Stuart Tinney ‘Celebrates’ A Return to the Competition Arena

This past weekend saw a return to competition for many of our High Performance Eventing Squad Riders with the NCHTA Horse Trials, Canberra staging a greatly anticipated event.

For Stuart Tinney the weekend held numerous reasons to celebrate including his win in the CNC4*S class riding Elisabeth Brinton’s stunning chestnut gelding ‘Celebration’, or Charlie as he is known at home. 

This combination has seen much success together with the pair also taking top honours at Melbourne International Three Day Event CCI4*L and the Sydney International Horse Trials CCI4*S in 2019.

The combination, which has their sights set firmly set on Tokyo 2020 team selection, led the field from the very beginning producing a beautiful dressage test that scored an impressive 23.20.

 Photo: Stuart and 'Charlie' at Canberra Horse Trials

Stuart and Charlie took the rest of the competition in their stride looking the picture of class throughout the day. They jumped clear over a challenging cross country course incurring only 4 time faults, the lowest number obtained by any combination in the CNC4* class. 

The showjumping phase saw them deliver an effortless round with no faults, securing them first place from a very competitive field.

Fellow Olympian Shane Rose and Easy Turn finished in second place with a score of 35.60, and Hazel Shannon riding Willinga Park Clifford finished in 3^rd place with an overall score of 38.00

Start also had a second ride in the CNC4* competition, the 9-year-old gelding Leporis, with whom he placed 4^th. 

The global pandemic has presented Australian riders with overwhelming challenges and has forced the revision of carefully planned training and competition schedules. Stuart and his team have taken the forced break in competition to continue to hone theirs skills and perfect their training at home, which is clearly working.

“It is great to be back out eventing again and it is nice to know the training is paying off, all horses went well especially Elisabeth Brinton's Celebration. 

We were very happy with his (Celebration’s) dressage test scoring 23.20 and his win. Well done to organising committee to get us up and competing in this difficult time” commented Stuart.

With the competitive juices once again flowing Stuart, ‘Charlie’ and his team are keen to keep the momentum going in the lead up to Tokyo 2020.

Full results from the competition can be found here