Report from South Korean borrowed horse event

The threat of a conflict was not evident in Seoul as the Australian riders arrived and tried their drawn horses for the CSI 1* Team competition. Rob drew Congratulation and managed a 4 fault round with his horse who was known to have a stop at the most inopportune times. A great ride from Rob and a clear round with Rick on Luckytraz and Ben on Cheerful Boy set the team up in equal first position for the second round. Rob led the charge in the deciding round and seemed to have the measure of Congratulation until an untimely dismount from a sudden decision to cease proceedings from his mount left the team in 5^th place overall . A four fault round from Rick and Ben was a good result from courses set by leading course builder Hossein Shafiee of Iran who is well respected for designing courses for horses and created courses that were flowing and very suitable for the standard of competition.

The Team competition was won by the host nation Korea with a total of eight penalties with daylight to second and Thailand on thirty seven faults and Kasakstan filling third place with fourty five penalties

Ben as the highest place Aussie rider in the Teams competition secured the new horse in the draw and had a tidy round with eight faults and a fifth placing overall in the Individual Event won by Yang Hung – Yu on Classic Klide. Second was Oleg Popelyaev from Kasakstan and Munsika P of Thailand filling third place.

The Korean equestrian association certainly put on a great show and they and the other teams were full of praise for the way the Australian riders handled their mounts and themselves in this international exchange of horsemanship and hospitality.

A great show and a great effort from the Aussie team to compete and communicate with nine other nations so far from home.