Cushavon Park Stud News

July 2010
Irish Draught Inspection Day

July was a busy month at Cushavon Park as we hosted the annual Irish Draught inspection day. A total of 20 horses came forward for inspection and branding.

It was great to see such diversity in the breeding and to meet so many passionate Irish Draught enthusiasts.I think the breed is in very safe hands in Queensland.

A big thank you to our inspectors Sarah Myhill and Jenny Muir for making the trip up here from Melbourne and also to our hardworking registrar Xandria Hughes.

Figtree Pocket ODE

Cushavon Cuchulain had a great event at FTP recently posting an excellent dressage score and flying around the cross country clear and under time finishing in third place in the senior preliminary class.

The lovely Cait by Kings ridden by Linda Perkins had another solid event finishing third in the pre-novice class.

Owen Roe had his first eventing start in four years after Amanda Park found herself without a horse, due to an injury to Red Hugh, and finished a very respectable sixth in the introductory class.

June 2010
Toowoomba ODE

The Toowoomba Club always holds a great event and while the Saturday was cold and windy for the dressage, there was great weather on the Sunday for the cross country and show jumping.

The Cushavon Horses were first in the preliminary with new combination Anthony Cruickshank and Cushavon Cahir finishing on their dressage score.

Another great result was Linda Perkins and Cait (by King) who finished third in the pre-novice over a very testing cross country course.

Dressage

Leavara has had a couple of outings with rider Danielle Shearer. Firstly at the Caboolture dressage championships where he received some wonderful comments and marks.

Leavara also finished third at the recent PRARG ** with a score of 65.9 in the Novice. This stallion loves his work and continues to improve at every event.

April 2010
Cushavon Cuchulain Three Times Toowoomba Royal Supreme Champion

This striking young stallion has taken out the honours of being Champion led Irish Sport Horse for the third year in a row and he continues to improve each year. A little bit of age, two breeding seasons and lots of work for his eventing career has seen Cuchualin develop from the gangly youngster to the champion of today.

As usual he was impeccably behaved and gave a good account of himself not only in the led class but also in the ridden class where he was also placed first in a very decent line up of horses.

Cushavon Red Hugh continued to add to his impressive collection of wins taking out Champion led gelding and coming second in the ridden class. His rider Amanda Park, a quiet and accomplished rider is doing a fantastic job on Red having had great success not only in the showring but eventing aswell.

Congratulations to everyone who attended Toowoomba Royal.

Greenbank Show

Greenbank show is just a little country style show but it attracts many different breeds of horses and the Irish Draught Horse has been on their program for eight years.

There is not much parking and very little room to warm up or show the horses but everyone manages to get the job done.

As usual everyone turned their horses out well and the young ones and newcomers did great justice to the breed.

Big congratulations to Amanda Park who rode Cushavon Red Hugh for the Champion Led and Champion Ridden Irish Sport Horse. Bred and owned by Cushavon Park the stud is very grateful to Mandy for taking the ride on this wonderful, experienced little guy.

Beauvara also had a great show coming second to Red in the ridden class followed by Silvara (by Clintvara from Gaelic Ammey Beau) ridden by Ali Redman.

March 2010
Congratulations Sean and Precision Flight!

Kooralbyn ODE is one of the most heavily contested events of the year. This year was no different except that it rained heavily in the lead up to the weekend and continued to shower on and off throughout the competition.

While parts of the cross country were heavy going the work force at Kooralbyn combined with the excellent surface made for a fantastic course.

For those who don’t know the story of Sean and Flight here is some background:
Sean has only been riding for 5 or 6 years after deciding to 'give it a go' one afternoon at home. He has been hooked ever since and is lucky enough to be sitting on “The Machine”. Flight has taken him safely through the levels of eventing. One Star is now seriously within their sights.

Flight was one of the only horses in the top 5 to showjump clear at Kooralbyn to claim the win. She really is the Queen of Cushavon, willing to take on anything thrown her way. She is also a lovely looking mare with a great future ahead of her.

February 2010
Irish Horses Successful at the Hunter Hack Show in Queensland

The Logan Village Hack show is always a well attended event, however this year it was bigger and better than ever.

With a “three ring circus” going on throughout the grounds there were plenty of classes and lots of horses.

The show hunter classes are a new addition to the program and the promotion of the true hunter was very apparent in the judging. Peter Hudson rewarded heavier bone and docile temperament over the flash and show found in hacks.

Of course the Irish horses did very well. Gillian Coote on Cushavon Softee (By Conqueror King from TB mare Karla Jade) came second in the novice show hunter over 15hh and under16hh. This was a very big class but only six horses were called in for the workout.

Beauvara (by Leavara from paint mare Gaelic Ammey Beau) won the Novice Show Hunter over 16hh. Ridden by Sarah Corr, this was Beauvaras’ first show and he showed all the wonderful attributes of our breed, performing calmly and sensibly in a very electric environment.

Next were the Open Hunter classes. Cushavon Softee did a perfect workout including a strong gallop in hand and won this class. She then went on to win the Champion Open Hunter Hack under 16hh. She received a sash and a beautiful rug to go home with.

Beauvara also won the Open Hunter over 16hh with a lovely workout including a walk canter transition (which he had never done before) and a gallop in hand.

Beauvara is For Sale.

October 2009
Queenslands First Irish Draught Foal

Cushavon Park is proud to announce the arrival of Cushavon Enya, a purebred Irish Draught filly which we are going to retain.

This gorgeous grey filly is by Conqueror King from Caseys Shadow.

Caseys Shadow is now back in foal to King. We are so excited to have the opportunity to breed purebreds at the stud.

August 2009

There have been some good results for the Cushavon Team for the middle of the year competitions.

The Kooralbyn Event was a huge weekend as usual but everyone went really well. Sean and Precision Flight completed one of their best cross country rounds this year after a very nice dressage test and finished 6th overall after the showjumping.

Red Hugh with Amanda Park on board continued with his consistently good runs and finished 5th.

Unfortunately Sara had a fall off Conqueror King in the cross country and that was the end of our weekend. Luckily Sara had Cuchulain to ride and he was already third after the dressage and showjumping.

Cuchulain made a champion effort over the cross country fences and finished second overall.

Figtree Pocket event was held in July. Cuchulain did a very nice dressage test but hurt his front leg at the truck and had to be withdrawn.

Precision Flight and Conqueror King finished in the top ten in very competitive pre-novice and prelim classes.

Red Hugh led the way finishing fifth again in the prelim.

Brisbane Royal 2009 was a great occasion for the Cushavon Horses. Conqueror King represented the Irish Draught horse in the breed pavilion while Precision Flight and Cuchulain competed in the classes. Flight came second in a well contested mare class. Cuchulain won the stallion class and then went on to win the Supreme Exhibit. We are so proud of this little horse and his achievements so far this year.

There were a lot of Conqueror King horses at the Ekka this year with horses sired by him winning the filly class, coming second in the gelding class and second and third in the mare class. It was wonderful to see them all out there representing the lovely temperament of the Irish breed.

View Ekka photos here.

May 2009

Cushavon Cuchulain has made a clean sweep at the 2009 Toowoomba Royal show.

After winning the stallion class and Champion stallion he then went on to win the open ridden class and finally Supreme Champion for the second year in a row. We have high hopes for him at this years Brisbane Royal.

Cuchulain has also been very successful in eventing this year with a win at the Kooralbyn ODE in April and second at Warwick ODE in May finishing on his dressage score both times.

Conqueror King has also been doing well competing in his first advanced test at PRARG in April placing third. We were so proud of the “Big Fella”. He then went on to come third at Kooralbyn ODE in April and 5th at a very wet Mt Gravatt ODE at the end of May.

Precision Flight has had solid results eventing this year starting with a 2nd at the Toowoomba Hunter Trial. She will be defending her Supreme Champion Exhibit title at the Brisbane Royal in August.

Amanda Park has had a successful run with Red Hugh this year winning the Figtree Pocket ODE in March and continuing with good scores at other events.