Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

[RC] Trens Tesmen (Translation: Trans Tasman) Part 4 - Jay Randle

The Pressure Cooker continues.

Sonya's big grey came in looking great.There was a question over it's CRI
though.She had to represent but no one was at all worried.Also Ady's mount
showed some signs of being a little uncomfortable after vetting so she was going
to give the horse a little more time to relax before going out again just to be
on the safe side.This meant that Ady's day went from competition to chasing a
completion.
Linda's horse had been very hot during the first leg and gave her quite a hard
time.She had given the horse some extra time in the hold to settle before
heading off on the 2nd leg.This began an unfortunate chain of events as once on
the 2nd leg she broke a stirrup and combined with a hot horse made it difficult
to say the least for her.There is little provision on that track for any rescue
mission and it took a long time to get a new stirrup to her.She too was aiming
now at a completion and would struggle to finish the ride before the cut off
time.
Sonya's big grey was deemed unfit to continue at her represent being pulled on
a panel for metabolics.Now I personally had a little bit of a hard time trying
to work out what exactly happened and so did the rest of the team as well as
Sonya herself.The horse looked great,was eating and drinking but the vets
decided that the CRI was no good.A rather confusing ruling at the time and still
a mystery really.Bad luck for Sonya but she took it extremely well.A real credit
to herself and the team.So the first of the fellowship falls in NZ.Perhaps we
can now call Sonya "Boromir"
All 4 of the Kiwi horses were still going and we had only 3 team members
left.Trouble starts to brew and the worry begins.
You must take into consideration that we were there to hand back sound,healthy
horses but it was also a serious competition.We wanted a win and so did the
Kiwis.They wanted it badly.Who wants to be beaten on their home turf?No one
likes beating Australia more than the Kiwis so it was pretty tense at times and
tactics were flying around everywhere.Tarni was still at the front,Talea was not
far behind and Ady was mid field.The Kiwis were pushing hard and their focus was
definately on Tarni trying to draw her into over doing her horse.We knew that
they wanted to take her out hard and apply pressure to her mind and her horse
hoping for a mistake but she held her nerve even when she lost a shoe.She hopped
off and ran a few hills while making up time on the soft flat parts.The ground
is so soft that shoes aren't really needed in many spots of that track.The
Kiwi's were pretty sure they had Tarni beat after the shoe went flying but she
came in seconds behind the leader with a great chance of beating them to
strapping.
We went in 1st to vet but Rios decided to push me around a bit just as the
heartrate was being taken.He pulsed over with a head toss and we had to go
around again.We could have walked straight in again but I certainly didn't want
to be the one who made the decision to go early and have the possibility of
vetting Tarni out so I took 4 minutes to be sure that Rios got through.He did
and Tarni was 4 minutes behind at the start of the last leg.
The 2 last legs were both 20k.Tarni was 4 minutes back now and it was very
unlikely that she would push her horse that much to catch.What she needed to do
was stay in the leaders mirrors and make him err in judgement.As Tarni left on
the last Rios took off like a horse posessed.A gallop out of the gates after the
lead horse.What a fantastic horse to still be going hard after 3 legs.
Talea was still cracking along beautifully and none of us doubted that she
would finish and finish strongly.We were now hoping that the Kiwis came unstuck
somehow.
And so the ray of light!One of the Kiwi horses did not want to go out.I mean
really didn't want to go.The rider had to dismount and lead him down the road
for a km before mounting again and trying to get him going.He reluctantly headed
across the paddock on the last and we thought that Ady would probably pick her
up and get past.Talea was probably not in a position to catch the 2nd youth Kiwi
but if she finished there was always a chance that the Kiwi would fall at the
end.
Linda had come home now and unfortunately did not have enough time to do the
last leg so she did the the only thing she could and withdrew.Not a great day
for Linda and we all felt for her.
While everything else was going on Lisa Stoffel,the quiet achiever, was still
moving along nicely on her dark dappled grey.Always looking great in vetting and
looking good for another finisher.Although not chasing for a place she was as
happy as larry and riding in NZ wearing the green and gold.What a fantastic
thing to achieve.Lisa will go a long way in this sport and should be
congatulated for her proffessionalism and dedication to the sport.
So it comes to the finish.It was a nailbiter right down to the wire.A full Kiwi
team heading to the last gate and 3 Aussies still in the hunt.Tarni chasing the
lead horse,Talea chasing the second placed Kiwi,Ady chasing the other 2.Could
you ask for a better script.
So to the finish
G
 


Head to the Daily Blob on Windows Live For more of what happens online