It has been an exciting last few months for me in the lead up to Melbourne International 3 Day Event. With my horse ESB Golden Zone entered in the CCI 2 class, and our final preparations going smoothly I was very excited to tackle my first 3 day event at 2** level. After months of planning and training the day of departure finally arrived, so keeping warm in my Dublin Harrowed Boots and Stella Puffer jacket we hit the road. Having only just turned 19 and got my Medium Rigid truck license a week before MI3DE, it was my first time driving the truck by myself. I definitely breathed out a big sigh of relief when we arrived.
Competing in a 3DE is quite a drawn out process, with numerous horse inspections, a horse i.d. check, rider briefings and arena familiarisation all before the actual competition gets underway. Having been accepted through first horse inspection and walked past the scary judge boxes time and time again during arena familiarisation it was time for dressage. Zone and I did what I thought was our best test to date. He can be quite a spooky horse, who is horse shy in the warm-up and tricky to ride in the ring, so I was very happy to produce a rideable and energetic test. Unfortunately it still lacked the engagement needed to score really well at 2** level, and so we were placed midfield after dressage scoring 60.63%.
After walking the cross country course a total of 4 times, I was ready to tackle the biggest course of my career to date at 12.18pm on Sunday. Having not had a great warm up (horse shy issues again!) we had a bit of a hairy moment at fence 3 with an awkward jump, however we quickly got ourselves together and were soon eating up the rest of the course. I was thrilled with how honest Zone was, locking onto all the skinnies and challenging turning lines which have previously been quite an issue for him. Unfortunately we had a stop at 12a, the rails of a sunken road combination. This was mainly caused by me underestimating the difficulty and technicality of the combination and coming in too fast. In hindsight I think he made a good decision to stop – he probably saved us from a bad miss! He jumped it happily and easily on second attempt and proceeded to absolutely eat up the rest of the 9 and half minute-long cross country course.
As you enter the vet check at a 3DE you are entering the recovery phase of the competition, and a lot of hard work goes into making sure the horses are ready to trot up and show jump the next day. Thankfully Zone pulled up well, and super groom Iliana Robin was amazing spending the entire afternoon icing, then walking, then icing, then walking, then applying TuffRock Poultice before putting Zone to bed in his stable for lots of rest. Show jumping morning arrived and despite it being 5am and dark most people were up and trotting up their horses, to see what needed to be done before 2nd horse inspection. For us, not a lot as Zone was looking great, and we were accepted through 2nd horse inspection with no issues.
The show jumping course looked great, big, bright and colourful and I was very excited to tackle what is typically our strongest phase. Zone jumped super, giving everything heaps of room, but was almost too careful when jumping the treble alongside the grandstand. Distracted by the crowd he never really locked on and seemed quite surprised to find a jump in front of him, promptly stopping at the ‘a’ element, but then proceeding to pop over it with no issues on representing. You really can’t take anything for granted with Zone – he sure keeps me on my toes! He jumped brilliantly around the rest of the course, allowing us to complete out first ever 2** 3 Day Event in a respectable 25th position out of 42 starters. While the week didn’t quite go to plan, I had an absolutely amazing experience from which I have learnt so much. I can’t wait to put it all into practice at another 3 Day Event – Bring on Adelaide!
For now, it’s back to work with a number of other horses in work and lots of coaching to be done during the school holidays. – Until next time