National Capital Horse Trials Association

NCHTA have organised six  experienced riders and or coaches to walk the XC course, so each class will have someone to guide them around the course.  We will meet at the Secretary’s marquee at 5.30pm Saturday and head out of the start box at 6.  We hope as many of you who can will join us.  It will still be quite warm, so remember to drink plenty of water.

In tribute to our dear friend Olivia Inglis, NCHTA junior committee members Tori Doak and Hannah Klep have come up with the idea to ride this weekend with a black star attached to their saddle cloth, rather than a black arm band. Olivia’s cross country shirt had 3 black stars along the sleeve. We have made roughly 300 black stars for everyone who wishes to wear them.  Come to the secretary’s tent when you arrive to collect a star so you can #rideforolivia in all three phases. Judges, officials and volunteers are also welcome to wear them on their shirts!

To help everyone understand what the confusion is all about, the dressage tests have been renamed.  NCHTA was not aware of this when our schedule went to print.  The tests we chose were the Ev 2015 tests.  By mistake, they got printed as EA 2015.  So please see the link to the correct tests, by going to the Eventing NSW schedule of tests.
EvA60 are doing test 1 which used to be called Ev 1.1 2015
EvA80 are going test 2 which used to be called Ev 1.3 2015

And EvA95 are doing test 3 which was the Ev Prelim 1.

All riders have received an email with the links to the correct test.  I will be updating the draw file as soon as I can!

Please click here for the link to the draw page.  This has the draw and riders notes.  A copy has also been emailed to the address used when you entered. The test for EvA95 is here
We are looking forward to welcoming you to Canberra!

Sorry about my premature posting of the draw last night!
Please click here for the draw: http://wp.me/P39Irs-6h

The draw is now available to download on Draws/Results page.

EDIT: at 720am – taken down to fix up stuff ups!

http://wp.me/P39Irs-6h

Fundraising for Rod:

Please consider donating to the fund to help one of our most dedicated Eventing NSW volunteer, Rod Winchester visit his family for Christmas in the UK.  Rod hasn’t enjoyed the best of health lately, and this would be a real treat.

Even if every rider donated $10 it would pay for it! So don’t feel it needs to be a large sum – every penny counts!

https://www.subscribeonline.com.au/sub/subscription1.asp?orgid=160

Tests for the weekend:

Ev Prelim 1

Ev PN2

2015 FEI CIC* A

FEI CIC**2015A

FEI CIC***A

Here is the Timetable for the weekend, the draw will be available later tonight.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Entries have been received and the numbers are exciting – 2* has a large number of horses entered, and a waiting list has been put into place.  We are hoping to be able to accept all those horses.

The timetable for the event is being worked on now, and if anyone really wants to come who haven’t entered already, be aware that you will be wait-listed.

We are holding a working bee tomorrow from 10am.  Please let Kate or Ben know if you are attending so we can make sure that we have sufficient tools (and food!) ready for you.

See you in two weeks!

 

NCHTA has offered Vince Roche the position of CC Designer after the resignation of long term FEI course designer  Grant Johnston.

Vince wrote to me saying “After accepting the offer to design the Canberra Three Star track in 2015, I first asked a number of Three Star riders for their observations on the course. The responses were remarkably similar. Firstly, the creek crossings upset the flow of the course and the rhythm of the horses, so that it took three or four fences to get the horses going again after each crossing. Secondly, the course was too twisty, again upsetting the flow and rhythm of the horses. Thirdly, the footing was often too firm, especially the landings and in particular the landings after the drop fences. Finally, there was a feeling that the course was a little too difficult for its place in the calendar – prior to Goulburn and leading up to Adelaide, and it needed to be a little softer to leave a “sweet experience” memory for horses on the Three and Four Star competition pathway.
Mike Etherington-Smith spent a day with me in April – walking around the course, making observations of the previous course and also suggestions for the new course – and we bounced ideas between ourselves. He also made himself available to comment critically and make further suggestions a short time afterwards when I had produced my first draft plan.
So what did we come up with? The creek crossings have been reduced from two to one, by starting on the eastern side of the creek. In addition, to minimise the disruption to rhythm and flow of the track, it is planned to open out the sides of the track down to and up from the creek. In addition, we plan to realign the track immediately after the (only on-course) creek crossing to go straight ahead from the track out of the creek through the trees, rather than further affecting the horses rhythm by a hard right turn at the top of the riverbank.
The other balance that I hope to achieve is an adequate number of simple but maximum dimension “let up” fences between the complex fences – to allow horses to recover their confidence and rhythm after the “complexity and busy-ness” of the combination fences. The first few fences at the start are designed to get the horses going forward as well as getting them jumping up into the air. The last five fences are meant to keep the horses and riders switched on – important for safety.

Generally I have tried to avoid excessive turning especially early in the course where it is important to get horses moving forward well. In addition, the siting of a number of combinations has been re-sited to get the best footing and camber for the horses. We have worked hard to optimise the flow of the course.

NCHTA has borrowed a few 3 star portables for 2015 to help with the budget – as I would like to spend more effort and expense on the footings at most of the Three Star fences (especially the landings which in the case of most fences would benefit from application of 5 cm of sawdust or used stable shavings on the landings). I hope we may be able to do this also for the Two Star course. Also we plan to reshape the landings from the three FEI fences into water to make a “landing ramp” of road-base sloping down from 10cm deep at the base of the jump to zero over three metres – to ease the impact of jumping a drop into the flat footing of a water jump.  Similar take off and landing ramps are planned for the related jumps in the middle of the water.

So what is the overall aim? I hope that Canberra Three Star (and by reflection the Two and One Star) courses be regarded by our riders as pitched at exactly the right level of difficulty vs confidence-endowing for horses that are planning to go to Lynton two weeks later and then to Adelaide Four Star.
We need visible and palpable efforts made to improve the going – especially takeoffs and landings to minimise the wear and tear on our elite horses.

And then we hope that the Canberra CIC will get the entries in the Three Star to show the committee that all this extra work is worth the effort!!

Entries are now open for the CIC event that NCHTA are holding on the 3rd and 4th of October.
Click here to enter online with nominate

As always, we welcome anyone who wishes to volunteer and assist in the following ways:

• Attending working bees in the weekends prior to the event, and during the week to assist Ben Smith with course prep.
• Dressage pencilling and Marshalling
• Showjumping set up/pole picking/pack away (Saturday and Sunday)
• cross country jump judging (Sunday only)
• Hospitality (both days)
• Pack up (afterwards!)

If you have spare a few hours (or days) I know we would really appreciate it, please contact Kate