As you would expect from the Ozzies, the Sydney International Three-Day Event proved to be a great competition and an excellent dress rehearsal for the Olympics next year. This CCI** was staged from Sept. 23-26 at the new Sydney International Equestrian Centre (SIEC). The event formed part of SOCOG’s (Sydney Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games) preparations for the 2000 Games, which also included archery, canoeing, hockey, modern pentathlon, and sailing competitions. As you might expect from their reputation in Olympic eventing, the Australians took the first three places and the team competition!

Competition Venue

The SIEC (or ‘psych,’ as it is referred to by the locals!) is a most impressive facility at Horsley Park, which cost some $37 million (Australian) to build, about 30 miles from the center of Sydney. This was the first competition to be staged there, and the Competition Manager, Franz Venhaus, and his team must have been proud of the outcome. Although there still is work to be done on the venue, all the facilities available functioned well during the event. The core area of SIEC occupies 90 hec-tares and in-cludes a combined dressage and show jumping main arena with permanent seats for 2,000, a number that will be increased to 20,000 next year. There are five lunging rings, 10 sand arenas, five grass arenas for hacking, and an 800-seat indoor arena. The stable area complex is exceptionally well designed and will stable a total of 340 horses. There will be a maximum of 266 horses (i.e., 225 competing horses and 41 reserves) housed in the complex for next year’s olympics. A veterinary clinic with boxes for medication control are in the works and will be built shortly