Oliver Barrett and Sandhills Briar trot up ahead of their CCI5* debut at Adelaide. Photos by Atalya Boytner Photography.
It’s not over until it’s over; that’s the motto of eventing and particularly this weekend at the Adelaide Equestrian Festival. Every moment of action had rippling consequences down the individual leaderboard and the Oceania team championships. Every day the lead changed hands and every day brought new and exciting stories.
With only 10 days to prepare three cross country courses, the building team headed by Mick Pineo, also course designer for the Racing SA CCI3*-L track with the U25 Oceania Championship overlay, had a lot on their plates to put fences in position and prepare the ground in a massive public park that continues to hold events in space until the last minute.
“The boys do a hell of a job,” Mike Etherington-Smith, designer for the Adelaide CCI5*, remarked. “It’s a pop-up event, you know, to get all this stuff ready when there isn’t a fence on site two weeks before. It’s quite impressive and you can only plan so much ahead of time. Because I’ve been coming here for many years now, I know the venue. There are only certain places you can put combinations but until we get here, we can’t lock in anything.”
Kenya Wilson and Sandros Salute gallop through one of the unique elements of the Adelaide cross country that takes riders through closed-down city roads (covered in footing, of course).
Through olive groves, sand basins, and grass lands, over road crossings and water ponds, the terrain changes at Adelaide means the design isn’t just about the order of the jumps.
“You’ve got to think of the mental effect that the course has on the horses,” Mike added. “They’re zipping through trees, they suddenly come round to the lake, oh, hello, that’s a huge crowd. A lot of the horses here, they’re not exposed to crowds and people. I watched how horses travel across country. It’s all about how they travel, how they jump fences in certain bits of terrain, where their legs are, what do they do with their head and neck. We have to understand how horses work to help them do the job we’re asking. As a designer, you obviously want people to go well, you want the horses to go well, you want them to benefit from the experience.”
Clayton Fredericks, designing for the Horseland CCI4*-S with the senior Oceania Championship overlay, echoed Mike. “I’m hoping that I can keep the riders and the horses thinking. Thinking boldly and riding boldly. But also, you know, every time they’ve done a course of mine, I hope that they come out feeling that they’ve learned something and that the horses feel confident for the next run. For me, [this] is a big part of putting back into the sport I love so much.”
I’ve been lucky enough to attend both the Kentucky and Maryland CCI5*s in the U.S. for a few years running now and there is absolutely nothing like the Rymill Park Bates Water Complex at Adelaide. The only water on course, people are packed on the grass and surrounding picnic areas so tightly, you can’t sneeze for fear of ending up in someone else’s lap. Tensions run high as riders come through the combinations and the cheers upon successful completion echo. When riders reference the atmosphere of Adelaide or the parts of the cross country they are most excited to tackle, the water comes up every time.
Three Stars? Three Wins
Tahlia Pursell celebrates an emotional win in the Racing SA CCI3*-L with Astro NZPH.
Time was achievable on the Racing SA CCI3*-L cross country track and the tension was high at the finish where team members, cheer squads, and eventing fanatics eagerly watched the live stream and kept a close eye on the results.
Heartbreak came to dressage leader Charlotte Lalak on her individual ride in Fairbanks Casino where a problem at the atmospheric water jump led to their retirement. It was the last rider on course, Georgia Elias on Silverwood Aussie Pride, who came home double clear and secured the overnight lead.
“I think we’re going on 10 years [together] now but he was a horse that was one step forward, three steps back,” she said of ‘Aussie’. “[But] I’m so happy to be here. I’m a farmer back home so I don’t by any means do equestrian as a profession or to make money from it, I do it because I love it. I always say to myself, ‘I’m going to enjoy it while I can, because it’ll be over and I won’t have enjoyed it’. I didn’t think just this little girl from Tazzy, this farmer, could come over here and be on an Australian team!”
CCI3*-L cross country leaders Georgia Elias and Silverwoods Aussie Pride.
Show jumping, set by David Sheppard for all divisions, exerted its influence on the competition and while it didn’t finish as Georgia’s day, she joined the champion, Tahlia Pursell, on the winning U25 team representing Australia.
For Tahlia, who started the week in second with a 28.8 and added only 2.4 time on cross country for a total 31.2 despite a watch malfunction on course, it was the first FEI win for her with a horse she’s partnered with for five years. In a cosmic alignment, in the biggest 3* appearance with team pressure and individual pressure, she also received champion young rider and champion team with the Oceania Championship. Astro NZPH, a 17-year-old chestnut gelding, had done two CCI3*-S with Isabella Dunne before Tahlia took over the ride but Astro has been Tahlia’s partner her whole international career.
“We bought him during COVID, sight unseen from Western Australia. He’s been awesome, he teaches me how to ride,” she said. “It’s been an amazing event, I couldn’t be happier! Show jumping’s certainly come to be one of our strongest phases, but he’s pretty consistent across all three. He’s a really nice event horse to be sitting on. He’s a bit quirky but he really trusts me and I trust him every step of the way.
Team Appearances Make Lasting Memories
Jess Somerfield achieves a career goal: her first CCI4* win, earned with APH New Sensation.
The Horseland CCI4*-S is notorious for being challenging to make the time. With the twists and turns on the course to fit the brief of a short format cross country, gallops change rapidly to safely navigate the track and terrain. Only one rider went double clear and that was New Zealand’s Carys McCrory on her off the track Thoroughbred Patrick, her ride or die ‘black beauty’.
“That was amazing!” Carys laughed. “He was so good, answered every question so honestly. Just fast and furious out there, it felt like we were going, going and didn’t let up. He just loved it out there.”
It was not the fairytale weekend Sophia Hill and Tulara Baltango had hoped when they started their weekend but it was very close. A frangible activation at fence 3, the Pryde’s Easifeed Hayrack, marred an otherwise triple clear result with no other penalties added to their dressage score of 32.3.
Between Sophia’s rides, Samuel Jeffree and Wimborne Conjuror, and Hannah Klep and Tulara Chicouve, the Australian Team A brought home the top position in the Oceania Championship. Australia Team B, made up of Andrew Barnett and Oscar Park Deluge, Andrew Cooper and Ocean Eight, Edward Darby and Dawn of the Day, and Charlee Morton-Sharp and SV Supermaxi, brought home second position in a particularly poignant moment.
“It’s such an amazing event to come to,” Andrew Barnett mused. “I actually chef’d a Young Rider team back in 2022 when Edward Darby was on that, so it’s quite a nice feeling to have him up here too.”
Jess Somerfield and APH New Sensation.
Edward Darby represented Australia on the Oceania Championships U25 team in 2022 at Melbourne with Andrew as the chef d’equipe and the appearance together was particularly poignant. “I said to Andrew, I probably didn’t say when I was a bit younger but you were just the best chef that anyone could’ve asked for and now to be on a team with you, just fantastic. He’s such a team player.”
In the individual championship, it was Jess Somerfield and APH New Sensation who quietly bided their time. They started the weekend in ninth with a 35.1 in the dressage, added 4 time penalties on the cross country, and rolled only one rail to move up to the win.
Being passed up for both Australian teams in the CCI4*-S made her hungry to prove herself. But ever the competitor, she already noted what she wanted to improve. “In the dressage, he saw the camera and spooked. It was a beautiful four [from the judges]. The cross-country course, he was amazing but I definitely took my time; I wanted to let him see the fences and understand them. In the show jumping, I probably needed a few more studs and he had the rail.”
Bred by the Sandhills stud, the farm of the Barrett family, the 14-year-old gelding has begun relaxing into the level and makes Jess ready to be competitive when the opportunity arises.
“I’ve been at four-star for a while, but the win has eluded me. To save it up for Adelaide is pretty special,” Somerfield said of APH New Sensation. “So I’m going to let that sink in for a bit.”
A Full Circle Family Dream Realized
Oliver Barrett and Sandhills Briar exit the dressage arena in second place early on with a score of 30.6.
If the stories of the three-star and four-star didn’t make you fall in love with eventing all over again, then maybe the five-star will.
Oliver Barrett was always someone worth keeping an eye on from the beginning of competition. It’s a big ask to expect results from a twenty-two-year-old attempting the CCI5* level for the first time but his record made it difficult to not to expect something. Coming into the competition as the World #2 on the FEI U25 Ranking list with wins at the CCI4*-L level, the consistency and horsepower he came to Adelaide with were knocking on the door from day one.
Coming from a family legacy of sport horse breeding and performance, he stood on the shoulders of the giants who had come before him. His maternal grandmother, Jennifer, began the Barolin Pony Stud for Connemara. In 2012, his father, Craig Barrett, rode Sandhills Brillaire to the Adelaide victory and, seeing a need within the sport to influence bloodlines with more Thoroughbred blood, Craig and Prue evolved into the Sandhills stud: a prolific breeding program with horses now at every level of eventing.
Oliver Barrett and Sandhills Briar on cross country.
While eyes were on Madison Seivwright and Watangi Pinterest after dressage, then another 5* debutant in Sam Woods and SS Eight Count, who were one of only two pairs to make the time on cross country (Samuel Jeffree and Santoro were the other), Oliver kept his focus laser sharp.
“To be able to do a five-star in the first place is a feat in itself and there’s a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes,” he said of the decision to aim for this level. “We put ourselves in a position right from the start and I knew we were there or thereabouts the whole time. We prepare at the events beforehand, we have a pretty meticulous program, and we want our horses to peak at these events.”
A dream to come to Adelaide since he watched his father win at eight years old, that focus has been present since he was a child. Thirteen years later, as he stood at the back gate of the Gillian Rolton Main Arena following his double clear show jumping round and watching Madison and Sam ride the show jumping test, his family was standing with him.
When Madison had three down, Oliver had moved up from third to second. Sam Woods and SS Eight Count entered the ring with 50-50 shot of going clear. He made it almost all the way around the course when a heart-breaking rail came at the upright liverpool and a 0.4 time faults as he crossed the finish flags.
Just like that, Oliver was the CCI5* champion.
“I’m feeling a combination of elation and relief, its pretty surreal!” He laughed. “To have a horse that was started under saddle at Sandhills and produced all the way through, I’ve pretty much ridden him back from when he was a four-year-old and it’s been an amazing journey.”
There’s celebrations ahead, rest to take, and a bright future ahead. As to those more immediate goals for Oliver?
“Well, you know, there’s a pretty big event in August in Germany and I’d love to be there.”
Adelaide Equestrian Festival CCI5* & Oceania Championships (AUS): [Website] [Scores] [Live Stream Replays] [EN’s Coverage]
