Gippsland SJ Festival

Sophia HillEquestrian

Last weekend we dragged ourselves away from the farm and the beach for a weekend of show jumping at the Gippsland Show Jumping Festival with Zone, Geisha and also my groom Ruby’s pony Missy. We had a great three days away competing with successful results from all horses. On Friday we had a great start to the show, with Zone jumping a super round in the 1.25m Speed Class to place 2nd. I was thrilled with how confidently and carefully he jumped.

Geisha then jumped two great rounds, dropping a green rail in the 95cm but then proceeding to jump clear around her first ever 1.04m! Not bad for a horse that had never jumped until about 6 months ago!

That night was the Speed Derby class, and despite the steady rain it was set to be a great evening of entertainment, with a course set up incorporating a bank, jumps on a slope, and also leaping off your horse, donning a dress and grabbing a handbag to then run and jump the last fence on foot! I was quite late in the draw, and standing in the rain watching rider after rider speed around the course flat out was exciting but also quite intimidating with each rider just going faster and faster than the last and the crowd being a bit on the wild side! However Zone and I held our own, jumping a very fast and clean round to place 5th, a great result in such a competitive speed class!

On Saturday we paid the price for doing two speed classes the day before, just getting a little quick through a related line in the 1.25m class and pulling the rail, but apart from that Zone jumped a lovely round. Geisha jumped clear in the 95cm class, and without pushing her for speed I managed a few tighter lines and angles to snag a 3rd place, her first ever ribbon!

The highlight of the day, and the entire show was the 6 bar competition on Saturday night. For those who haven’t heard of a 6 bar before, there are 6 jumps in a row set at two strides apart, each increasing in height. It is a sudden death competition, so if you have a rail down you don’t progress to the next round. Zone showed just how talented and athletic he is jumping clear in the first four rounds to progress to the 5th and final round in which the last jump was standing at 1.70m! He then made a very good effort, only just tapping it out with his back legs but it was enough to place = 1st because the other remaining horses all refused to jump it! I don’t blame them it was that big, and I’m so proud that Zone had the heart to try! He is now officially just as much a show jumper as an eventer!!!

Check out this Video of the 6 Bar.

The following day we finished the show off with more solid performances, Geisha jumping well in the 1.04m class but just having one rail – I think she was a bit tired! Ruby placed 6th on Missy in the 75cm, a great effort for her first show. Zone jumped clear in the 1.25m championship to get into the jump off, but unfortunately we made a bad turn in the jump off and then had a miscommunication and had to waste time and cross our tracks which put us out of the running, however he did jump well and leave all the rails up so that was good! I am thrilled with how confidently Zone has been jumping around 1.25m tracks, so have entered in some 1.30m and 1.35m classes at our upcoming shows which is really exciting!
We are now back at the farm for one more week of holidays, before heading back to Tooradin Estate for the last week of January where I will be coaching at the Tooradin Estate camp and running an eventing clinic. From there we will be heading up to our new base at Euroa Horse Park at the start of February!