A
TRIBUTE TO A GREAT HORSE
by his great rider, Vicki Roycroft
This very sad announcement arrived this morning
and I will leave it as it was sent as nobody can word it better than Vicki
herself.
The thoughts of Australian showjumping fans are with you this morning Vicki.
January
is not a good month
for the Roycrofts.........
APACHE, arguably the best show jumper ever produced in Australia, died this
morning aged 26.
Bought by me as a bit of a rank 4 year old just because I liked his colour,
PACH went onto be one of the most consistent and successful jumpers in the
country, turning A Grade as an 8 year old. He won the Pacific League World
Cup leaderboard in the 1986/87 season, culminated by a memorable win in the
Grand Prix at Wentworth Park, and thus we headed to Europe early in '87, where
he produced the best performance by an Australian horse in a World Cup Final
when he was placed in every leg and ended up 11th in Paris.
Two weeks later he beat the best horses in the world in a field that included
that year's World Cup winner THE NATURAL (Katherine Burdsall USA), current
Olympic Champion TOUCH OF CLASS and Joe Fargis and the soon to be Olympic
Champion JAPPELOUP and Pierre Durand in the Grand Prix at the Rome CSIO. This
performance and others such as a top 10 placing in the Aachen Grand Prix had
him ranked as one of the top 10 jumpers in the world in 1987. Not bad for
a hot little 15.3 hh thoroughbred off the track.
That year he was sold to Susanne Bond, who had great success with him in the
US, and was a member of the winning Australian Nation Cup team in Hungary
in 1991. Susanne later sold him to young rider Kate Majors, and we purchased
him from her in 1996 as 19 year old in order to retire him. However PACH had
other ideas, and proved to be still so sound and well that I campaigned him
in Grand Prixs for another 6 months before he had his 'official' retirement
after winning his final class at the Pacific League World Cup Final at Horseworld.
So he's had 8 years as a happy pensioner in the 20 acre jumping field on our
property, where he has been joined by TRUE COLOURS, and last year, COALMINER.
It's been fun to be able to see the old guys every day in their lush, green
paddock.
Rest in peace little mate, because you have given me more joy than any other
horse ever could.
Vicki and Wayne.
