Camden Eventing – A Day of Firsts - posted by Bruce Farrar The story goes that Shane Rose, fresh back from WEG, landed in Sydney, caught a train to Penrith and went straight to Camden to get on with finishing the cross country course, so that all of us could enjoy the CNC and Hunter Trials on Sunday. Pretty well what you’d expect from Shane. What was not expected is that he didn’t ride. I’ve been to more than 150 events over the years and I can’t recall Shane being at an event and not riding. Even at Camden where he puts in 20 hour days, he usually rides five or six horses and cleans up. Most unusual. The other first was Matt Bates officiating as TD for all classes up to CNC3*, with Darryl Burgess riding shot gun. Matt broke his leg last year and was convinced by the Eventing mafia that he’d make a good TD. And they were right. Most people know Matt as the skilful horse breaker, husband of 4* eventer Christine and father of William. What is not widely known is that Matt has evented up to 2* and has worked at some of the best yards in New Zealand and Europe. Matt is a good role model for the sort of people we need to get involved in Eventing. All in all, Camden was a super day. The weather was sensational, the star class combinations could get their qualifications for Goulburn and Adelaide, the lower grades got to ride the John Vallance designed jumping and Brett Ryan built cross country tracks, people got to show off their I’ve just been to WEG and Blair Castle tee shirts, Lee and Jamie from Pheasants Nest Produce put on their usual high quality fare and all of the Camden team made it a well-run and friendly affair.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 22:59:38 +0000
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