[RC] Fernvale FEI and AERA ride report - Part 2 - Jay Randle
Young Steph Tulk rode her second 80km ride in the AERA event, completing in 6th Junior place on the evergreen "Pete", aka Mt Eerwah Silver Mariner. We love this wonderful horse here at Splendacrest, and once again he showed his reliability in bringing a young rider home safely and well! Thank you Steph and a big thank you to Pete, too! Diane Wilson rode her lovely gelding Agecroft Fada, and completed their first (of many, we hope) 80km rides together!
Alissa Tulk completed her second training ride by riding Splendacrest Ulysses in the 45km event, to another great completion! Well done Alissa!
Over the weekend I got to see the Vetting team over and over again, as I popped in and out of the Vet Ring constantly! By the end of the day I'm sure they were all sick of the sight of me!! But of course an event like this could not be possible without the hard work and dedication of a great Veterinary team, and we sure had that! Head Vet Dr Brian Sheahan was ably assisted by Amanda Parry, Jon Fernley, Sandra Harbison, Richard Toft, Celia Dodd, and Carl.... (forget his last name - sorry!).
The massive band of volunteers that the Fernvale Club organised were happy and helpful, even though there were some timing errors.... but they were soon sorted out. Thanks to everyone who gave up their weekend so that we could have a great ride!
The FEI Officials, led by Barb Timms, included Trish Annetts, Toby Crockett, Robyn Parnell, Glenda Armitage and others working together to ensure that the FEI rides were smoothly run. Although there were several hiccups along the way, mostly it was a straightforward experience for the riders.
I just hope that I have as much energy and committment to the sport as Barb Timms does when I grow up.
I'd like to thank those 'other' endurance riders who trusted my crew members to take care of their horses too! Yvonne Knight, Dallas and Andrew Blakely, Davo and Jane Davidson and Clare Fleming were all very generous with their horses, and allowed my riders to ride them.
A ride of this magnitude would not be possible for the Splendacrest Team without the most valuable 'players' on the field.... our strappers! Sam Dobson, Britt Geddes, Robert Kuhn, Jenny Hall, Beck Forgan, and of course Shane Hopkins (without whom the team would suffer greatly), all made the workload a lot less and the atmosphere a lot more! Thank you all!
Another good ride, another great result for Splendacrest!!
