Another busy day in the sun on Saturday with Nations Cup horses showjumping in the main arena and the 3*L OGQ horses running cross country. Jonelle and Chile’s Morning Star (Ollie) were having a cracking run having left the start box on a forward stride and gone sky high over fence 1 just for the fun of it. There was a cascade in the water and Ollie took a peep at it which was enough to take his eye off the skinny so picked up 20 penalties but he was dead honest to jump it the second time, especially as Jonelle dropped her whip in the water! They came home full of running and Jonelle was delighted with both his attitude and his talent.
The huge 4*S class had the Nations Cup horses jumping first and Tim and Falco kept their lead with a perfect clear round. Jonelle and McClaren added just a single time penalty to their score and with clear rounds from Clarke Johnstone and Sam Lissington the team retained their lead going into the cross country.
Jarillo (Milo) put his brave pants on and jumped the biggest round of his life with just one rail down and grew up visibly during his round. Happy Boy jumped another super round and Senor Crocodillo (Diego) was foot perfect with Jonelle and after a long day swapping horses around the team went cross country walking at 6pm.
Sunday dawned bright and clear and the 3*L horses jogged up well and prepped for their showjumping round. It’s a funny feeling going into a team showjumping when it really didn’t matter what happened! The team were here to support the Aussies who needed Olympic qualification and it was a team of young horses who were here as part of their education. Australia had flown three horses over from home and added Olympic individual bronze medallist Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos as no.4. But even that approach was looking a little shaky when Andrew Hoy didn’t present at the jog and they were down to three members going into the showjumping so they were massively relieved when they all jumped well and they won the competition. The second placed team qualified for Paris as well and in a surprise shake up China beat Japan for the coveted slot.
Chilli’s Morning Star (Ollie) jumped a super clear and Jonelle was really happy with the way he tackled his first long format with her. He can look forward to a bit of a summer holiday now and he was happy to watch the 4* horses head out to the cross country throughout the afternoon.
Sam Lissington picked up a 20 on Ricker Ridge Sooty but Clarke Johnstone went really well on Menlo Park to add 11 time to his score. Jonelle and McClaren (Mac) zipped around the track looking like the perfect partnership to add just 10.4 for eventual 7th spot and then Tim really went for gold with Falco and added just 5.2 time (the second fastest of the day) to maintain his lead and win the class by some 6 points.
Jarillo tackled his first 4*S with aplomb and earns much praise from Tim. He answered all of the questions and came home with his ears pricked and looking for another fence. Happy had a proper prep for Luhmuhlen 5 star and jumped a super clear with some 22 time and no jumping faults. Diego was on the job as well and jumped a super round and looked for the flags all the way and is building a great partnership with Jonelle.
And to end the weekend on a perfect note the team won the Nations Cup which was the main aim in coming here and kicks off the first team competition for 2023 on a brilliant note. We brought the whole crew out here and Jock Paget flew over from New Zealand, Sam Griffiths coached and our new specialist jump coach Chris Burton came over for the weekend. The horse health team, Christiana Ober, Alice Dorman and Jack Young have multitasked and dealt with some 20 horses (which is quite the challenge) and somehow stayed smiling!
Congratulations as well to Kerryn, Megan and Tilly who have run the stables with their 10 horses and dealt with having riders and ponies in multiple locations at once with total efficiency as always. And when the sun shines for a whole week in Ireland you know it will be a special event to remember!
