Tom Quilty 2019 – part 1
My Quilty story actually starts back on December 13, 2016. It was my parents wedding anniversary and we’d all been out for dinner, driving home I sort of noticed a shadow at the top of my right eye… was it really there? Got home, “yes I think it is”. In spite of the optometrist not being able to find anything wrong, by the 16th it had progressed to totally black to below the pupil. Very scary, all I could see out that eye was downward peripheral. The optometrist sent me to hospital with the comforting thoughts “They’ll probably do a brain scan… but don’t worry”. Yeah, right… you may have a brain tumour, but try not to worry! The ophthalmologists at hospital found my lack of any other symptoms confusing but put me on intravenous steroids, that seemed to do the trick, at least my eye got no worse after that. Nothing quite like sitting in hospital unable to sleep due to the steroids and wondering if you have a brain tumour to put life in perspective! Thankfully no tumour, it was optic neuritis, inflammation of the optic nerve.
The relevance of all that is that the North Island Champs were approaching on the 21st of January, would I be able to ride? What forms would I have to fill out for the steroids? Already I had missed Tigger’s final training event the previous weekend, you can’t travel to a ride three hours away if you need to be in hospital! Thankfully my friend, Ashley, was able to step up and ride him in the 100km – she had Aussie’s on her horses that weekend. It wasn’t until well after she had successfully completed the ride – second to her own horse – that I found out she had a broken rib! A true friend!
As I lay in hospital on Christmas Day Kerry said that her son in law was suggesting his friend, an Australian, Brook Sample might like to ride Tigger. FEI rides are even more scarce and expensive in Australia so it was a good opportunity for him. The dilemma… would I be better in time to ride?… or not? Who was Brook anyway? (ok so I didn’t follow Aussie endurance much back then!) It turns out Brook has won the Quilty 7 times… he’s probably good enough then!! As he would need time to plan his trip I had to decide, and it came down to “If you are well enough then just suck it up and be grateful.” Also the opportunity to get to know such an experienced rider was going to be great. So yes, if he wanted to, Brook could ride Tigger in the 160km 3*… He did want.
That all went well, I was a lot better by then and we all had a good time at the Champs. Tigger and Brook successfully completed the ride at the requested speed coming in 5th, and I had the promise of a ride in Australia. Well, what better ride to ask for but for the Tom Quilty in Queensland in 2019! Of course it was being held at Brook’s brother Matthew’s property at Sterling Crossing and Brook lived nearby. Perfect, I wouldn’t have asked for a ride in a Quilty that was in a different State, that would be much harder to supply an extra horse.
Everyone knew it was going to be a huge event. We’d seen photos of the amazing, purpose built venue with its huge under-cover vetting area and there were stories about the toilet facility! It’s not far over the ditch so a large number of Kiwi’s were going (New Zealanders), only five were lucky enough to be riding though. My good friends Ashley and Nadine were going to be crewing for our Aussie friend Jolene and her daughter, Emma. Initially it was planned that we would travel and camp together, but they had been to previous Quilty’s and realised that our horses were likely to be camped at opposite ends of a large base and so that was not a good plan. Happily Kerry and Richard decided to come too, so not only could I share a little camper van with them I had my own crew!
We arrived at base on Tuesday. The pens were set up and ready, goose neck trailers, caravan and tents in place… but no horses. Living so close it was easy to set everything up earlier, the horses and people wouldn’t be here until tomorrow. Time to check out the famous toilet block… apparently it had heated floors! They did not disappoint. Although not the closest toilets to our camp they were always first choice during the cold nights! Yes they were heated, so nice.
My horse was to be Gheerulla Amethyst, an 8 year old chestnut mare who had previously not gone further than 80km. This suited me just fine, with her age and inexperience I was pretty sure my task would be to look after her, take it easy and ride for a completion. Great, not too much pressure for my first Quilty! Leigh Ann, Brook’s wife, had reported that she was a really nice mare with no issues – always good to hear.
We met the horses shortly after they unloaded out on the road. There had been rain a few days earlier and the ground was very soft in places… trucks were getting stuck. There was my little Amethyst! Although she is probably 15hh there was not much to her so she seemed smaller. A quick hello and I’m leading her to camp with instructions to start getting to know her.
Not long after they arrived the horses were off for a walk. They got walked three times a day, sometimes with a stop for grass. Initially I took Amethyst but Kerry soon took over, and Richard also got in the act, as with eight horses in our camp there were not always enough people around.
Thursday was my first ride on Amethyst, a chance to get all my gear sorted… is the saddle ok for me? Stirrups ok? Right length? How do you adjust a crupper? None of us had used one before. What type of reins do I like? With such a big team, and more helpers arriving each day, Brook’s camp ran like clockwork, everyone was kept informed of the plan for the day and what time things were going to happen. This was excellent as it meant we knew when we were needed and thus could use any spare time to explore and catch up with friends. Ashley and Nadine were right, their camp was at least 5 minutes walk away, had I been staying with them I would have had to spend time in both camps and not had the chance to get fully involved with my team – and a lot more walking. So although we had a brief sit by their camp fire, and bumped into them a few times I didn’t get to spend much time with them or my other Aussie friends they were crewing for, you want to socialise at your own camp fire and get to know and enjoy all these new friends.
The training track was part of the course itself, forestry tracks of varying widths. The main central road out from base and then smaller side roads going off in loops. We rode single file, with Brook in the lead setting the pace. Amethyst was lovely. Brook would call out questions and instructions for the riders trying out their new mounts – how is you gear? This is the plan for your horse. And he was very happy to answer any questions or concerns. I was instructed to walk up hills but was allowed to jog down ones that were not too steep, I could stay on or lead the hills as I saw fit. The next day as we were going up a gentle hill I asked whether it counted as a hill in our ride plan, there are a lot of hills in New Zealand rides, it would not count as a hill for us. “Probably not in the first few loops, but possibly in the last couple” came the answer, so it was my call… or rather Amethyst’s.
Thursday afternoon saw us attending a walk through of the timing system and vetting procedure which was very valuable.
All too soon it was Friday and we were entering and pre-ride weighing. We don’t have enough riders in NZ to have weight divisions so I didn’t know how that worked or what the weights were. Surprise, I was lightweight! That saddle was a bit lighter than my ones at home. All good for Amethyst though, and with us just riding for a completion it didn’t matter. Lightweights are not eligible to win the Cup, just their division and the possibility of finishing top ten and being in the overall best conditioned, Pat Slater, trophy.
Another training ride, back for lunch then time to clean up the horses for pre-ride vetting. A bit of instruction as to how the horses were used to being trotted out, a practice in front of the boss, and we were off to the vet ring. 20 lanes! 3 Kiwi vets and the head vet was Matthew who had come out to NZ twice to vet at our marathon ride, always nice to see familiar faces. All the horses vetted fine, we all had our start in TQ19 at midnight!
Pre-ride briefing was huge, with nearly 300 horses starting and crew also in attendance the large marquee was packed. Thanks to having done the walk through and studying the course maps which were in our rider packs there were no surprises – all good.
Off to be early, we were getting up again in only a few hours to get our horses ready to ride!
