United States Eventing Association

Southern Pines to Sydney - Christan Trainor's Aussie Eventing Experience

Christan Trainor, previously based in North Carolina, is an upper-level rider and trainer who relocated near Sydney, Australia for several months of training with her up-and-coming event horse All Purpose Brown (“Spike”) to try her hand at Aussie eventing. Her greatest riding accomplishments include being long-listed for the 2000 US Olympic Eventing Team with her Advanced horse, Ticket to Ride, and competing the beloved Theodore O’Connor to the Advanced level. Keep up with Christan and Spike on her blog!

We got out this weekend for the first time at Silver Hills One-Day Event. Now, you are going to have to bear with me because there are actually quite a few differences between eventing in the US and eventing in Australia. The first being that even though it is called a one-day event, it is run over two days, just like our horse trials in the US. This is because when they distinguish between a ODE and a 3DE, the 3DE is run under FEI rules at ALL levels, including the jog (trot-up in Aussie-land) and a 10 minute box!

But back to the event this weekend! I am not allowed to call it a show, because that is what hackies do apparently, and NOT real horses. Of course, I am not entirely sure what a hackie does, but it doesn’t sound good, so I will try really hard to call it an event and NOT a show! Well, this was the first time Spike has been out since Virginia Horse Trials (Lexington, VA) in May so I wasn’t sure what to expect from him. I had only jumped twice at home, with no cross-country schooling and no course work. The atmosphere is much more laid back here than in the US. I would say that this event was on par to our nice local schooling events in the US. The dressage arenas were on grass, and only had sides where the letters were in the corners. The rest was totally open. I got on Spike early and rode him, and he was great! I was surprised as we walked back to the "float" (that's “trailer” for all you Americans!) without throwing a fit! But it backfired when I got on him for the test as he was tired and cranky. He did his usual tense snarkiness in the ring and ended up just below halfway down the pack. But I forgave him.

The living situation for the horses is quite different than in the US as well. They are just tied to the trucks wherever. Some to the bumpers, some to the side of the float, and some are put in metal "yards", similar to what the endurance people do in the US. Most people make a weekend of it, setting up tents and having a shindig at their camp site, with the horses hanging out in their yards wherever they are set up. There is no specific place, just wherever you set up. The good news is no mucking and no stall deposits!

So Spike learned to stand tied next to the float, which he actually really enjoyed, much to my surprise! He has never been tied to the trailer before, but he just stood there and ate all day! Another difference between the US and Australia is that people here rug (blanket) the heck out of their horses! It was up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and horses still had on cottons with full hoods and a wool cooler or sometimes two on top! I was in a tee shirt! The "cotton" needs some explaining too. All the horses here wear a cotton sheet, with a neck or a full hood at all times here. They literally never come off, unless the horse is being ridden. Even in the summer. But they don’t seem to care too much....keeps them much cleaner I must say! It is about 55 to 60 degrees here during the day and about 40 at night, and the barn has Spike in his cotton, a medium blanket and a sheet with a full neck on at night! And tell me he will freeze if I forget to put that sheet on top ;).

Well, after dressage I went to walk the cross-country course. It looked fine, and the footing seemed okay in spite of all the rain we had had earlier in the week. It was a good first run back for Spike. I put in the biggest studs I have ever used, at the advice of my friend Andrea. I figured, "when in Rome!" Better safe than sorry. So I headed down to the cross-country warm-up, only to find out that it consisted of two logs in a lane, not bigger than US Novice height! And that was all you got. Now, this event was running through Intermediate! So I jumped each one once and said, screw it! I headed to the start and waited my turn. After watching the horse in front of me take a spill going around a turn, I decided to really take it slow. So we had a great run, even without warm-up or any jumping really in months. We were a minute or so slow, but Spike isn’t running fit and the footing worried me. He was bold and a blast to ride.

Next was stadium...I mean SHOW JUMPING. It is NOT called stadium here either.....

Well, I had to go in the wind storm! The jumps were literally blowing over and the vendor’s tent next to the ring lifted up and turned over while I was in the ring! Needless to say we had a few rails (and Spike was tired), but I was thrilled with him. The course was nice, but a little softer than in the US at this level. There are no triples until Intermediate here (called two-star in Australia). They run ALL their events under FEI rules, so they don’t distinguish between US Prelim and 1-star. They are the same all the way up. So an event run at Advanced here is called three-star and you only know if it is full-format if it says three-day event instead of one-day event. Confused me at first, but I am getting the hang of it now!

In addition to the windy weather, Spike also got to experience the full range or being an Aussie horse now. We had a rain storm, that quickly turned into a hail storm! Now, I have had a rain sheet since NAYRC in 1998, but I have never once used it! I have attempted to get rid of it many times, but it has just managed to stick around. Now I know why. The horses here not only stand tied to the side, front, whatever of the floats and horse boxes, they also tolerate the weather! People just throw the rain sheets on the horses and leave them! Spike was not so keen when the rain started, and was throwing a mini fit. I was attempting to get him loaded in the float when the hail started coming down. Spike gave up, turned his butt to the weather and settled in to wait out the storm with Andrea holding the lead and us hiding inside the float! After the storm passed, we tied him back to the side of the float and he went back to eating hay!

Overall, people were very nice and friendly. The scores were a bit slow, with nothing being posted when I left, but that can be anywhere. Even though I didn’t experience it this weekend, the best part about eventing here is that you win money! Hopefully, we will get in the money next time!

The next event we are going to is the Sydney three-day event. It is the last event before the Aussie WEG team is announced, so they are running through a modified four-star. This is indeed a three-day event, which means that even at the lowest level, I will have two trot-ups (jogs) and a 10-minute box! This is going to be fun...NOT! I now have a week to come up with two outfits—and maybe I will be in the running for best-dressed!

There are pictures up from the weekend at http://community.webshots.com/user/trainoreventing!