HORSE TALK

Press, 12 January 1977, Page 9

HORSE TALK

Important events This promises to be a busy year for the South Island, with national and major equestrian events being held. The southern show jumping circuit will start at Blenheim on January 22 and will continue at Nelson the next day. Two weeks later the Southland area will hold the South island championship show at Gore. The next week-end, the Wills New Zealand Horse of the Year Show will be run by the Otago area of the N.Z. Horse Society, at Dunedin. Here New Zealand’s top show jumpers will compete for national honours. Principal events will be the Wills N.Z. showjumping championship horse of the year, six-bar

horse of the year, lady rider of the year, pony of the year, champion working hunter of the year, and, on the flat, supreme champion hack of the year. The New Zealand dressage championship for the coveted Burkner Medal will attract the country’s best dressage horses. Another new venture, if it receives sufficient support, will be a Horse of the Year show tour. Leaving from Christchurch, this bus tour will enable show jumping enthusiasts to incorporate a 10-day holiday touring the scenic spots of the south as well as attending three shows. After Dunedin, the circuit will continue at Waimate, and conclude at Ashburton on February 27. Another important event in February will be the Canterbury Horse and

Pony Breeders’ Show at the Addington Showground. Breeders from all over the South Island will exhibit their livestock. The next national event will be the New Zealand pony club championships, tc be held in Nelson in May. August will be a busy month for Canterbury with the South Island branch teams’ competition for the Springston Trophy being organised by the Springston and Waihora branches of the Christchurch Pony Club. After this big event, which usually has up to 30 teams competing, there will he the Inter-Pacific rally, in which teams from the

United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will compete in a scrambled teams’ event at a one-day trial. The show jumping event will be in the North Island. The final national event for the South Island for 1977 will be the Royal Show, to be held by the Canterbury A. and P. Association at Addington Showgrounds in early November. In Australia The former North Island showjumper, D’lnzeo, now leased bv his owners, I. Nimon and Mrs S. Marr, to the Australian rider,

Jeff McVean, continues to be placed in show jumping events in Australia. At the Melbourne Royal, D’lnzeo, competing in division one events, was second in the Prince of Wales cup and the jumping stakes, fifth in the Grand Prix, third in the top score stakes and fifth equal in the invitation stakes. The Victorian Country Show Jumping Championships’ feature event attracted a field of 42 of Australia’s top show jumpers. Over a formidable 13obstacle course, D’lnzeo was one of the nine clear in the first round. In the second round, with a number of fences raised and a faster time, only two horses were clear, one being Sanskrit which, with his rider Chris Smith, thrilled the public with some exciting jumping when touring New Zealand in 1974. Sanskrit finished second to Maritime, ridden by Maree Hewitt, who has toured the North Island. D’lnzeo was equal fifth with eight faults. Matlock David Asimus and Su Cawston’s Matlock, which was last year’s Wills New Zealand Horse of the Year when ridden by Miss Cawston, has continued his successful way back in Australia. At the Melbourne Royal, with Asimus in the saddle, j he was in top form to fin- ' ish equal fourth in the I Puissance, equal second in | the Grand Prix and the! Puissance championship |

and second in the invitation stakes. David Asimus also won the Royal Melbourne show jumping championship, in which the leading four riders were each required to ride their own and each other’s horses. Asimus was the only rider to be clear on every horse, showing his ability and horsemanship.

Gunshot, which Sue i Cawston took back to Aus-1 tralia, was also consist-j entiy placed in the divi- j sion two section at Melbourne.