Australia: Heat took its toll at Oberon ride

Mudgee Guardian
0/03/2009 3:32:00 PM

The heat took its toll on riders during the Oberon endurance ride on March 1, with hot and dry conditions proving different from previous rides.

There were 107 entries received on the day, and participants tackled the deceptive, up and down, course over four events.

Three entrants started at 2am in the FEI 20km event while 31 entrants tackled the FEI 80km and 60 entrants participated in the 80km ERA event at 5am.

Thirteen entrants were ready to go at daylight with the start of the 40km trainer.

Mudgee was well represented with five riders competing successfully in the different events.

Mette Sutton riding Tuldar the Magician and Paddy Smith riding Jamaal elected to tackle the FEI 80km. Mette and The Magician finished fifth in the middleweight while Paddy and Jamaal were successful in the heavyweight division.

Sutton’s time was five hours, six minutes.

Sutton commented that it was very dark at the start of the race and it seemed to take forever for daylight to appear.

“It was a bit of a scramble strapping the horses after the first 30km leg, as there was only a 30 minute hold time and the horses didn’t have much opportunity to recover, eat and drink,” Sutton said.

“It was a little better after the second 30km as there was a 40 minute hold and after the final 20km leg there was a 60 minute hold in which to present to the vets.”

Garry Bennett and Karabil Yanigi, Bernice King and Noble Navaar Destiny and Haydn Fisher and Silky entered the ERA 80km.

Bennett and Yaningi repeated their previous success again, taking home the ride winner and first in the middleweight division in only four hours and 50 minutes. Yaningi was also awarded the best-conditioned horse prize.

King and Destiny completed successfully in a time of six hours, 53 minutes, while Fisher and Silky were third in the heavy weight competition in seven hours and 24 minutes. Silky was also awarded the best-conditioned horse.

Following the third ride at Oberon at the end of the month, the next zone ride will be at Tooraweenah on April 19.

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