The NZ eventing season has just finished  for 2010  with Puhinui International 3 Day Event held just up the road from Auckland Airport.  I had a super fun  and very interesting weekend  scanning for talent as always,   with  the company of  two  " extremely entertaining " guests from Perth , Australia. 

Congratulations  to Lizzie Brown on "Henton Attorney General"  showing fantastic form in all 3 phases  to win  the CCI*** class by a large margin of 14 marks !!!     It was also super for  Brent Jury up from South Island on his lovely big Grosvener " S.E. Big " coming 2nd. Very consistant after his win at Richfields taking out the Forest Gate Trophey for National CIC*** title 2 weeks ago.

The CCI** class was won  by Clarke Johnstone ( fresh home from winning bronze team medal WEG) on his classy  TB  " KS Secrets ".

Kate Cavanagh  from South Island with her smart Gibalter Rock has a super win in the CCI*. Well worth the  long trip up Kate !!!

Prize for most exciting entrance of the day goes to  Jesse Campbell as he entered the ring at  a proper FULL GALLOP .... way to go !!!  Sadly  his stunning  young horse had got a 'big' fright at SJ entrance 30 mins prior when he was asked to enter ring for Best Presented horse and the other horses has just been running  out past him  etc from the 2* prize giving.  He got  very overwhelmed , so a  full gallop was required to get  back into the arena .  In conjunction with  losing both front shoes during the drama ( ground rock hard )  , it was  definitely was not an ideal way to start the SJ round when he was  in fact winning, and consequently had 3 rails earlier on the  round dropping to 6th . 
Very annoying but these things happen.    Crazy as it may seem, the Ground Jury got very "prissey" about it all and handed out a YELLOW CARD to Jesse and did threaten to fine $2,000... goodness me !!!!   Seriously a bit over reacting it seems as we all saw what went on and it was just common sense and good horsemanship at the end of the day that had to be done !!!!

The eventers all  go SJing down here in NZ January and February until our eventing season starts up again in earnest  at end of February.
And hang out at the beach a bit .......... YEAH !!!!