Making the move

Clarke Johnstone and Incognito from the London Test Event at Greenwich photo courtesy of Nico Morgan

There is little doubt that rolling the dice and moving to the UK in preparation for the London Games is a popular choice. The Kiwis for instance have basically relocated their whole team to Great Britain in the hope of a long and consistent preparation for the team.

A couple of Aussie and US hopefuls have also made the plunge in the hope of gaining Olympic selection. A few months ago I wrote a story about two mates Chris and Clarke and their recent form and bids for the top end of town in Eventing.

Both Chris Burton (Aus) and Clarke Johnstone (NZL) are great mates and have relocated themselves and their team of five horses each to the UK, with the singular goal of making it to London 2012. I spoke with both Chris and Clarke earlier this week following Barbury and before they each headed to Aachen to wear their respective national team colours in the teams event that will unfold this weekend.

What struck me most in my separate conversations with the guys was how risky this adventure is. Five horses each on air-freight to the other side of the globe is hard work, not to mention extremely expensive. Add to that the fact their businesses back home have effectively been closed during their absence. At this stage they are basically on one way tickets.

I asked them both about their plans post London, those plans are unclear. London is the primary goal and at the moment the only other thing that matters is the steps, big and small, that can potentially take them to Olympic glory.

Five horses each put them in a funny spot too. Each horse needs to be kept in work, with only five it is hard to justify more than one groom, but they are away almost constantly at competitions with a couple of horses at a time. So how do they keep all the other horses in work? They haven’t quite figured that out yet. (By the way Chris is looking for a groom, as his current groom is about to head off to the US to study at University.)

Their recent schedules have been grueling with only six or seven weeks under their feet in the UK they are in full competition mode. They were both at the Greenwich test event, Clarke competed on Incognito and while it wasn’t his best performance it was a valuable experience. I asked Clarke about the event and what he thought. Clarke indicated that the only way to win medals is with a SUPER FIT horse, the twists and turns plus a couple of times up and down that hill, will filter out the rest.

Clarke Johnstone and Incognito from the London Test Event at Greenwich in dressage photo courtesy of Nico Morgan

Clarke’s abiding memory from Greenwich Park is riding down the narrow gallop lanes with the screams of children following him around the course. This is a new experience for many combinations and one that may be influential during the Games. Chris was at Greenwich Park as part of the Aussie contingent of observers getting the lay of the land.

What I thought was interesting from both my conversations with Clarke and Chris was that they were comparing Greenwich to Hong Kong. There are definitely some similarities, both courses contained some influential hills, narrow tracks and a lot of twisting and turning. It will be very interesting to see the final London track and how much actual gallop room there is.

Going back to Hong Kong, not a single combination made time. The weather was kind for XC but the closest to time was Aussie, Shane Rose on All Luck who were 10 seconds over time.

Following Greenwich both guys packed up and headed to Barbury. Chris had a brilliant weekend finishing second on FIS Under Discussion in the Division B CIC2* class and sixth place on Kinnordy Rivaldo in the Open Novice Division F. For both results Chris completed on his dressage score.

Clarke’s weekend wasn’t so good but overall very pleasing. Clarke started with a dressage score of 51.8 penalties in the three star, Clarke noted that Kolora Stud Secrets wasn’t quite as hyped as usual in the dressage, so they didn’t start as well as he would have liked. Two rails in the jumping was extremely annoying for Clarke, he hasn’t had a clean round of showjumping since arriving in the UK.

A final result of 27th isn’t perfect, but is the top quarter of a field that topped out just under 120 competitors where nearly 40 didn’t complete the event. That figure is one that defies belief in many ways. Nearly one third of riders in a CIC didn’t complete.

Early on Wednesday morning Chris and Clarke joined their respective team mates for the long drive to Aachen in Germany for the CICO3* event happening this Friday and Saturday. This will see eight nations and 41 competitors fight it out. Of the eight only Australia and New Zealand are from outside Europe, there is no US team, only Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Sweden and France.

For both guys this continental adventure will be a valuable experience, they are traveling with their national teams and will be able to benefit first hand from the hard earned experience of their long term UK based compatriots. For Chris this will be his first competition since arriving in Europe on his WEG Horse HP Leilani, he is really looking forward to stretching her long legs in Germany.

Chris Burton and HP Leilani at Aachen, photo thanks to Franz Venhaus

The next few months will prove testing as they prepare for some big events. The world cup round in France at Le Pin au Haras is firmly in their sights as Clarke is currently the leader in the world rankings followed by Chris with Michael Jung in third place. Clarke fully intends to take the title from Michael. Le Pin au Haras is only two weeks before Burghley where Clarke will rest his no.1 horse Orient Express, but still intends to run two of his horses around the hills of Burghley.

Chris will be running HP Leilani around Burghley and will be joined by another mate Hamish Cargill (yes of Hamish and Dave Fame). Hamish’s no.1 ride Sandhills Tiger has recently arrived in the UK following his Rolex run and Chris is keeping him in work before Hamish arrives in the UK to complete their Burghley preparation (I know Samantha has caught up with Hamo in the last few days, so keep an eye out).

Both guys will also be at Blenheim, which is a particularly important event for Australia as we have not yet qualified for London 2012 and Blenheim is our chance. I will be in the UK for both Burghley and Blenheim and hope to be bringing plenty of the action to EN.

UPDATE: Since I prepared this story, Aachen has been run and won.  Clarke finished individually in 6th place and was the highest placed non-European rider. He added just four seconds to his dressage score on XC. This also means Clarke has broken is showjumping hoodoo since arriving. The Kiwi team finished in second place and they didn’t have Toddy, IMHO the Kiwis have a real chance of upsetting the Poms (Brits) at London.

ESJ