn’t like him at all (he normally argues like crazy to the first and second fence). And then a hesitation at the first water, left us with a big jump in, landing way off line, and missing the B element. I put it behind me and kept going but couldn’t help but think something was wrong. After another uncharacteristic run out we walked home. Confusing at the time but I knew something wasn’t right. It turns out he has suffered a minor injury, one that sees him earn a couple of weeks rest but still lets us aim for Wooroloo 3day.

So as always with eventing, you learn something every time you compete, every time you hop on to ride!

Now I look forward to working with the younger and greener horses while the big guns rest, and Felix goes back to his owner Ben Mitchell for a bit of fun.

Since I last spoke to you poor Bradley had a rather unjoyful trip to the dentist – having to get two (rather old) baby incisors removed, leaving him with quite a gap in his front teeth. Luckily for the bank account everyone else just received a routine checkup.

I also secured a new job, writing for local horsey magazine Perth Rider. Being a part time job it is great to have on top of Lush Eventing. For my first article, I got to go along to the Hayley Beresford clinic and do an interview – oh how lucky I am to call it work! It also meant that I got to snag a lesson due to a last minute cancellation. I found she was very good, with a way of explaining things that set off a lot of light bulbs in my head.

I also then dragged poor old Murph to Peter Shaw and Jon Pitts– Peter and I have a good laugh, agreeing that his coaching is thoroughbred friendly, as he is just so good for Murphs ever busy brain (and realising that perhaps I was part TB in a past life?!).

And Jon, well I could write a whole article on what I learn going to him – I met Jon many years ago at the National Young Rider Squad camp in Sydney, introduced him to Sonja, and now thanks to her nagging, we get him in WA quite regularly. He has been an amazing help to my riding – this month was all about feeling the pattern the horses gait creates on our seat/pelvis, and then being able to influence it (eg. faster, slower, transitions, etc) and thus creating a truly independent seat. It is easier said than done and requires immense amounts of concentration on my behalf!

Back at home we also welcomed
We have also been given the option to breed – Felix’s mum lives nearby us, and as we are good friends with her owner, she has allowed us to breed from her this year. Seeing her progeny, and owning one, I can vouch for how nice they are. So, rather than going to a jumping stallion, my thoughts changed to trying to introduce movement, and I came out choosing the stallion Bellario – owned by Narbethong Park, and ridden by Deon Stokes. We are secretly very excited about it! the return of Saturday Night Fever, aka Trav. Owned by Eliva Park he began his new career off the track with me last year, and will continue to learn as much as he can with me again this year.

So by the time I am writing next month I should hope to have a positive preg test, the first event out of the way, and the very exciting arrival of our new Gooseneck – custom designed and built in America, it is currently tucked into a sea container, making its way to Fremantle. Here is a sneak peak for you