In eventing it is never over until it really is over, and Libby proved that when she took out the Sydney Three Star title in the last round, the showjumping. Libby is another who has been quietly building her partnership with her horse, KL Kismet.
“I got my horse about five-and-a-half years ago from my cousin, Christine Bailey. Six years ago he was competing at Sydney Royal in the Show Ring, and she decided to go straight dressage, and I thought I’d take him on and see if he liked jumping, the rest, as they say, is history.”
“We did our first Newcomers in 2009 before that he’d never seen a fence. Since then he’s been amazing, we have the best partnership, I’d be lost without him. He raced, three times, but he came last three-out-of-three and was sacked. It wasn’t his calling. We did our first three star in 2013, we qualified for Adelaide that year but decided to leave it, and then we did our first four-star last year. We had a few issues last year, and had to scratch, so to win this year, it’s unbelievable. Last year he was injured, and would have still been on medication going into the event. This is my first three-day actually at Sydney.”
What did it feel like waiting for the countdown to go out on such a wet course?
“Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week when it was absolutely pouring was really stressful, I was lucky that I had done Camden on the weekend so he had had a gallop, but finding places to ride and work him was stressful. But it worked out fine – the ground could have felt so much worse considering the rain.”
Did any of the fences give you a scare?
“Not so much the fences, there were a couple of corners going downhill that he got a bit over confident with, and I should have slowed more. He was quite sure-footed considering, the jumps were amazing, the course was very well built. There was one fence where we added into at the last water, he kind of slithered in, but we got through it, put it behind us, and kept going.”
Who helps you with your eventing?
“My dressage coach is Rochelle King, my showjump coach is Jenny Sheppard, and I’ve been having a couple of cross-country lessons with Andrew Barnett. I’m very much supported by my family, my mum, my cousin, my aunty, even dad, I’d be utterly lost without them.”
Like our two star winner, Libby shows that you don’t have to give up your education to successfully compete in the sport of eventing…
“I’m a uni student, and to get a bit of extra cash I’m a maths tutor – a bit of everything.”
How serious are you about eventing?
“I’d like to see how far I can go with KL Kismet. I think he is a phenomenal horse.”
Has it sunk in that you have won Sydney 3DE?
“Not really, although this interview is a bit of a give away… It’s just being able to ride and compete him, that’s a win in itself.”
As our June rider of the month, Libby has won a 56g tube of Worma Paste valued at $20.40.
Worma Paste combines Oxfendazole and Piperazine, the two active ingredients typically used by veterinarians for stomach drenching horses. The ingredients are selected due to effectiveness, the sterilising action against worm eggs (within 24 hours) and because there is no known worm resistance to the ingredient combination.
Worma Paste controls all common worms including roundworm, pinworm, strongyles, small strongyles, adult stomach hair worm and stomach worm.