Catherine Davies Story

The Queen’s Birthday long weekend saw the 50 th anniversary of the Melbourne International Three Day Event. I was lucky to have two horses prepared for the event – my number 1 horse Queen’s Ransom and my up and coming star Queen’s Charisma.

The event is renowned for its ordinary weather, and this year was no exception. The first 2 days brought thick fog, but luckily the dressage was held indoors. Queen’s Charisma was the 5 th on in the 1* competition, in a field of 69 horses. She did a really calm and accurate test, and was leading after day 1. I was convinced that someone on the second day would take over the lead, but no one did! Queen’s Ransom did his dressage on the second day and he was the 6 th horse into the arena in the CCI***. He also did a very nice test, and ended up placing 3 rd. A few people has said that I was marked harshly, but that is dressage. On the whole I was very pleased with both of them.

Luckily cross country morning was clear, but very cold. Queen’s Charisma went out at 8:15, so it was still freezing. She felt fantastic. I was prepared for anything to happen on her, as this was only her 4 th run at this level, and it was a reasonably tough track. She felt bold and fast, and came in clear and under time. I then had most of the day to wait until Queen’s Ransom went out. Because he was early in the class, I had not heard any reports as to how the course was riding, but he has been a faithful partner for a long time, and I knew how I had to ride him. He went out a bit spooky, because the first fence was in the indoor arena, but he quickly got into his rhythm and then there was no stopping him. He tackled everything as well as I could have ever expected, and came in clear and under time. I was so excited to have had 2 great rounds, but even more excited when I found out Queen’s Ransom was the only 3* horse to have gone clear and under time, and had gone into the lead. The pressure was on!

Both horse pulled up extremely well, and trotted up without a glitch. As both were in the lead, I had a long wait in each class, as they jump in reverse order. It gave me the chance to watch a few horses go and see how the course was riding. Queen’s Charisma was a bit distracted when she cantered into the arena as it was full of people and very noisy. She unfortunately had the first fence down, as she was still very distracted and this showed how green she still is. This dropped us down one placing to 2 nd. Queen’s Ransom is renowned for not being the world’s best Show Jumper. He had warmed up well, and cantered into the ring feeling great. In his true style, he was totally unaffected by the crowd and had 4 rails down. Not our best round, and enough to drop us to 4 th place. Slightly disappointing, but my day was brightened when they announced the squad for the World Equestrian Games, and we were named on this squad.

Both horses are now having a well earned break, with Queen’s Ransom having his cut-short to come back into work for the WEG Squad Camp in late July.

Thank you Mitavite for your continued support, and for having my horses looking and feeling fantastic.

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