LEGENDARY EVENTER MARK TODD VISITS SOUTH AFRICA

Mark Todd
(Photo : The Telegraph)

MARK TODD CBE

Vuma has always been green; from our branding and packaging to our approach to feeding horses, but this week we had a completely different reason.

Envy!

The (very lucky) Summerhill team had the great honour of hosting legendary eventer Mark Todd at the stud farm. Having won Badminton again this year, on his grey horse Land Vision, he really is an inspiration to any rider and proof that age should not be a limiting factor in competitive riding.

Apart from his many Gold medals and being inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, he was voted 'Rider of the 20^thCentury' by the FEI! He is a true legend!

If you have not already read it, his autobiography, 'So Far So Good', is well worth the read. He has also published a number of instructional books as well as a book on his famous and much-loved horse Charisma!

As we write, we are compiling our 'Recommended Reading' list to post onto the Vuma Website and these books are most definitely on the list. If you have any titles that you would like to share, please do email us at info@vumafeed.co.za.

Click here to read the article on Mark Todd posted on the Summerhill Stud Blog.

SA EVENTING NEWS FROM FRANCE

Compiegne Equestre

SOUTH AFRICAN RIDERS AT THE COMPIEGNE CCI*

Suzanne Boswell writes about our SA riders event in Compiegne :

What a successful weekend for our South African eventers at the CCI** at Compiegne, France. There were 101 starters with 80 riders and 12 countries being represented at this show, including the legendary Mark Todd!

After a very successful dressage phase our South African riders Paul Hart, Martyn Swanepoel, Graham Winn and Hayley Parker were well placed in the middle of the field. The best dressage score was a 33.2 from Jung from the Netherlands!

The entire team was wearing their SA flag hat covers and it was a very proud and poignant moment for SA eventing!! Paul and Heartbreak Hill were first to go into the country. They went clear for jumping but had some time faults as their team coach, Jean Philippe wanted a steady clear round.  Paul said Harry could have gone much faster but he was ecstatic about his round. Next to go was Martyn who had an unfortunate stop at No.4 and finished about a minute over the time. Graham was next in, Zorba went off at a cracking rate but had an unfortunate fall at number 3, both horse and rider are fine thankfully. Hayley had a run out at the skinny at 17 and also incurred time penalties.

On Sunday was the showjumping. The jumps were big and the oxers were very square which is something our course builders should take note of here. The course was quite spooky and there were hundreds and hundreds of spectators. Each of our riders took 3 poles. Jean Philippe was extremely pleased with our team performance. visit www.psvphoto.com to see pictures of all 3 phases.

The next event will be Saumur from the 20 to the 23rd of May.