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Berrima Spring One Day Event 26-27 November

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Results

Photographs by Equiscape Photography here

What a great weekend!

After all, it was Berrima's 20th Birthday!

Jodie Donovan suffered a severe head injury on Saturday afternoon after her horse slipped and fell on the flat in the Show Jumping Warm Up. She was transferred by helicopter to Liverpool Hospital, where she was on a ventilator in ICU for two days. The good news is that yesterday she was taken off the ventilator and doctors are pleased with her progress so far. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Donovan family for continuing a safe and full recovery.

Volunteers of the Year

Gale & Frank Pritchett

Photo by Annette Prell

Hume Coal Australian National One Day Event Championships

2-3 July 2011 - CNC Intro - Pre Novice & CIC*, CIC** & CIC***

All CC analysis

All Results

Course Notes

Photos by Edwina Grant

Where to stay around Berrima or Stabling & Camping at Mossvale Showground

Café Araluen – our gourmet canteen – is a major fundraiser for our club. Well done, Michele Scamps, Kathy Roche and Meredith Lawson, for your assistance with Café Araluen. You will have seen our new 25m x 65m Jumping Warm Up arena and the fence around the Jumping Arena. And we contribute significantly to new construction on the Cross Country. If you give us the custom our great food deserves, you will get to ride over the canteen profits!!!

Course Updates

28.6.2011 - We have substantially changed the Two and Three Star courses for this event – a degree of rebuild that has not been seen before in the 20 year history of Berrima Horse Trials. The aims of this were to modernise the course, to improve the footing and to improve the flow of the course. However, it also gave us the chance to rebalance the course - a handful of big but straightforward fences to settle the horses, then a complex to test and slow them down, then more straightforward “recovery” fences to reward and relax the horses, prior to the next complex. Read more here

Weather and course update 19.6.11 - Course Builder Brett Ryan and his assistant Henk Brus are making great progress on the course. The second element to the bounce has been rebuilt – click on Bounce to see a picture. Unfortunately, there has been a huge amount of rain – so the Institute Water will need to be bypassed – and the new 3*/2* creek crossing is on hold for another few months – see before and after pictures! See the Snake to see what happens when the creek runs a banker!! The good news is … the going is superb!!

14 June 2011 - we have spread 100 tonnes of sand, 100 tonnes of aggregate and 40 tonnes of stable manure on our Jumping Arena and our Jumping WarmUp Arena to provide better all weather footing – so far the rabbits think this is wonderful! We have about 12 new fences – both fixed and portable – being built by our master course builder Brett Ryan over the next few weeks. And that includes a new second element to the famous Coolaroo Alpaca Bounce! As usual, our tracks will be fresh and different from previous events- for all grades. In particular we have worked hard to make the Three Star and Two Star tracks more flowing. The heavy rain experienced in the last two weeks have made for exceptional footing, but we still plan to renew many of our jumps with new take-off and landing footings. The downside of the heavy rain is that we may be unable to construct the new 2* and 3* Wells Creek Crossing – a more horse friendly creek crossing for our best horses – by the time of the event – it is currently under 1.5 metres of water! And we have gravelled the steep part of the track out of the parking paddock towards the exit gate. We have also installed clear blinds to stop the cruel west wind coming into the clubhouse. And no more exploding gas bottles – we have installed central gas lines into the BarBQ and kitchen areas!! Talk about progress!!! Oh yes –I forgot to say that we have moved the start of the 1*, 2* and 3* XC courses so they no longer have to gallop over the bridge after the first fence!

April, 2011 - General improvements that will be noticeable to all are the construction of a wooden fence around the Jumping Arena, the construction of a Jumping Warm Up arena, that will be in use for this event, and the flattening and footing improvement in the new dedicated dressage area adjacent to the highway (where we used to have Show Jumping). Our parking will also be changed, with all trucks and semis to be parked on the southern side of the creek, and all floats to be on the northern side across the creek, after we had several large trucks bogged at our last event.

What about the Cross Country course?

After our CIC last March, we had poor entries in the Two and Three Star classes – so we went to the professional riders and asked: what does Berrima need at this level? We received some very healthy feedback, and are well into the process of addressing these issues. What sorts of issues were brought up by the senior riders? Here are the major ones:

· Too many drop fences – hard on the legs of our best horses, some unnecessary – eg unfinished bridge

· Poor footing around fences – some fences with very hard / rocky takeoffs and landings.

· Poor footing between fences – especially in gateways and crossing farm tracks

· Tending to be too technical – not enough big but straightforward fences.

· Too much twisting and turning – insufficient flowing nature

· Tight turn from last fence to finish and too tight an area to pull up after finishing

· The Institute Water was not horse friendly with its many drops

· Alpaca Bounce in One Star needs redesign – as horses are not reading it well and riders are not riding it well.

· More attention needs to be given to track preparation – mulching & mowing – for the star classes

So what have we been doing about it?

Firstly, Berrima Horse Trials undertook to make significant efforts to address these issues, and to that end applied to run the Australian One Day Event Championships at our CIC – now to be held in July, as the senior riders told us that that is when the sport needed a CIC rather than March – to show our improvements to the sport. Secondly, we decided to consult some senior TDs, Course Designers and riders for more detailed advice on the course.

Then we started – last year we laid over 200 tonnes of roadbase to improve the farm tracks and gateways, and there is about another 100 tonnes more to be laid on takeoffs and landings prior to the July event. We redesigned the finish to give better flow and a nice flat straight pull-up area. The Stone Wall – the last fence for over 10 years – will be jumped in the reverse direction as the second last fence from July. The track has been redesigned to be more flowing – though not all the benefits will be seen until July. Many of the drops have gone or have been modified. A significant number of new 3 star fences - right up to height and width – will be built. Indeed, four have been constructed for the April event by our course builder Brett Ryan. The Tertini Water in front of the Clubhouse has had a major facelift. The front of the Alpaca Bounce has been rebuilt. The Institute Water is being revamped.

The track preparation has had some ups and down – the season has given us over a metre of grass in some areas, the PTO on the tractor that we mulch with is showing its age and keeps breaking, but our share farmer has made hay in several large paddocks leaving footing that looks like a fairway at Royal Sydney! And our Course Designer had a full shoulder reconstruction 3 weeks before the event, is in a sling for 6-8 weeks and cannot drive a tractor! We are also committed to improving our dressage and jumping footing with sawdust and sand topdressing on an ongoing basis.

Berrima is committed to regaining its status of being one of the best Eventing courses in the country – as well as maintaining its reputation for rider-friendly administration and smooth running. Come and see it for yourself!

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