After a few days of grandma-ing in Melbourne I drove across the city to Flemington to meet up with 6 other horsey women from Canberra and Queensland. Loretta, Pen, Deb, Monika, Fiona and Lisa.
On the first day of Equitana we were given our wrist bands which gave us access to everything - over 64 presenters from all over the world, I don't know how many horses and riders but there were a lot, from 9am until as late midnight for four days in a row!
We stayed in an apartment next to the race track and show grounds. Each day after breakfast we walked about 800m to the showgrounds and spent the entire day moving from exhibit to performance to shopping to food stalls to competition to display to evening show and then walked back to our apartment after dark to fall into bed and repeat the routine the next day. Doesn't sound like fun? Oh, but it was!
Equitana is a 4 day festival-competition-trade show of all things horsey. There was nothing like this forty odd years ago when I had my own horses! We watched world class grand prix dressage. Olympic riders and international judges and presenters. The finals of the grand prix dressage competition was freestyle dressage performed to music that was just incredibly beautiful to watch. Dancing with horses.
The winners parade.
One of the dressage riders presenting a session in one of the small indoor arenas.
Many different breeds of horses were on display from tiny little minature horses which are not ridden...
To massive draft horses. This one is a clydesdale. Formerly used for farm work such as ploughing they are now popular for riding due to their strength for carrying larger riders and their calm nature.
This is a minature horse jumping more than his own height. He is on a lead like a dog. His handler is just out of shot running beside him on the left.
A Fjord pony from Norway competing in a harness racing obstacle course. Love the hair style in his mane.
A Shetland pony pelting through the course.
Icelandic pony. These hardy little fellows have an extra have an extra gait that other horses don't have. Apparently it is very comfortable.
Halflinger from Switzerland. So pretty.
International standard show jumpers. Their jumps start at 1.6m in height. The highest I have ever jumped, back in the day, was 1.5m. But that was on Fury who was only 14.1 hands or 1.5m high.
The most exciting night time entertainment was the puisance competition which involves a short show jumping course with a final huge wall. After each round the horses that jump all the jumps without knocking any down progress to the next round and the jumps are raised. It is quite easy to knock the tops off the jumps as they are not attached, just balanced. This is the final wall being raised to I think it was about 2.17 metres.
Nope. Not jumping this one, mate!
Over we go! There is a lot of trust between horse and rider for a horse to attempt a jump he cannot see over.
One of the highlights of Equitana was The Way of the Horse competition which was held over 4 days. 4 horse trainers each chose a young unridden unhandled horse from a group of Morgan horses - an Amercan breed.
Each day they spent 75 minutes, including 10 minutes of rest for the horse, in a round yard training their horse. It was amazing to watch the transformation of quite wild and very nervous horses to ones that followed their trainers around willingly.
On the final day the horses were ridden in the arena.
Watching the bond develop between the horses and their trainers who all used very gentle methods was magic. Two of the four trainers even bought the horses they were training. One bought it for his wife and another got all teary when someone asked what would happen to the horse after the competition and he said "I knew then that she had to come home with me."
All types of riding styles were represented. There was western style riding.
Kids on stock horses.
Barrel racing! So fast!
And working horses with no bridles known as liberty horses, or natural horsemanship.
These are the Double Dans, two mates both called Dan who began performing shows about 10 years ago with a tv appearance on Australia's Got Talent when they took two horses in to the tv studio. Two fine horsemen with comedic talent.
This is also how horses who appear in movies are trained.
We saw a computerized mechanical horse. Learn to ride without worrying about the weather or falling off the horse.
Horses in pjs. Compression suits for horses.
And oh my goodness! The shopping! There is so much more choice than when I was young! Mum and Dad, your bank balance would have been under so much more pressure if all this had been available back then!
Yes, we all bought something. Those of us who do not own horses bought horsey clothing. Fiona and Lisa bought pressies for their horses as well as themselves. Loretta almost took home a horse - a $1500 handmaid wooden rocking horse, but settled for riding clothes and a very nice new helmet with an equally 'nice' price tag.
Mum, remember the Easy Boots we tried? Now there are several brands and types and so many colours! I bet they fit better and stay on. Some of these are used on competition horses eg, for cross country jumping.
How about a new truck? For a mere $500,000 to $770,000 you can carry 3 or 4 horses in comfort plus 4 people can eat, sleep and even shower in the same truck. Luxury!
What do you do when there are too many people at a session you want to see? Fiona, Loretta and Deb found a way to see the action.
Ex-race horses being retrained for new careers in dressage and eventing through the Off The Track program. One of them had a funny thing he did with his front legs while walking. Every now and then he would throw them out in front like a high goose step as if to say "Look at me. Look at me!" Apparently he used to do the same thing after he finished a race. Quite the show-off.
Meeting celebrities of the horse world. This is Monika with riding teacher Natasha Althoff. Other favourites of ours were the lovely Pedro Torres from Portugal, the amazing Stacy Westfall from the US and the Double Dans. We also saw Australian Olympian Andrew Hoy who fell flat on his face and knocked down some jump rails while walking during his presentation - it was quite funny. And so many more amazing horse people.
Hunting with horses and hounds.
Horses in harness.
Hang on! That's not a horse!
Niether are they. These massive bulks were trained to run up a ramp on the front end of the trailer and stand on the roof during the show.
The show did include horses and dogs and a child. It was supposed to be the main highlight of the evening entertainment but it was, well, ok but not great.
There were also para-equestrians, archery on horse back, children racing against adults through two identical side-by-side show jump courses, brumbies caught from the Australian mountains that were being trained and sold as riding horses often for children and other horsey goodness I did not get good photos of.
Equitana was all about sharing the love of horses and friends. A champagne toast to Equitana.
Now - we were all rearing to head to the High Country and RIDE!!!
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