The new adventures of Hamish

The final events in Aussie Eventing calendar took place last weekend at Berrima and Lakes and Craters. Traditionally Lakes and Craters is the last event in the year and always proves a tough test as a CCI3* event, Berrima had also moved to this date due to a washout earlier in the season.

I was able to keep a quiet eye on the progress of the weekend thanks to Christine Bates (@ozbatesy) as the lone tweep at the Lakes and Craters event. Christine was following on from her success with the lovely Delago who won the CIC2* class at Adelaide just a few short weeks ago.

Christine stepped Delago up to the CCI3* class and came in second just behind Adelaide CCI4* winner Stuart Tinney with his recently acquired mount Pluto Mio. A great way for both Christine and Stuart to top off what has been a fantastic season for both of them.

Anyhow, I was scouring the results and something else caught my eye, Hamish Cargill (yes, that Hamish) had won his first ever FEI event winning the CCI1* class, just managing to stay ahead of girlfriend (not yet Fiancé, I checked ladies) Annabel ‘Bols’ Armstrong. Both Hamish and Bols managed to finish on their dressage score which is always a fine achievement.

I decided this was as good excuse as any to catch up with Hamish, check on his amazing year and check out how Tiger is going.

A quick recap first, Hamish took the plunge earlier this year and entered Tiger into Rolex, packed up half his gear and jumped on a plane for the adventure of a lifetime. Rolex didn’t quite go to plan, they finished but after two stops on XC the score looked more like a decent cricket innings than an Eventing score.

There is no doubt that Hamish enjoyed his US experience, he learnt a lot about himself and his horse during that trip, and at that point in time wasn’t sure where he would end up so left Tiger in the States, trusting others to look after his number one horse while he and some irradiated gear flew home to Australia.

At some stage, probably halfway round the Rolex show jumping track, Hamish decided he would Fedex Tiger on to the UK to his mate Chris Burton, hop on a plane and have a crack at Burghley too, why not? Some might say he was mad, having taken on Rolex and completed but doing it the hard way, to then go on to Burghley after having given the horse three month’s break. WOW! you have to love his commitment to the sport.

Let’s be honest, if you had a horse and a few bucks in your back pocket from selling another horse earlier, what better way to spend the dollars than having a crack at two legs of the Rolex Gland Slam.

Hamish headed to the UK in early July and took Tiger to Le Pin au Haras as a warm up for Burghley and did alright finishing mid field, not bad for a combination that hadn’t competed since Rolex in April. So they headed off to Burghley, the biggest most relentless cross country course in the world. The short version is that Tiger re-injured a tendon about two thirds of the way round Burghley and they caught a ride back to the stables in the horse ambulance.

Tiger is now well on his way to recovery and is almost home spending his last few (very expensive) days in quarantine in Sydney. Tiger will be home on the farm before Christmas. Hamish is planning to take him to see vet extraordinaire Derek Major. He is hopeful that once fully recovered Tiger may make a great schoolmaster for a younger rider at the lower levels.

In the meantime, Hamish has been reassessing his personal goals and plans. He has a smaller team of horses, now down to three competitive horses, has given up most of his teaching and as of this week has a day job. Yes, a proper job where he goes to the office, works a full week and gets a pay check at the end, a real novelty for most professional riders.

Hamish still has his sights firmly planted on that elusive four star win, preferably one where they hand out gold medals and have coloured rings. In the meantime he is settling in to his new career as a professional writer.
Unfortunately for us, not in the equestrian media area, nobody has come waving a big wad of cash under his nose to travel the world and cover eventing (I wish too). He is working for an agency specialising in crafting messages. I wonder if his new employers have seen the out-takes from Hamish and Dave’s Kentucky Adventures or great literary prose such as this example from HamishCargill.com.
While rearing on the end of the reins was a new but manageable trick, what really upset me was the volley of snot bullets that he fired into my face and body as he did so. There I was, at one of the biggest events in the world trying desperately to wipe a wad of goopy green Tiger slime out of my eyes as I approached the Ground Jury.
Luckily he trotted well because I could barely see the strip through the green haze.

That is the perfect fodder for any new employer, who needs to go trolling through your Facebook page when you have such a public body of artistic genius. Hamish sees this new path as the next step in his journey. He still dreams one day of sitting side by side with Lucinda Green calling the Badminton Radio feed or the Olympic Games (in between winning a gold medal of course).

In the meantime he has some young horses to concentrate on including Tahoe who was just named on the LOOOOOOOONG List for developing combinations. He now has to fit his horses in early in the morning, so I expect he will be working under lights from now on.

I just hope that he doesn’t suffer a heart attack next week when he receives his pay check and realises that he can get paid to write and that working a normal 38 hour week like us normal people is much easier than teaching 10 year old kids to ride trot poles and 55 year old mums to sit up straight and ride with your heels down.

I know this isn’t the last we will hear from Hamish and he may still one day just pack up and follow his mate Burto to the UK, although I think Bols may have something to say about that. That said, she may be the one dragging him off to the UK as she pursues her riding career, while Hamish sits in tweed and calls the event???
Oh, I found this gem, thank you Mr Google.

Yours in Eventing,

ESJ