Death in the afternoon
It should have been the most perfect day of cross country, the rain held off, even if the wind did try to freeze us solid, the action over John Nicholson’s splendid track had been fascinating, a few bruised egos, a couple of damp riders and two absolutely scintillating runs from the glorious greys: Balmoral Sensation and CP Qualified, then it happened.
Last horse out in the three-star, Clarke Johnstone’s Orient Express, returning after a long break, but in great form in the run up events, and second on the leader board after the dressage. Two big logs, the horse jumps the first one awkwardly, then hits the second, total rotational fall, and the gallant bay Thoroughbred is dead. Mercifully Clarke was unhurt, thankfully since it was the last horse on the track, the Johnstone family could take their time fare welling the horse that had carried Clarke from Pony Club ranks to a team bronze at the Lexington WEG. Now the chill of that wind had a new bitter edge to its bite.
Some whiz kid with no feel for equestrian sport, or its history or traditions, has decided to change the Trans Tasman to the Oceania something or rather, when really the only Oceanic feature of the event was the amount of rain pelting down on the dressage day, threatening to turn the arenas into inland seas, as it already had to much of the South Island. As long as there are only two teams competing, New Zealand and Australia, it will stay the Trans Tasman for mine.
Dressage Day
Our first horse out, Legal Star (aka Trumby the Brumby) and Jess Manson were battling their way through the rain to a dressage personal best, accurate, calm (except for the first flying change), it was a very solid test given that this dressage caper is not really the little grey’s thing. Score – 52.5.
Jess Manson and Legal Star
Isabell English and Feldale Mouse were also on their best behavior, another lovely smooth test for a neat 50.
Katja Weimann and BP Cosmopolitan were really starry, gone the resistances that had marred their warm-up performance at the Sydney three day, they looked very classy indeed and broke the 50 barrier with a fine 47.1.
Clarke Johnston’s Balmoral Sensation is interestingly bred – by the imported Dutch stallion, Senator VDL (who combines the blood of Cor de la Bryère, Landgraf, Voltaire and Nimmerdor) out of a mare by that founding sire of Kiwi eventers, the Thoroughbred, Aberlou. The horse is a real dressage sensation, beautiful half passes (bent correctly even!), big unhurried trot, lovely canter, only the walk lets them down. Hello, we’ve busted the 40 barrier – 39.4.
Clarke Johnston and Balmoral Sensation
But there is another imposing grey gelding of Holsteiner breeding (he has all those famous ancestors, Corrado, Lord, Caletto II, Capitol’s full-sister – plus the French star, Quidam de Revel) and Shane Rose is riding CP Qualified beautifully. Wonderful extended trot, breath-taking changes, this is a very complete test and the judges like it well: 35.
As Clarke is riding around the practice ring on Orient Express earlier in the day, someone calls out, Who is that Clarke? The young rider is so proud that his first great horse has come back, It’s BLUE! Also known as Orient Express.
For the actual test the Thoroughbred is back better than ever, it is the handsome bay’s personal best, a score of 38.1, (although this will not count for the Kiwi team since Clarke is selected on Sensation) and we finish on a high note – our Kiwi pals have dropped a little behind after the first phase, we are on 132.1, they are on 147.4.
Shane Rose and CP Qualified
The day has also been good for our poppets – aka The Australian Young Rider team. They have been competing in the two star class: Shenae Lowings is in second place on Venture Sky High with a score of 47.9. Isabell Bowditch-McIntyre on Grandios is 12th on 51.1, Kenya Wilson is 16th on Winifred Fair with a score of 53.8, while Teegan Ashby is 37th on her new horse, Waitangi Password on 64.6.
I caught up with the quartet as they emerged from the cold and the dark, after yet another course walk with team coaches, Prue Barrett and Sam Lyle.
First victim is Isabelle Bowditch-McIntyre, who rides the nine-year-old chestnut Warmblood, Grandios (by the Hanoverian stallion, Grand Cru).
“I’ve had him for just over five years now, I bought him from our coach Sam Lyle.”
What has it been like coming over to New Zealand with the Team?
“Amazing, just the traveling and being a part of a team, is amazing, regardless of how we go. It’s a great experience for all of us. I’ve walked the course twice now and I think it is going to be a great course. It will really test the riders and their decision making, some of the combinations are a bit tricky, it’s hard to know whether to go the direct route, or put in a curve. I think Grandios is up to the challenge, we’ve had some great results on our way here.”
Isabelle is doing a Bachelor of Science degree when she is not riding.
“It’s hard when you are full-time at Uni, and living on the farm helping the family, it’s hard to be fully committed to the horses. I have only got three in work at the moment but when I go back home I am hoping to get a few more going and become a bit more serious…”
Shenae Lowings was very happy with her test on Venture Sky High since it put them into second on the open two star standings: “My main coach is Sonja Johnson, she’s been a huge help but Prue and Sam have also been great over the past few days – it’s all come together nicely.”
Shenae has mainly competed in her home state of Western Australia: “I went to Melbourne, last year but mainly in WA. My horse is a twelve-year-old Warmblood / Thoroughbred cross, I’ve had him for about four years now, so we’ve built quite a good partnership. He’s very strong in the dressage phase, showjumping quite careful, cross country we have our good days and our bad days, so I am just hoping tomorrow is one of our good days. It’s an amazing course, everything is up to standard. If you are riding well and thinking quick, everything will come up nicely, I’m looking forward to it. I’ll have Sonja’s voice in my mind – she won here in 07.”
Kenya Wilson rides the mare, Winifred Fair, and was not quite sure she agreed when Roslyn said she was ‘sweet’.
“I’m not sure I could call her sweet. She is very brave, she has a good attitude when I am riding her but she is… I don’t know, I couldn’t call her sweet, she hates cuddles, she would just walk straight through me, but she is a very nice little horse to ride.”
“She was my first horse after having ponies, I got her for my twelfth birthday, so seven years ago. It is so rewarding to know I have brought her up myself. I have a lot of help with her from my step-dad, Ian Campbell, my coach Stuart Tinney also helps me a huge amount and Polly Anne Huntington has been a huge help with my dressage.”
Enjoying Taupo?
“It’s been fun, the senior team is really encouraging, they are great people to look up to. Jess Manson is also from Perth, it’s good to have someone I know.”
Kenya divides her competition time between the West and the East Coast: “I’ll usually go over once or twice a year to the East – for Melbourne and/or Adelaide, but the rest of the time I’m based in the West. I’m at Uni so I’ve got to stay there.”
Are you very ambitious?
“I’m not one to talk myself up, I don’t really know, it’s a hard question. I’m internally ambitious, I want to do well, but I don’t really put that on other people…”
Teegan and Waitangi Password – the mare scrambled over the first of this combination, but had a run-out at the second
Teegan Ashby has her frontliner Rockingham No Reason, at home set for Melbourne Three Star, “he’s quite an established horse so our theory is to save him for the big ones, hopefully we’ll go to Adelaide this year.”
“The horse I’ve got here at Taupo, Waitangi Password, is a younger horse, only eight, we imported her from New Zealand, this time last year. She was already doing two star – since then I’ve tried to consolidate her on the flat, she is a jumping machine, it is just the dressage that I am still yet to nail. We are getting there, we are a lot better but there is a lot of improving to do.”
“She is by For Edition out of a Thoroughbred mare, Whisper. She is a super little horse, only about 15.2 hands, but you won’t be able to tell that our there tomorrow on the cross country, she’s got a huge heart and her little legs can go pretty quick.”
Is the track scary?
“Not at all, it looks amazing, I’m really excited to be out there first. I’ve got my plan. I’m trail blazer and I have a job to do tomorrow, and I just need to go out there and do it.”
Unfortunately for Teegan the plan came a little adrift early in the course, when Password misjudged the first of the early combination, and got her hindlegs caught in the middle of the oxer, and ran out at the second element. They continued on to the water, where Teegan landed in the icy pond. The mare seemed to have been unnerved by the earlier mishap.
Next out, Venture Sky High and Shenae, by this time four of the eight to go had had problems, and they followed the trend, collecting 20 penalties for a run out and 12.4 time. They screwed over the first of a pair of brushes, and then had a run out at the second corner of the pair.
Clever here, but a run-out at the second…
Shenae Lowings and Venture Sky High
Shenae is not happy, but putting on a brave face: “It was one of the best courses I’ve ever ridden, the horse was so confident, so bold. I did have a twenty coming down the hill, but that was just that he was caught by surprise, I came round the corner, and it is quite a big palisade brush, and maybe I cut the corner a bit tight and didn’t get quite straight to it, and I just missed him. It was completely my fault, he had no other choice but to pull up. Bit annoying, the rest of it was so good, I was on all my minute markers – but that happens. It was just a great ride.”
Kenya Wilson and Winifred Fair
More problems for our next rider, Kenya and Winifred Fair, they had two stops and picked up 11.6 time, and the Kiwis were moving solidly into the lead.
Finally, our clear round came, Grandios and Isabelle Bowditch-McIntyre were really going for it but home with just 17.2 time to add to her dressage score.
“That was amazing, I thought the ground would be so much more slippery but it held up so well. The course was pretty tough, but he got me around, it was hard work but he was great. It wasn’t so pretty, a bit of yanking here and yanking there, and putting in an extra stride, and taking one out but at the end of the day we got around, and got around clear, that’s all I can hope for. I think I was about 40 seconds over, but I certainly wasn’t riding for time, I just wanted to get around.”
Grandios and Isabelle Bowditch-McIntyre
If the Kiwis were looking comfortable in the Young Rider competition, they were not in the Seniors.
Jess and Legal Star had a run out at the back of the course, but the course builder, John Nicholson, told me the next day that he thought she was the unlucky rider on the day, since they looked great everywhere else. Still 20 for the stop and 16.8 to add to our team total.
Jess and Legal Star
Jess is not so happy: “It was okay, I had a run out at 12b, which I am pretty disappointed about. It was quite a sharp turn onto b, and maybe I left it a bit late to turn, or he just didn’t quite lock on to it. He went to take off at the last minute but it was a bit too late. The rest of the course came up quite nicely.”
Doubly disappointing after such a good dressage test: “I was very happy with him yesterday in the dressage, our best test by far. It’s a very tough sport.”
Then New Zealand’s Ricker Ridge Escada and Samantha Felton fell and were eliminated. The Kiwis are down to three riders.
Our Isabel English and Feldale Mouse come to grief, a fall and elimination and we are down to three riders.
But the New Zealanders’ fortunes are going from bad to worse, their third rider, Jessica Woods and Defies Logic fall and they too are eliminated, and they no longer have a team, we just have to get two home safely now…
Katja Wiemann has a stop on BP Cosmopolitan and 18.4 time, but they are across the finish line to the cheers of the little group of Aussie supporters.
Katja Weimann and BP Cosmopolitan
Clarke Johnstone and Balmoral Sensation are just poetry as they cruise around the course for New Zealand, the horse looks truly international, and Clarke is aglow after the run…
“He was fantastic. I knew I had to go really fast at the start – last year I was right on time, and I lost about 15 seconds in the trees at the end. This time I was like 20 seconds up coming into the trees, and I think I finished ten seconds under. ”
Clarke Johnstone and Balmoral Sensation
No-one else has gone near the time…
“I was trying pretty hard.”
Will you try to make the Olympics in Rio out of New Zealand, or do you need to go back to Europe?
“I’m planning to come to Adelaide. I haven’t got a plan for next year yet but it is likely to include Badminton.”
Australia’s leading pair were not going to let the Kiwis get away with it, Shane and Qualified were home, clear, just a smidgeon over time for 1.6 penalties.
I pointed out to Shane that he was puffing when he got off the horse: “Chris you should ride him for five minutes! He is great, every three day event he has done he’s got fitter, and faster. I just lost my time at the water in that loop and I just didn’t quite catch it up. I caught time up in the last two minutes – an eleven-minute track, pretty good signs, he hasn’t had a prep since WEG. He is just getting stronger and fitter. He had heaps of jump at the end, that for me is the biggest indicator of fitness, not how they feel, but when they get to the fence, what they give you, and he had heaps of jump. I’m stoked.”
The showjumping day dawned bright and shiny. Kenya and Winifred Fair jumped a lovely clear round, while Shenae and Venture Sky High had just one rail, and Isabelle and Grandios picked up two. It was a comprehensive victory to the Kiwis, but a genuine learning experience for our four young riders.
It was intriguing to see how Equestrian Sports New Zealand have taken a very different approach to their key staff. Their High Performance Director, Sarah Dalziel actually competed in the three-star class, finishing tenth on Benrose Super Star. Their new CEO, Vicky Glynn has been associated with the New Zealand horse scene, for as long as I can remember. Visiting London in the 90’s, I met Vicky’s half-bred New Zealand hunter, stabled on Hampstead Heath, and Vicky has always been associated with the Kiwi team. It is just a bit different with our CEO and HPM isn’t it?
Our two team riders, Katja and Jess both have a rail in the treble, to slip to 7th and 8th but there is no stopping Shane and Qualified. Clarke and Sensation throw down the gauntlet with a beautiful clear, and our twosome have no margin for error – but they don’t need one, a wonderful clear round and Shane Rose and CP Qualified become the first Australians to win the NZ National Title since Sonja Johnson and Ringwould Jaguar back in 2007. Australia wins have been few-and-far between: Trevor Cooper and Namarac in 1974, when the event was held at Waiuku, then since it moved to Taupo, Nikki Bishop and Wishful Thinking in 1995, David Middleton and Willowbank Jack in 1999, and Olivia Bunn and GV Top of the Line in 2004.
Shane Rose and CP Qualified
Shane is on a high, his horse, which many critics (yes, I was one) thought too ‘warmbloody’ to really make it as an eventer, has once again proven us wrong, with personal bests in all three phases.
“As Darcy is getting fitter and stronger, he is getting better on the flat, as he gets better on the flat, he is getting better with his jumping, stronger off the ground and more connected. Cross country, every prep he’s done, he’s got fitter and stronger, he’s had less time penalties at every three-day event he’s gone to.”
“With Warmbloods you have to be particular about what type you want. The horse I had some years ago, Mortiz, was super on the flat, super galloping, great cross-country but when he got tired he got lower and lower, basically once the air bag was empty there was nothing left. Whereas with Darcy, even at his first two-star, he actually continues – he is tired from the start, he doesn’t run out of gas, he just didn’t have enough to start with. With a horse like that you can build their capacity, but one that only has a certain amount there, you can’t expand that because once they are tired, that’s it. You need them to keep pushing through, Taurus is another one, not a great galloper, but he had a ticker and he would keep going and going and going in any circumstance.”
“If you are going to ride Warmbloods, it needs to be one with the ticker, like Beauford Miss Dior, she was just a machine. Of course she was a more Thoroughbred type, and had Thoroughbred in her bloodlines, but those kinds of horses, the Warmbloods that fight like Thoroughbreds, are certainly the ones you want to get. If you get the ones that are not so tough, and when they get tired they almost give up, it’s not so pretty.”
But he got sold a couple of times and then sent back to you because he was too hard…
“He is actually a really nice horse, but he was cut late, with me if he does something wrong, he’s in trouble, he knows he can’t. As soon as he got it over someone, and it could be something as simple as a little nip, and just through his stallion behavior he would continue with that… if he does that to me, I make sure he knows it is not acceptable. If you were not a professional horse person, then he would take advantage of you. He was never nasty, he never bucked people off, but he would certainly dominate you if you allowed him.”
Still more improvement to come in the dressage?
“Without doubt. I was really happy with his test here, but he has only just got to that stage. Another six to twelve months and he is going to be stronger and more expressive in his work. I’m certainly not putting limits on where he is at, and what he can do…”
Hey True Blue…
Clarke Johnstone talks about the horse that took him to the top…
“I’d been on a Pony Club trip to Canada, and I had a phone call while I was there to say that Paul O’Brien had a horse that I needed to go and look at on my way home. I did and absolutely loved Blue straight away. Rang Mum and Dad and said, we have to buy this horse, he’s amazing.”
“The first show I took him to was a practice showjumping day and he was horse shy, having rails, drifting, and Mum and Dad were like awesome horse! But obviously he went on to be an absolutely incredible horse for me, and I am so lucky to have had him.”
“I think that first show was more of a blip on the radar, overall, he’s been a star from the beginning. He was national champion at one star and just kept going.”
“He had the most incredible nature. People often say the best horses are really quirky, he was the opposite of quirky, he was just so nice every single day. He had a beautiful temperament, and as well as that he was talented. He was beautifully put together. Apart from always having bad feet – we joked last night that we had enough ice for the gin and tonic because it was Blue’s truck, and there was always ice in his truck. Other than that, he was a super talent. He was beautiful in the dressage, it was really nice to have had my very best dressage score of 38 with him on Friday, it is really special.”
“He was an amazing cross country horse, I don’t think I ever fell off him in his whole career until yesterday, and there are very few cross country faults that I can remember. He was a jumper, a beautiful mover and just a beautiful horse.”
“I used to watch the Mark Todd video, Twenty Years of Eventing, he said the worst thing that can happen to an eventing rider is to lose a horse. I know what he meant now.”