Mixed results for Australia at Bangkok CSIY-B

2013 CSIY-B Bangkok

The Australian team was represented by Clint Beresford (NSW), Gemma Creighton (QLD) and Zoe Boulton (VIC).

For the level of competition, the Thailand Equestrian Federation supplied a quality group of horses that were well schooled and more than capable mounts for the young rider event. The Australian Team in the first event were in a commanding position after Clint had a lovely clear round on Yutthachai and Zoe got the best out of her mount Pong-Dej after having some problems in the warm up. She had two rails but the team were up for the challenge when Gemma had an unfortunate gear failure after two fences and the team was  eliminated from the second round. Thailand A team went on to win the Team event and were deserved recipients of the blue sash and winners trophy. Hong Kong were second and Singapore filled third position.

The show format had one representative from each team selected to ride in the individual event. As the best performed rider in the individual competition for Australia, Clint gained the ride on Fluke in the new draw for horses and was rewarded with a near perfect round which left him in fourth place overall as the slowest four faulter. Chonnikarn Siyano (Thailand) riding Lam-Luk was the only clear round and was the winner of the individual event on no penalties. Mohamad Adam Firdaus (Indonesia) riding Panomtien filled second and Pimolmas Kitchaisawad Thailand riding Chana slipped into third . There were sixteen riders in total and the standard of riding was high with the clear round coming late in the event which was exciting for the large crowd in attendance.

The third event was an event where sponsors supplied horses and rode their own horse in the first round of a two round event . The second round required invited riders to perform over the same course which was around 1.25 m. Zoe teamed up with Supap khaw-Ngam on Ardbohill Lad - a good draw as it turned out, as the horse had been the individual silver medallist in Eventing at the Asian Games. They were rewarded with third place having a rail each over the testing course set by leading Iranian course designer Hossein Shafiee. Each course was testing but very rideable for the level of riders in each class which added to the enthusiasm of the appreciative crowd.

Unfortunately Gemma’s mount Fah-Sang who jumped nicely but lacked a little of the bravery of Ardbohill Lad and she had a date with some Thai Real Estate at jump four and was eliminated from the competition. Thai rider Siengsaw Lertratanachai combined with Chen Peng-Chen from Chinese Taipei on Elmo Bob to share the 30000 Thai baht (A$1000) for first place - a tidy day’s work for Chen over 1.25m and having not seen the horse before.

Overall there were some ups and downs and some character building experiences for the team, but a great experience combined with amazing hospitality displayed by the Thai Equestrian Federation .

Mix this a little with some traditional hot and spicy Thai Cuisine and the Aussie team left Thailand with a warm fuzzie feeling inside and some good friends to communicate with later on.