(Above photo credit to Geoff Mclean of Gone Riding Media – great action shots!)
Aim Higher members Kate Sexton, Brooke Dougall and Laynee Saal each achieved personal best performances over this past weekend and I’d just like to take a moment to acknowledge and congratulate them on their individual results.
On Saturday 2nd April I attended the much anticipated Magic Millions Triequithon at Doomben racetrack to assist Kate as she participated in this express eventing style competition riding her OTTB Ivy Bank Billionaire aka Billy. The biggest challenge for most competitors were the unfamiliar conditions associated with accomodating a mini One Day Event during the course of a busy raceday. Combinations needed to adapt quickly to a much reduced warmup area for all phases and cope with dismounting while races were run and remounting soon after to continue their warmup routine. The immediate crowd presence and general heightened atmosphere of the race day was unique to the event and most combinations would never have had the opportunity to experience this before.
Despite these challenges, all of the horses and riders coped remarkably well and the experience will be of benefit to those going on to compete in the future at Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide Three Day Events. The arena was beautifully presented and the day ran like clockwork and integrated extremely well with the regular race proceedings.
Kate was the youngest competitor in the field, being just 16 years old. Although we attempted to generate an atmosphere of noise and distraction during her final training here at Highborne Farm, she did succumb to some nerves during the shortened dressage phase. She made a quick recovery though and rode to plan in a confident and fast cross country round to move from equal 10th after dressage to 8th position coming into the final Showjumping phase. The Showjumping was run in reverse order and was proving to be a challenge for the majority of the field. Kate and Billy produced a personal best Showjumping round with a mature and focused attitude to be one of only four 4 fault rounds moving them into overall 5th place and earning her a decent bit of pocket money! Kate will now turn her focus to this weekends Inglewood Quarries CNC 1* at Warwick Horse Trials which is the next Aim Higher targeted event.
Brooke attended last weeks Intensive Holiday Camp at Highborne Farm with her usual partner in crime, Mount Barron aka Robbie, as well as a young OTTB that she is retraining for eventing. She benefited from the daily lessons on both her own and Highborne horses and also made some huge improvements in the effectiveness of her position after a session with resident Physiotherapist and Pilates instructor, Alex Newcombe.
Brooke then competed at the Emmaus College & The Springfield Anglican College Combined Traning on Saturday 2nd April for a personal best Novice dressage score of 66% and walked away the winner of her Secondary Combined Training class.
Brooke will also be heading to Warwick Horse Trials this weekend to compete in her third Eva105.
Laynee has been a very busy girl recently, competing at the PCAQ State Jumping Equitation & Showjumping Championships at Gatton Showgrounds from the 31st March to the 3rd April. Laynee is developing a relatively new partnership with her horse ‘A Little Sun’ aka Glen and together they achieved an overall 3rd placing in the 9-12 year old division.
This combination are just getting a taste for eventing and will attend their first official One Day Event at Warwick Horse Trials this weekend in the EvA 60 class after a three day training camp at Highborne Farm as a final preparation.
I look forward to watching these three young riders as well as other Aim higher members compete at this weekends WHT Inglewood Quarries CNC, Targeted Event #3 of the Aim Higher program.