Irish Olympic eventer Aoife Clark managed to jump clear round an international cross-country track – although her stirrup had snapped in two early on course.
Oxfordshire-based Aoife was riding seven-year-old gelding Fetiche Des Rouge, known at home as “Radish”, in the Millstreet CCI3*-S in Ireland on 25 August, when she “felt something go” at fence five, the first water combination.
“I jumped in and I thought maybe I’d just lost my stirrup. I jumped the fence out and went to try and recover it, and no joy,” she told H&H.
“I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on so I jumped the next fence, but then I realised pretty quickly after that it had snapped in half and there was nothing to put my foot on. I thought ‘I’ve come all this way and I’m not pulling up’.
“The next fence was the Irish bank and there was a skinny triple brush three strides after. That was the only time I thought I’d best do the alternative route because when he jumped off the bank I was balancing on my right leg and I thought it’s not very fair on a green seven-year-old to try to aim at a triple brush when I’m balancing on one side. Other than that he was super and popped round.”
Aoife, who said the stirrups were a “bit older”, completed the course clear – but picked up some time faults to finish the competition 38th.
“Annoyingly, I was fifth going into the cross-country but I had to go a bit steadier after that. He’s a young horse and jumped double clear at his first CCI3* so I was really happy with him. I’m sure there were parts of it he must have thought ‘What the hell is she doing?’,” said Aoife.
“I’ve no idea how Toddy went round Badminton with one stirrup [in 1995], because it’s bloody hard work! It was quite funny because I hadn’t realised people had noticed I was missing a stirrup, I was just focusing on getting round and not making a mess of it. By the time I got the last water I had people cheering me on to get home which was really nice, so it was a bit of a laugh by the end of it. New stirrups needed now!”
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