Suzanne Hearn Seeking Her 1st Olympic Start, Rides Remmington to Best Aussie Score So Far in Odense Selection Show
9 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Suzanne Hearn Seeking Her 1st Olympic Start, Rides Remmington to Best Aussie Score So Far in Odense Selection Show
ODENSE, Denmark, May 13, 2016–Suzanne Hearn, competing outside Australia for the first time, was her nation’s leading rider on Remmington in the Odense CDI3* Grand Prix the start of two European shows to select the team for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August.
Suzanne, 60 years old from Bowral about an hour southwest of Sydney and the 14-year-old Australian gelding she has been competing at Big Tour for the past 2 1/2 years scored 68.820 per cent for fifth place overall. It was the best result of the four Australian combinations in the CDI3* Grand Prix.
Kelly Layne, based in Wellington, Florida who is 41 years old at this show, was the second ranked Aussie on her Udon P on 67.880 per cent and sixth overall.
Mary Hanna, 61 years old based in Australia and the veteran of the squad with four Olympics on her record, was third placed Aussie on Boogie Woogie with 67.540 per cent and seventh overall.
Brett Parbery, 44 of Penrose, Australia and DP Weltmieser, 13-year-old Australian Warmblood gelding, scored 65.180 per cent for 11th place overall.
Three other Australian combinations, Maree Tomkinson on Diamantina, Kristy Oatley on Du Soleil and Mary Hanna on Umbro, will compete in the CDIO3* Nations Cup Saturday at this event, the first of two observation events in Europe, the other being Rotterdam, Netherlands June 23-26.
Lyndal Oatley, based in Germany, kept her family’s Sandro Boy, a 15-year-old Oldenburg gelding, at home when found to be not fit enough for the competition.
If the horse, the highest placed combination on the Australian team at the 2012 Olympics and second highest at the 2014 World Games, is able to compete the pair will have to overcome a big hurdle. The Australian selection criteria assigns a score of the average of the three lowest scores from the competition missed. So far at this show, that average is 66.866.
Kristy Oatley, also based in Germany and a three-time Olympian, withdrew her Ronan from the CDI3* competition when the 16-year-old Oldenburg stallion was not feeling well after arriving in Odense.
