What is Eventing Equestriad?

2010 CIC3* Winner Kevin McNab – Photo courtesy of Main Event Photography

Eventing Equestriad has an interesting genesis, the committee formed in 2008 following the rather spectacular implosion of the previous committee that ran events at Camden’s Bicentennial Park. Camden is about an hour south of Sydney and is a publicly owned facility dedicated to horse sports. For most Eventers from around Sydney it is also one of the best locations for Eventing.

Camden as a venue is a little like Adelaide in that it is right on the edge of town and while you don’t have the multitude of choice that Adelaide offers for dining options, Camden still offers plenty. In fact, there is a pub with food and cold beer right on the edge of the venue and the rest of the township is within walking distance of the park.

This is one of the key factors that have driven Shane Rose and his committee of mostly active riders to bring Equestriad to where it is today. Shane is one of our most prolific Pro Riders here. At every event he will have half a dozen mounts and finish in the money with a few.  For instance at the Sydney World Cup weekend just two weeks ago, he had five mounts in the FEI classes and came away with 1st in the one star, 3rd in the two star and 3rd in the World Cup class.

In North American terms, Shane (Beijing Silver Medalist) and his team including his lovely wife Niki Chapman, also a Pro Rider, running an event would be equivalent to Phillip or Boyd or Karen financing, managing, taking responsibility for and then probably competing in their own 3* CIC.  So what Shane, Niki and their team have done I believe is pretty spectacular.

This weekend’s event is the 3rd Eventing Equestriad CIC event, their very first event was a CIC three star, just two short years ago. When I spoke with Shane about the event I asked him to explain their aims:

1. To get more non-horsey people to come, his logic is sound, those in the horsey world will come anyway. But the event needs to be family and non-horse people friendly.  I will come back to this in a minute.
2. To be THE BEST CIC EVENT IN THE WORLD, yes not just the best on the east coast of Australia, but the best in the world.

Nat Blundell – The crowds can get in close to all of the action at Equestriad – Photo courtesy of Main Event Photography

The original committee was and remains almost exclusively active riders, they know the sport and they know what things do and don’t work at other events around the Country. Shane himself is no stranger to running events, his parents have been involved in running events for too many years to count, so he has been on the other side before.

I know there are times when riders get bashed up about not putting anything back into the sport but this cannot be said here.  The Equestriad team now run an annual CIC plus a CNC, catering to all levels, six classes in total, and plan to introduce a further lower level class (2 feet).

Chris ‘Burto’ Burton showjumping right alongside the Hospitality Marquee – Photo courtesy of Main Event Photography

But how do they bring the non-horsey people in?

Well simple, they see themselves as competing for the leisure market, family picnics, trips to the movie theatre and other family days out.

Entry is free, there is free face painting, a balloon artist, jumping castle and a petting zoo all to keep the kids entertained.