10/02/08
Firstly I’d just like to say thank-you to everyone who has been working tirelessly on eradicating EI from Australia. It appears so far that the right decision was made to eradicate the disease and I’m sure there will be some substantial improvements in quarantine to prevent it from re-entering Australia.
This year has started slowly for me competition wise as we haven’t been able to get the blood tests done yet for the resolved horses. We have the vet booked in for early this week so hopefully there won’t be a cancellation and we don’t get rained out because I am looking forward to being able to jump my own horses again.
I have however still competed at the Toowoomba Australia Day jumping day ( click here for full results) with Thistlehill Fleetwood owned by Fiona Wallis of Canungra. As it was his first jump since July 07 we started small with the 1.05 and cantered around for 2nd place to Gemma Creighton. We then started in the 1.25m indoor which he jumped well in but had a rail early to place 4th.
On the 9th of Feb I travelled to Allora and met Fiona again to compete at Mac’s second show for the year. With just the one start for the day in the 1.25m he was jumping really well for a clear round. Third to go in the jump off and chasing Jodi Berman riding Black Russian who had a fast clean round Mac and I found one of the oxers a little wide and touched the back rail leaving Jodi Berman to win and she also came second on Will e Go with another fast clean round. Jodi also won the Young Rider class with Tom Sedger second on Montreal.
All the news for now,
-Robert
22/02/08
Press - EI update (full report)
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Nominations out for Sports Star Awards
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High profile showjumper and EI Project vaccinations officer Robert Goodwin is one of 11 nominees for the 2008 Warwick Sports Star of the Year Awards.
The winner will be named at a gala awards night on March 10 at Warwick RSL Club and will receive $1000 cash.
At age 22 Robert has been in the saddle since the age of three and has represented Australia five times for showjumping in Germany, Korea and the United States. He is heavily involved in his family’s warmblood breeding enterprise and regularly coaches other riders.
His competition and training schedule was put on hold due to EI and since October he has been working with the DPI&F, first as the field assistant for the Warwick Community Resource Centre and most recently as the vaccinations officer for Pittsworth.
“My horses are back in work now and I’m hoping to compete in the London Olympics… that’s the plan anyway,” he smiled.
Former manager Kirsty O’Connell said Robert’s industry knowledge, contacts and people skills have represented a great asset to the EI Eradication Project.
Photo by Angela Moar: Robert Goodwin competing in the high jump competition at Cairns with his eight-year-old gelding Warrego Sandman.
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28/02/08
11/03/08
Well here we are.. The end of EI is well and truly in sight and what a relief it will be to finally see the back of it.
I've competed at two shows in the last two weeks. Ipswich which were run by the EFA Show Jumping committee and Pittsworth which was run by the Pittsworth show society. Both show were run very well and had good numbers.
I rode 8 horses at Ipswich, 2 of which Fiona Wallis bought up from the Coast for me. All of the horses jumped well with some placing but most notably Thistle Hill Fleetwood of Fiona Wallis’ came 1st in the 1.20m which puts him into “B” grade and after jumping around the solid 1.30 track without problems I expect the A & B grade competition will suit him.
The other horses to place were
Warrego Sandon –
3rd in the 1.40m
5th in the 1.30m
Early Times –
5th in the 1.20m
2nd in the 1.10m
Pittsworth Show was on the 8th of March. I took a team of 6 including Sandon, Sandman, Early Times, Astro Boy, Dice and Sam. First up was the D grade which Astro Boy jumped around well but with 1 rail. The organisers allowed horses with faults to start in the second round so jumped again well. Next class was the A and B grade Grand Prix which they changed to an A,B and C grade to raise the numbers. I started Sandon and Sandman. Both had a rail in the first round to finish 5th and 6th. The last class of the day was the C & D grade Championship. After 2 rounds there were 3 clean including David Finch, Anthony Murry and Myself. First in the third round was David who jumped a great round but unfortunately had a rail. I jumped next on Early Times for a nice tight round but also 1 rail so was left to Muzza to jump clean for the win.
Sandon
5th A & B
Sandman
6th A & B
Early Times
2nd C & D Championship
12/03/08
