Report courtesy of Warwick Horse Trials

Congratulations to Kevin McNab and Hufflepuff who took out the FEI Eventing CICW World Cup Qualifier at Warwick on the weekend just gone.

Kevin came into this event with a second World Cup qualifier in Melbourne and went head to head with Wendy Schaeffer on Koyuna Sundancer who had won the Melboure event. In the lead from the dressage phase, Kevin and Hufflepuff jumped clear in cross country and, with only 2 rails down in the jumping they were deserving victors.

Kevin is a Warwick Horse Trials member and the whole club is thrilled to see him victorious - especially after the trauma of Equine Influenza in 2007.

To make it an even better weekend, Kevin rode Game Play to second place in the CICW and it is worth noting that both his horses were in this place from the dressage phase to conclusion. Kevin also was a part of the team that took out the teams event.

Kerrie Bowman from South Australia was fourth after the dressage. Despite picking up some time faults on the cross country course, jumped clear and moved up to third.

Fourth place went to Wendy Schaeffer on Koyuna Sun Dancer. Sitting in third after the dressage, the combination had one refusal at the tight and technical first water.

Local rider, Natalie Siiankoski on KS Archie was 5th after a clear cross country but did encounter some problems with the showjumping and had 22 faults in that phase.

Filling sixth place was Robert Palm on He's The One. Robert is a regular at our event and had two horses in the Three Star. This combination picked up some time faults on the Cross Country and had two rails down in the Show Jumping.

Coming into the event, the weather was dismal... rainy and cold!!! However, the weekend put on some lovely weather and the rain in the previous week had made the going on the course superb. The course looked wonderful and the jump that had caused a lot of discussion in previous years was finally jumped! This year, the island in question, was put out of the water and the riders had to negotiate the jump out, a bounce to the island and then a roll top off the island to a maximum drop. All horses handled it well and it was a great thrill for spectators to see some excellent riding by the riders and wonderful athleticism by the horses.

In all, there were 260 horse and rider combinations at the event and everything ran very smoothly. At home, using ALL our own facilities for the first time, it was a great pleasure to be able to see all 8 rings of dressage and both rings of showjumping whilst seated at a dining table within the canteen.