A good day out for Sonja Johnson at Capel
EA level eventing in WA doesn’t get underway until the weather cools down and now that has happened all the eventers were happy to make their way to the Capel CNC. The event is a firm favourite with WA riders for a number of reasons, but with the top two being the amazingly friendly organizing committee and the magic going.
The event is held at the Capel equestrian centre, which is about three hours south west of Perth. Over the years the equestrian centre has developed into a multi use facility with the most amazing irrigated oval for dressage, some of the cross country and for the show jumping. The cross country going that is not on the oval still offers superb footing for the horses.
As the event was an interschool’s qualifier there were people everywhere with 360 entries ranging from introductory 2 through to 2*.
One of the biggest challenges for the organisers was the fact that Phill Bailey the CD is a FIFO (fly-in-fly-out) worker so couldn’t be there for the event. Of course with the rules stating the CD must be there for cross country that legend of Australian eventing Wayne (Patch) Roycroft on hearing of our plight volunteered to come over to help out. Everyone was very grateful for Wayne’s kindness, without which the event would not have been able to run.
Mojo enjoys his show jumping round
In the 2* I had a great day after dressage to be lying first, second and third closely followed by one of the sponsors of the event Lindsay Honey of Wolfe Civil. A few people had time cross country but all went well except for Nikki Harwood’s Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison who responded too quickly to my directions and turned so fast he banged a hind leg on ‘the picture frame’. A brief moment of time on three legs saw me withdrawing him but a short time later he was absolutely fine. The eventual winner of the 2* class was Rebecca Bells’ Belfast Mojito while second was Max Almighty, owned by Gabby Pithers – I am very lucky to be riding two such lovely horses.
In the 1* Rebecca Thomas on DV Debonair took an early lead and held it to win by a rail over Kirsten Twinning on Jetsetter and Tegan Lush on Touchstone Felix, who is closely related to Belfast Mojito.
Senior EvA105 was won Cindy Lyle, who is well known as a great producer of consistently beautiful horses – this one being GI Joe, who is a super type of horse. GI Joe finished on his dressage score of 38.3. Cindy and her husband own Granite innovations and have always kindly sponsored the fundraiser that Karen Tinney and her team organize before Olympics and world championships.
The Junior Eva 105 belonged to Emma Isbister who finished on her dressage score and just edged out Dylan Smith who after leading the dressage dropped a rail to fall behind her. This win was a great was a credit to Emma and her toughness as her grandfather had passed away on Friday night.
Dressage escapee Elizabeth Wakley Dawes won the senior EvA 95. Elizabeth has recently ‘seen the light’ and her dressage experience was put to good use as she finished on a 40.2. Meanwhile Jess Cappendale won the junior section adding just 0.4 to her dressage score.
There were two sections of EvA 85 senior. Probably the most popular win of the day was Sharon Jarvis on Parkiarrup Edward. Sharon is from this area and being a grade 3 para rider is not stopping her from being competitive as an eventer. Sharon finished on her dressage score of 35.4, some 11.8 penalties in front. I am not sure if Australian event riders should be grateful or sad that Sharon’s childhood illness will probably prevent her from challenging for an eventing team position!
The B section was won by Klara Bennington on Zia Park All Ablaze on an excellent score of 32.4 some 6.4 penalties in front of Rebecca Nairn. The two Junior Eva sections were won by Brianna Rasmussen on Miss Polly Packet and Maddison Derrick on Leedale Micardi The Junior EvA 65, which I always hink is the cutest class to watch, gave a victory to Kaitlyn Dekoning on Trapalanda Democrat, while the senior class went to Lesley Stackhouse on Revelwood Kruze.
Overall it was a great weekend of sport. The weather gods were kind and all the higher grade riders will be focusing on the WAYER CIC coming up on the 20th-21st April while the lower grade riders look forward to Little Brigadoon.
Article by Sonja Johnson
