Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Harry is a state champion.and Liz wins too.

We are in Toowoomba for two big shows.
The Toowoomba Jumping Club ran the first weekend which was the Qld Champships.
Equestrian Qld will run the 2nd show with the World Cup both shows are on the Toowoomba Showgrounds.The facilities are great, loads of stables and an indoor plus the huge grass arena used for the Royal Toowoomba Show.
David Sheppard from Victoria and Graham Watts QLd were the Course Designers, and a grand job they did too, lovely flowing tracks .
.Harry convincingly won the 1.10m championships with Titan.
Harry's dad Mike was in the grandstand cheering .
Liz started the show by winning the first leg of the Junior Qld Championship by three seconds.
She and Greenbah jumped clear rounds in the Junior Champs every day but a rail or two in the jump offs kept her out of the placings.
They jumped clear in the first round of the Grand Prix, only 7 managed out of 60 odd competitors.
More experience in these situations will see Liz climb up the leader boards.
Harry with Dusky Farm Jane (the 4 year old mare) was third in the 90cm champs.
Our other competitor George Johnson was on fire all weekend, placed in just about every class he went in. He jumped two horses in the 1.30m-140m's.
There were loads of cojmpetitors and not many venues can cope with such large numbers.
Imagine the judges starting at 8am and going all day for three or four days ,out in all weathers. They are tough for sure.
This weekend Harry and Liz step up to the 1.20m's.
Let's see how we go.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

What a day!

The Mid -Winter Championships were packed with entries and the competition hot.
Harry and Liz were 1st and 2nd to kick the day off in the 1.05m. Harry was riding in his first competition on Celerity Park Southern Cross a B grader from Qld.Titan is his stable name.
Liz jumped a smart round to be close second on Greenbah.
Harry won the 4 year old class with Dusky Farm Jane and topped his day off with a win in the 1.15m article no 238 2.1 (one rounder)on Titan.
A winning treble,a just reward for all his hard work and dedication.
Greenbah jumped a sharp round in the 1.15m but the last fence came down,uugh.
Milly Clark rode a wonderful round in the 1.20m for one down on her chestnut Connollys Eclipse,definately a horse for the future for her.
Milly was 2nd in the 6 year old class as well with this horse.Milly's other horse jumped clear in the 1.15m at the end of the day in the dark just about.
Milly's mother Jenny won a class in ring 4 and it was the one I sponsored.
Jessica Conran rode very well in the 1.20m on Orion's Star for one down, super job.
Lauren Nicholls also rode well in the 1.20m on her Barney Bedrock for one down.
Great result for these young girls,they work hard and show great promise for the future.Coralie Christie rode on the 80/90cm on her young mare, by Aachimedes,very big scopey type with a lovely temperament.
George Johnson has two horses in the bigger classes had a great day too.He also placed in the 6 year old class with a client's horse.
George won the 1.30m with the super mare Wondaree Sprite,such a trier and George has a wonderful rapport with this feisty mare.
Auzbred(he has a small map of Australia on his shoulder for a brand)jumped superbly to be 5th on the Grand Prix.George should be sleeping well on Sunday night.
Ozzie jumped clear in the 1.30m as well but an incident at the start stopped him jumping in the jump off.
It was a great day and I am delighted for them and their efforts,parents and support too.
The INCIDENT was; the Judge rang the bell for George to start and as George was cantering around towards the start flags when the horse spooked spun around and dropped George on the ground.The horse was caught and returned to the rider and he remounted.The Judge rang the bell for G to be elimated.
I thought that wasn't correct so I told G to stay in the arena and we negotiated with the Judge.The horse did not leave the arena when he was unmounted.
G was reinstated in the class and was allowed to jump.
The reason G was not in the jump off was beause of time penalties. There are rules to cover these types of things.
There is a rule which states if you are over the time limit you will be eliminated. The time limit is the time allowed doubled,so for example 80 seconds time allowed,if you are over 80 you start accumulating time faults, AND WHEN when you go past 160 seconds (double the time allowed) you will be elimated.
So George had 45 seconds to get though the start (the clock starts then) plus 160 before he could be elimated for time.
Bit confusing sure but the rule book in very thick. A dressage analogy is;if a rider falls off or carries a whip as they enter the arenat up the centre line you can remount or drop the whip and continue because the test starts AT/AFTER the first salute,same sort of thing.
ANOTHER INCIDENT;Coralie was riding in the young horse class and came to a jump and the top rail was down. She pulled off and called to the Judge and asked for the fence to be rebuilt.
The Judge rang the bell for Coralie to stop and the jump steward put the rail up the judge rang the bell for Coralie to start and off she went.
These things happen form time to time.
When Coralie came out of the ring I said, 'next time don't pull off just keep going, it is the Judge and Course Designer's responsibility to make sure the course is correct and the same for everyone."
As a result of pullng off Coralies' horse lost its momentum, attention and had a couple of jumps down. This is a usual outcome when the round is interrupted especially with a green horse or rider.
Judges have a long list of responsibilites on a day and their days are very long with short breaks. Errors will occur, so it is up to the competitors to know their rules.
I remember at the Sydney Olympics in the dressage KUR when Ulla Salzgerberger with Rusty were ready to start . She waved her hand to start the music and nothing happened.Time passed, no music, frantic waving, consultation with the judges, finally the music started.
Ulla then rode to perfection to take the Silver or Gold, now that is a very cool head under pressure.
The rules state you must have a back up CD of music and if the music does't work for whatever reason you will be elimated! How would you feel???
It is all good learning,to know the rules is important, many arguments at competitions would be averted if more people were familiar with the rules.To know how to find the relevant rule is a must.
My mother is keen reader of the rule book, 'she says to know the rules means you are fair to everyone'.
The Course Designers Mark Atkins, David Sheppard , Sue Bettington and my Father Bob Brook showed how flowing courses produced good jumping,many thanks.The Sydney Jumping Club ran a massive day on good ground well done.
Big day Monday packing and cleaning etc for the trip North, not to warmer climes probably colder.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

School holidays

The holidays are always busy with teaching.
The July hols started with Jessica Conran going to the State Pony club Champs at Kendall on the North Coast of NSW north of Taree.
Liz was the social director of the weekend by the sound of it and enjoyed herself despite not having a horse to ride.
The ground was very wet and deep, Jess's horse didn't enjoy the going, but she made a jump off or two and placed once.
Liz's horses are back on track now to go to the Mid-Winter champs.
We chose to stay at home instead of going to Tamworth Jumping Club's three day show this weekend because of our horse's not being quite ready.Shame the dates clashed because we do not have enough good shows to compete at really. Both jumping clubs and both good venues.
Mind you both shows have plenty of entries.
Next week we head North to Toowoomba for the Qld Champs and the World Cup show.
Harry has been riding his team of three.Now he knows how much mental work it is as well as the physical.
He is looking forward to the shows as he is on Uni holidays.Harry's three horses are going in 1m/1/10m/1/20m.
Liz's two are 1m/115m.
Lauren Nicholls will be riding too on Sunday. Jessica C and Milly Clark up from Berry
will fill up the day no doubt.
After not having a competition to go to for a while all the kids are keen.
I do not have a horse to ride at the moment ready to go to a show so I will be busy teaching, grooming, driving,etc etc.
Let's see how they shape up!!!!