What an amazing week away we have had in Adelaide competing at the Australian International 3 Day Event. I have had so much fun, learnt a lot and came away with a great result, making the whole experience a very successful one.
We arrived in Adelaide on Tuesday afternoon, very excited to finally be there after two days of driving, and negotiating the “long steep descent” into Adelaide city. The first thing that happens when you arrive at an International 3 Day Event is a vet inspection of your horse upon arrival. Once the vets had checked Zone and scanned his microchip to make sure he was actually Zone(!), we were shown our stable and camping area. That afternoon I had a ride, schooling a few movements from our dressage test but not working him too hard because I wanted to keep him fresh!
The following day was trot up day, and so after I had ridden Zone in the morning, my groom Ruby set to work with washing and plaiting, and getting Zone’s tail as white as possible. She did a fantastic job and Zone looked ‘pretty as a picture’ by the time she was finished. The trot up was held alongside the grandstand and main arena, making it much more grand than any trot up I have done before. Zone trotted beautifully and was accepted through the first Horse Inspection (trot up).
Dressage Day dawned and being quite late in the draw I was not scheduled to ride until 3.20pm. With a lot of time to pass I set out on my trusty fold up Aldi push bike to get my first glimpse of the Adelaide cross country course. As an Adelaide first timer it was rather confusing trying to work out where to go. There where white posts and jumps everywhere, but without the white rope creating a pathway (it hadn’t been put out yet) it was rather like a game of join the dots. Luckily for me Sam Lyle caught up with me on his bike and very kindly showed me the way around the course. This was one of many instances this weekend that one of the more experienced riders went out of their way to help me, offer suggestions, advice and encouragement. I feel very lucky to be a part of such a supportive community!
By the time I got on Zone to warm up for my dressage test it was the heat of the day and quite warm. Zone warmed up well, and though he felt a little flat to begin with, I was able to bring him up and together by the time I entered the main arena. Because Zone was listening to me so well, the atmosphere in the main arena worked to my advantage and he produced some of our best work in a test to date. As always there is so much that can be improved but I was thrilled with how Zone performed. The test scored just over 60% and left us in 18th place, exactly midfield.
On Friday, I had nothing on competition wise and so I made the most of the day off by taking another walk around the cross country course and watching the 4**** dressage. I also put Zone down for gallops, which meant that with a steward supervising I was able to go out onto a sectioned off strip of the cross country course and have a gallop. I cantered down it, and then turned around and did one fast gallop back for about 200m, just to open up his wind. He felt great, and really fresh and fit, despite the steward’s comment that he was “looking rather well and could be a show pony!” I think a show jumper would be more like it, but indeed it has become a bit of a joke that Zone is secretly an overgrown pony, and a naughty and fat one at that! He loves food, is cheeky as, and whenever Ruby took him out to graze he would stop dead on the way back to the stables multiple times because he wanted to stay and eat grass!
The big cross country day arrived and I set out for my final course walk, determined to cement the course in my brain! It was a lovely cross country course, beautifully presented with a lot of big galloping fences which suits Zone very well. It was however very very long, being about 5.5km with an Optimum time of 9minutes and 56 seconds. Having never taken on such a long course before I just hoped Zone would be fit enough. Upon finishing my course walk the nerves began to set it. I watched a few rounds on the big screen and saw some good rides but also some not so great ones so decided to stop watching! Back at the truck I went through every detail of the course in my head and how I was going to prepare for and ride each fence while Ruby got Zone ready as well as getting everything organised for the vet check and cool down. As soon as I got on Zone my nerves dissipated; he is a great calming presence because he is so steady on the ground and at times so nervy and panicky under saddle, which means I have to be 100% relaxed in order to ride him. Good way to force me to be nice and calm!!!!
Zone gave me the best cross country ride of my life – he was incredible! He listened to me perfectly, was adjustable, honest, and bold – an absolute machine! The whole time I have had him I have really struggled to make time cross country, but recently something seems to have really clicked and at the last event I did and also this event, he has just galloped beautifully and been so easy to adjust and control making it easy to make time. At each minute marker I was ahead of time, but I didn’t want to slow down in case I slipped behind so we just kept going and ended up coming in clear, full of running and 30 seconds under time. It turned out we were the fastest combination on course by about 10 seconds, with the majority of riders not making the time. I definitely have to stop teasing him about being a fatty! #fastesthorseatAdelaide
As we came through the finish flags the cool down and vetting process began immediately and we quickly removed his gear and cooled him off with the vigorous water and scraping routine well known to all eventers! Thank you to everyone who helped in the cool down, as always the more the merrier! After vet check the recovery process continues throughout the day. Everyone does it slightly different, but we rotate between icing legs and using the Equissage for 20 minutes, then walking for 20 minutes. We did this for a few hours straight, as well as making sure he was rehydrating well. In the evening we took him for a long graze, plaited him up for show jumping and then left him for some much earnt rest and sleep.
Zone’s stellar cross country performance moved him up to 9th place, a great position going into our strongest phase, the show jumping. We got up at 5.30am to trot Zone up. He looked great so we thankfully went back to sleep for another hour before getting up properly so Ruby could walk him and I could get ready for trot up. Zone had pulled up fantastically and so was accepted through trot up without any issues.
I absolutely love show jumping and so I was very excited to get to jump in front of such a big crowd. My sponsors Dublin Clothing very kindly organised my outfit for show jumping, and so Zone and I looked fantastic in a matching new navy saddle blanket and show jacket as well as white “Supa Slender Breeches” which fit perfectly and a lovely air flow show shirt which was ideal for the warm weather! Zone warmed up well and proceeded to jump a lovely round. He was careful and listened to me really well, but unfortunately we had a very unlucky rail at the last fence. In hindsight, I think I may have just let him get a little flat. While initially quite frustrated with myself as I had come so very very close to finishing on my dressage score, I knew Zone had tried his heart out for me and jumped so well, and so I couldn’t stay disappointed for long! Overall, I was very impressed with the way he took the big atmosphere in his stride and performed like an absolute pro! In the end, we maintained our 9th place in the Open CCI 2**, and finished 5th in the Young Rider CCI 2**, a super result and memorable ending to our first Adelaide experience!
