Journal - Vuma Horsefeeds Blog

Altec FEI World Equestrian Games,

tagged

Heartbreak Hill,

Kentucky,

Lexington,

Paul Hart,

SCB PR Communications,

South African Eventing Team,

Suzanne Boswell,

WEG,

WEG 2010,

World Equestrian Games in

Sport Horse

Tuesday

Apr132010

SA EVENTING NEWS FROM FRANCE

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 10:10AM

cci** compiegne

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.

tagged

CCI**,

Zorba in

Eventing,

Sport Horse

Wednesday

Oct282009

PAUL HART AND HEARTBREAK HILL DO US PROUD

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 7:10AM

Paul Hart and Heartbreak Hill in fine form
(Photo : TB Images)

(Please click above to enlarge...)

PAUL HART AND HEARTBREAK HILL

The formidable team of Paul Hart and his outstanding horse Heartbreak Hill were only very narrowly beaten into second place by Graham Winn at the Karkloof CIC*** event this past weekend.

An exciting event by all accounts, with the contestants very closely placed after some fantastic clear rounds in the country, it all finally came down to the wire in the show-jumping phase.

This accomplishment, despite a number of setbacks in their run-up to the event, confirms Paul’s position as South Africa’s top Eventer and an exceptional horseman.

Paul and “Harry” clinched the SA Champs CIC** title in 2008 and followed that by winning the Gauteng Horse Society (GHS) Championships FEI CIC** earlier this year.

Unfortunately, Harry was not able to compete in the first South African FEI CIC***, held at Northern Farms, which Paul won on Font Air Holidays Wiseguy.

This is a superb set of results for one year – Well done Paul! Vuma is proud to feed your Champion!

Font Air Holidays Wiseguy,

tagged

Gauteng Horse Society,

South Africas Top Eventer,

South African FEI CIC,

Vuma in

Eventing,

Sport Horse

Tuesday

Aug182009

Paul Hart : South African Eventing Champion

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 5:01PM

Paul Hart
(Photo : TB Images)

Please click photo to enlarge

SA Eventing Champion Paul Hart, reflects on his win at the first CIC*** event ever held in South Africa :

Well what a weekend!!Our first CIC*** ever to be held in South Africa! The week leading up to this event we were fortunate enough to attend a course given by Jean-Philippe Camboulives who is an International FEI Instructor and who has just been appointed as the Eventing Team South Africa coach. This was very intense but very educational and enjoyable. His presence was rather comforting as we walked the exceptional cross country course at Northern Farm Equestrian Park.

The event was held over two days at the beautiful Northern Farm Equestrian Park. It was a landmark occasion as it was the first CIC*** to ever be held in South Africa. The Saturday started out very chilly and overcast and it just got worse and worse as the day wore on. As luck would have it, as I entered at A down the centre line to begin my dressage test the heavens just opened. All things considered Air Holidays Wiseguy did a great test even though he was bent against the rain on occasion which was stinging and very cold!

At the end of the dressage phase we were lying fourth with the cross country and showjumping still to look forward to on the Sunday. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful clear day but still very cold. The rain the day before made the going much kinder underfoot. The cross country was big and bold. Having never taken our horses over these kinds of fences before most of the riders walked the course three or four times. In my case I walked it five times.

Wiseguy jumped a spectacular round that was also fastest for the day. At the end of the cross country I was lying first and Graham Winn was just 3.2 penalties behind us. Wiseguy jumped beautifully and we only took one pole in the showjumping. Graham took three poles which left us in the lead.

I must just take this opportunity to thank all the individuals who went to such a huge effort for only nine CIC*** riders. We know that as much effort has to go into the course even though there were so few riders. Also I would like to say that the course was strong yet fair and there was not one jumping refusal throughout the whole course and all the horses made it home safely!

So we won the first ever CIC*** in South Africa. It’s still sinking in I think. This leaves us one step closer to qualifying for the World Equestrian Games. Of the seven starters five had qualifying rounds:

Paul Hart – Air Holidays Wiseguy

Graham Winn – Fairways Electrica Zorba

Heidi Wood – Quantum Leap

Douglash Welsh – Trinity Sport of Kings and Trinity Kings Courier