Last Updated: 26/10/2009

Description : Tooradin Horse Trials is one of our longest running events and has a proud history of winners in the open class that include some of Australia's best horses and riders of the last 25 years.

The small organising committee does a fantastic job of running a smooth running and friendly event. They run classes from Preliminary to CNC** and entries are always high.

Getting there : From Melbourne, follow the signs to Cranbourne on the South Gippsland Highway and continue through town towards Tooradin. Once in Tooradin, look out for a left turn just before crossing the river at Tooradin Station Rd. Follow this for about 1 km and turn left at Hopetoun Rd. You will see the horse trials on the right.

Facilities : Camping at Tooradin is not allowed and so competitors have to find overnight accomodation. The committee often helps those that need to find a place to stay for competitors horses.

There are a few options for parking on the day. For shade, there are some trees on varying slopes as you enter and this area also has the advantage of being near the water supply. 400 m into the property along the driveway, it flattens out in a paddock where there is excellent parking.

Toilets are portaloos. Food is usually available in the form of a pony club kiosk and BBQ.

Tips : There is not a lot of shade and those there early in the morning get the best spots. Mosquitos can be rampant here, so come prepared with the fly repellant.

Tooradin's courses are often rated as soft but due to the large number of upgrading horses, results often change a lot after all 3 phases are complete.

Be wary of the CNC * and CNC ** warm up area.

Courses

Prelim:

Pre-Novice:

One Star: (Adrian Bright 2008)

The one star has a lot of solid encouraging fences. There are only a few accuracy questions, including an apex early on and the only ditch is one with a large amount of brush. The water is stright forward and a fair test for an upgrading one star horse.

Two Star:

Warm up areas: The warm up area for the dressage is excellent as it is a large flat paddock with plent of room.

The cross country warm up is in the same paddock with show jump fences and a log to warm up over.

The show jumping for the senior classes has a difficult area to warm up in with limited space and approaches to the practice fences.

Helping: This is a private property, so please leave your space as you found it, removing all rubbish.

Tooradin regulars Yona and Nina Lloyd