Friends, I know we have been doing a lot of writing recently about horses all over the world, but bear with us in this post as we turn your attention to yet another region of the globe. There are six annual CCI4*’s around the world (and one CCI5*)–can you name them all? The sixth, final, and perhaps least known CCI4* of the year is of course Adelaide, which is being held in Australia from November 12th to 14th. John Lechner, who writes the fantastic Eventing Safety Blog, is an Aussie native and has generously agreed to keep us updated on all things Adelaide before and during the event. Pay close attention Eventing Nation, we are dealing with two different Johns here and to avoid confusion I will try to always refer to John Lechner by his full name or his handle, “Eventing Safety John.” Thanks to Peter Jones (Megan’s dad) for sending the photos. Here is Eventing Safety John’s Adelaide preview:
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From Eventing Safety John:
There are six Four Star Three Day Events in the world, Badminton, Burghley & Rolex are second nature to anyone who events. Then come Pau and Luhmühlen as lesser-known European events. More riders in the US are aware of them thanks to the USEF grants program sending riders to Europe to compete in these world-class events.
There is one more, lesser-known but definitely no less world class, the Australian International Three Day Event, or Adelaide to most. This event has its roots in the Gawler Horse Trials, which was host to the Eventing World Championships in 1986.
In 1997 the event relocated to the parklands of the South Australian Capital – Adelaide. This event is literally in the middle of the city, if it were in New York, it would be in Central Park. The Cross Country Course crosses two public roads and winds it way through three public parks.
The event is widely supported by the Australian eventing community and you will always see the best of Australia’s home based riders competing for the four star title and a small contingent of Kiwis. EN favorite Boyd Martin won Adelaide in 2003 on True Blue Toozac, a horse that is still running around today, training up a younger rider.
With 10 days to go til Adelaide, it will be interesting to see who will compete, given that four of Australia’s top combinations won’t be present following their trip to WEG, including the terribly unlucky Megan Jones and Kirby Park Irish Jester (shown here from last year’s competition).
Stuart Tinney is bound to bring one or two or perhaps three horses, as he was well prepared with spare mounts for WEG. Stuart will be keen to repeat last year’s win after being the bridesmaid at Adelaide on three occasions in the past.
Another crowd favorite in Adelaide is bound to be the now world renowned Hamish of Hamish and Dave TV. Hamish is a regular in Adelaide and his team was hard at work back home keeping his team of horses in top shape while he lived the high life in Kentucky. Reality caught up with Hamish last week when he braved sleet and ice blasted winds in Goulburn as his first event back home.
Hopefully one day the team in Switzerland will notice that Adelaide is a World-Class Four Star event and include it in the HSBC Classics series so that the event and the fantastic team behind it get the recognition they deserve.
Signing off now for the first time as a guest on Eventing Nation. See you all in Adelaide.
John Lechner
(Eventing Safety John)
