Wallaby Hill Farm Equestrian Extravaganza a Huge Success!

By: Alex Townsend

The Pryde's Easifeed Eventers v Showjumpers was once again fiercely battled out. This year it was won by Showjumper Tom McDermott on Lovegrove Photo: GeoSnapShot.com VIEW MORE PHOTOS IN THE GALLERY HERE

A massive thank you from all of us here at Wallaby Hill Farm, to those involved in the Equestrian Extravaganza (held on Sunday 16 March 2014).   From sponsors, to officials, volunteers, competitors and spectators, it was a great day and one we will hope to see you all at again next year.

From Derek and myself we would like to say first and foremost a massive thank you to our team here for being your usual exceptional selves. Also a massive thank you to Jane Robinson, together we dreamed it, schemed it and did it, you are a legend. 

The VIP tent was packed and the beautiful food from Lee Hokianga and Jamie MacDonald's Pheasant's Nest Produce and delicious wine from St Maur Winery meant that no one went hungry or thirsty.

IRT were the sponsors of the 1.15m Open height class won by Tony Priestley on Daibyn Fairings Kiss. Thank you to this iconic horse transport company. The horses certainly did fly in this class.

Gladiator Floats sponsored the fiercely contested Amateur 1.15m class. Won by Jade Middleton and Evenecence it was fabulous to have Yvonne Kropich-Grant and her daughter Jessica there to present the rosettes and wonderful to have one of their fabulous floats here on display.

The Equestrian Australia Exhibition Eventing NSW Qualifier was won by Tim Boland on Lord Limmerick. This Equestrian Australia sponsored class is part of the lead up to the Be the Influence Grand Final at Equitana Melbourne from the 20-23 November 2014, which will be another great event.

The Pryde's Easifeed Eventers v Showjumpers was once again fiercely battled out. This year it was won by Showjumper Tom McDermott on Lovegrove. Last year it was won by Eventer John Twomey on Wade Equine Highly Recommended. Jes Jackson from Prydes will be back next year to hand out the winner's rug and prize to……

In addition our style judges Jill Waddy and Kathy Ward were busy throughout the Eventers v Showjumpers awarding points out of 10 to competitors who had nominated a song to jump to. While there was a wide and varied choice of songs and styles, the judges were unanimous in there decision to award full marks to me for the artistic and stylish interpretation of "Moves like Jagger"by Maroon 5 - thank you!

Then we finally came to the Gow-Gates Equestrian Team Triathlon. Will MacArthur and Lisa Oakley from Gow-Gates Insurance Brokers were there to cheer on the teams. It was perhaps no surprise that the favourites: Brett Parbery, Shane Rose and Dave Cameron won (as tipped in lead up to the event by Horsezone's own Tim Dreverman!). Some awesome dressage in the indoor saw David Shoobridge on Agent de Jeu win the dressage on 75%> David has actually evented at Wallaby Hill not long ago and won the EvA 80 class on Smash Hit, unfortunately his cross country rider did not complete the course, which claimed the lives of a fair few teams. There were further revisions of the score board by the end of the showjumping with Jamie Priestley's cracking clear round which saw her take on the Joker fence and clear it bringing her team into 2nd place; but the favourites were in the lead going to the Showjumping and held on. Dave Cameron didn't crack under pressure, and despite some moderate sledging from our fantastic commentator Hamish Cargill, and he rode a text book clear round to take his team into the winner's circle.

Photos were taken by the lovely Andy Edwards from GeoSnapShot where in due course all photos of the event will be available to purchase. 

"GeoSnapShot provides events organisers with talented local photographers. If you need photographers for free at your next event contact us: support@GeoSnapShot.com"

Thank you one and all who were involved in this event - looking forward to seeing you next year!

See the PDF below for results from the WHF Equestrian Extravaganza.

Quick Links

• View the Gow-Gates Equestrian Team Triathlon results here
• Read a full photographic report at the Wallaby Hill Farm website
• View photos in the Horsezone Gallery here
• Find your perfect equine match on Horsezone here