United States Eventing Association

Southern Pines to Sydney: The First Aussie Three-Day Event

Day One – The First Horse Inspection

Today was a busy day at the Sydney event, but a good one! Spike and I got to the event and unloaded for the vet inspection. The people doing it were lovely, and even held Spike while I went to the office for my packet.....I needed it to get into the stable area.

(Christan presents Spike at the first horse inspection.)

After setting up the stall, I braided and got ready for the jog. Lesson number one....don’t over indulge in the use of baby oil on the horse's face and ears...and don’t apply too early. After Spike was braided and cleaned, I headed off to the rider briefing, only to return to find him covered in hay dust and it thoroughly stuck to the baby oil.....

The trot-ups, as they are called here, were interesting. Some of the outfits were great, with people really dressing up and looking sharp. But they were much more lax about order of go and such things, so I sort of went randomly. Of course Spike was fine!

(Left: Christan and Spike, wiped free of hay dust, dressed to the nines prior to the jog.)

After putting Spike up I went and watched the rest of the jog, and took pics of the WEG horses, as well as some others. I was really impressed with a good bit of it. The feeling in the barns is interesting. Some people have wraps and all sorts of new fangled gadgets, but the horses are just tied in the aisles for cleaning and braiding. You cant even walk down the aisle as the horses are touching butt and biting at each other....but no one seems to care and the horses are happy and relaxed. I never felt any danger or worry that the horses would do something silly. Even the stallions here are left like regular horses...if they act like stallions, they get gelded!

I think that the pictures really speak more than I can write, but it is so nice to be around most of the people here. There is not the air of snottiness that is sometimes felt in US show grounds. I had a great chat with Megan Jones, and Chris Burton today, like we had known each other for years.

Spike was really good when I was riding him today, but I am not hopeful for tomorrow, as my ring is way away from the warm-up and the other rings. That is not something that Spike cares for too much, so we will see. I have to go learn my test now for tomorrow...it is remarkably hard for a pre-novice test! The equivalent of the FEI one-star test really.

Day Two – Dressage (“aka – Naughty Horse Day”)

As the title says, I didn’t have the best test today. No surprise at the moment, but I am certainly hoping that Spike gets over his barn sourness pretty soon!
Today started out with a bang...literally! I was woken up in the middle of the night and I thought that the dog must have knocked something over. I didn’t think too much when nothing seemed amiss this morning in the house. Then I walked out the front door.....

I parked the truck in the driveway, directly in front of the little trailer here to haul equipment. It is currently loaded with my new jump standard. Anyway...directly on top of the trailer (and my standards!!) was a huge tree!!! And to make matters worse, the tongue of the trailer was lifter straight up in the air because the tree was on the back end of the trailer....which caused the hitch to go up like a see-saw..and into the front bumper of the truck! I was literally stuck! I couldn’t back away as without taking the trailer and tree with me.

Luckily...my ride time wasn’t until noon, and the neighbors were coming out to inspect what had landed on their room last night. With them jumping on the tongue of the trailer on the count of three and me reversing the truck on the same count, I was able to extract the trailer from the front bumper of the truck....
And on to the event.

Spike was happy when I go there and was actually pretty good in the warm-up. We headed to the ring and I was surprised by his good entry into the arena.....until the horse next door started calling. Well, there went the test. We cantered the trot circle, and did lovely flying changes in the medium canter!

After coming in second to last, with all the judges comments being" lovely horse but a bit tense today", I had to remind myself that I do enjoy riding this horse!!!
I then socialized for a bit, which was unusual because I am usually on a million horses or running off to coach. I finally went out to walk the course at the end of the day. And I have to say, Spike better step up his game on Saturday! The first three fences were straight forward, besides the approach to the second. But the 4th fence made me gulp. It is 4AB....two skinny brush fences, with the brush cut on an angle on a two-stride line, and the approach is off a bend, so you cannot get straight to the first fence. It is also maxed out....

The next few fences were fine...big, but OK. There are so many skinnies....10AB is like a roller coaster with skinny round fences, but is at least in a straight line. There is a ditch and wall, bank complex, and two waters...and the second water is a beauty. You come down the big hill into the AB part of the question... a big log oxer, two strides to a big log into the water. The C is then a tiny, maxed out skinny brush fence off a 90-degree turn two strides out of the water......I think I am going to go the long way, swing hard left after jumping into the water, go out a grass bank and then at least have a few more strides to the skinny. I will take pictures tomorrow when I walk it again and attempt to "shrink" the course a bit. I would say it is on par with a solid Prelim course back in the US.

Tomorrow is an off day, but I will watch some dressage, walk the course and report back again!!

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!