This premier event, normally held around late November/early December has once again seen a reshuffle of its timing - and some suggest this April date is better as it gives the four year old horses (who have a southern hemisphere birthday of August 1st) a chance to mature while others prefer it as a precursor to Christmas festivities. Time will tell whether it is a good change or not!

Walking around it did not appear the numbers were as big as previous years but those there were certainly enjoying themselves and the Trade Stand area was well populated. As seems to be the norm now, the showjumping area was isolated and still lacking in atmosphere - perhaps a food stand or two or maybe a trade stand around the jumping area would make it less "stand alone" and more part of the whole show.

The area allocated, in front of the main administration building is beautiful with a super surface for jumping and this year it did seem to attract more spectators and also had the largest number of entries since JWTS began in 2002, which is fantastic to see. Hopefully the numbers will continue to grow as more and more people breed showjumping specific horses.

When JWTS began in 2002, the first "imported" judge was New Zealander John Cottle and the numbers were small in each age group with the purpose bred horse definitely in the minority - this year the thoroughbred horses were far and few between with some of the most famous breeding stallions around the world being well represented which is great to see.

Jumping With the Stars was an "added extra" at the very prestigious Dressage With the Stars which had already been running for some years run by the initiator Sicca Djikstra and it was Sicca who produced an international quality show, filled with excitement and buzz each year. People planned their holidays around this show and traveled from all around Australia to be part of it, either as a competitor or spectator. Many came in large groups of friends who often only met up once a year at this show.

Finally after much begging, myself (Jan Heine) and my business partner (Maggie Jacob) convinced Sicca that this great show needed jumping as well and in 2002 we ran the first of the jumping and I am delighted that even with many hiccups along the way, the jumping continues to be part of DWTS but I would say I, and many owners and riders, were disappointed to see that the 7 year old class was removed from the program this year. Rumour (which is not fact) has it that in 2009 there will be a 7 and 8 year old Futurity class - I hope this proves to be the case as leaving the 7 year olds out is, in my opinion, a mistake for the betterment of Australian showjumping.

The point of running Young Horse classes around the world is to hopefully see these youngsters go on to bright futures at top level competition and this is certainly proving to be the case with JWTS!

In 2002 John Cottle awarded Melissa Froesch's then 7 year old stallion Warlord the Champion of Champions sash and this stallion was a very worthy winner of the inaugural Championship - Warlord went on to World Cup competition, first with Melissa and then with Gavin Chester who took the stallion to Las Vegas to represent Australia at the World Cup Final in 2007 after winning 5 World Cup qualifying classes in a row.

This year, just 6 short years later Melissa Froesch again supported this event bringing horses for the 4, 5 and 6 year old classes with most being by Warlord himself - certainly proving what a worthy winner they were for the inaugural event.

Melissa, was however, rightly slightly indignant that all the focus from the announcer, Brian Sheffers, was on the stallion!

Melissa Froesch - pictured right - one of Australia's most successful Junior showjumpers, made the move to senior ranks seem effortless and has never been off the scene from when she first began jumping.

Not content to showjump ex-racehorses, Melissa wanted to breed her own showjumping horses and to this end she began jumping mares when few others seemed to bother with them. Over the years Melissa jumped super mares such as Miss Cognac, Alona and Schimmel Penni to name just three - and the mares with "superstar" status were not for sale! Their futures were planned for them, once they had jumped through to Grade A - they were to become the mothers of Melissa's future jumping horses.

Today in the 6 year old class we saw Warlord's first ever baby - War Dance out of the mare Bonnie. Also in the 6 year old class was the ET filly, Glenarra Bollinger who is also by Warlord from the wonderful Miss Cognac who at 27 is still looking wonderful!

Continuing Melissa's belief in breeding jumpers with jumpers to produce superstars, Bollinger is mum to an embryo transfer baby due in February 2009 to the NSW based stallion Conquistador.

In the 5 year old class, Melissa showed War Penni, whose mother Schimmel Penni was still jumping when she was born as this was another Embryo Transfer filly. Schimmel Penni is a 10 year old mare who won the Barastoc Showjumping Horse of The Year in

The 4 year old class saw the last foal out of Grade A mare Alona who sadly was put down at 20 years of age - Moon War is a gelding by Warlord.

Another of the showjumpers who has supported JWTS since its inception is vet, Adam Johnstone, the gentleman of showjumping!

Adam Johnstone was at the first JWTS in 2002 with the lovely bay Contango stallion, Woodleigh Don Juan and this year he showed the stallions progeny in the 4, 5 and 6 year old classes which is again fabulous to see.

It is great to see showjumpers putting careful thought into their breeding programs and their programs are obviously working judging by the horses we have seen this weekend in all three age classes.

The other interesting thing was the large number of mares competing in all age groups and naturally the numbers of stallions increase each year, with more and more being imported and also being bred in Australia - the geldings seemed to be out numbered, which augers well for the future of Australian bred sport horses.

So..........Australia has the breeding of sport horses well in hand with the future looking bright - the second ingredient is the producing of these horses!

Since the inception of JWTS most of the "imported" judges have had the same comment and this year was no different - lovely horses, with plenty of talent but they are so uneducated!

Many of the judges have been gentle about the lack of education in the Australian jumping horses and some have been very direct - this years judge Melanie Landmeier was not so gentle - in fact she was quite scathing in her early comments, during the masterclass.

Perhaps next year the judge will comment on how well produced the horses are...........................