Dateline: Belgium/Australia

Edwina Alexander, Belgium based Australian has purchased a super new horse, which no doubt she is hoping will take her to a great result at the 2008 Olympic Games.

The "tiny tot" gelding Itot du Chateau, was purchased from Frencman Michel Hecart who has been campaigning the horse throughout the current winter indoor circuit World Cup classes very successfully.

The 1996 gelding by Tot de Semilly will no doubt suit the petite blonde from New South Wales in Australia, who put her country on the showjumping map by achieving 4th place at the World Championships in 2006. Standing at approx. 15.2hh Itot du Chateau and Edwina will join the ranks of petite women proving that "size isn't everything"!

Dateline: Melbourne, Australia - with apologies - this was designed to be published on November 7th - but it is still news which has apparently not filtered out to the general horse population in Australia.

As the Australian Performance Industry continues to struggle through the Equine Influenza crisis with major shows either cancelled or rescheduled, the elite riders are wondering what to do about their Olympic preparation.

With 12 riders on the current Elite list, many are making their plans to head overseas as quickly as possible to get their preparation under way.

Edwina Alexander continues to be based in Belgium, while Harley Brown is still in the USA and rookie Elite Squad member, Matt Williams is based in Europe leaving 9 members in Australia - but as the old children's rhyme goes "there were 9 in the bed, and the little one said roll over roll over, so they all rolled over and one fell out and then there were 8 in the bed" - Laurie Lever and Ashleigh Drossel Dan flew out of Melbourne headed to Germany today.

With only 5 out of the scheduled 14 qualifying rounds of the 2007/2008 Australian FEI World Cup Jumping League being held due to the EI lockdown, Laurie Lever and Ashleigh Drossel Dan were declared the winners with their 2nd at Toowoomba, Qld and their win at Brisbane Royal.

This sees them as the representatives for the World Cup Final which will be held in Gotreburg, Sweden in April 2008.

Lever and the impressive grey gelding will base with Australian National Showjumping Coach, Gilbert Boeckmann at his yard in Lastrup, Germany.

Ashleigh Drossel Dan - pictured right and below - was bred by Victorian breeder, Colin Gronn and has been with Laurie Lever since he began his jumping career as a youngster.

The 9 year old gelding was quite a handful as a youngster but under the very professional saddle of Laurie Lever he has taken to his job of superstar well and with great enthusiasm. Although some Australian commentators have suggested that the horse has an unusual technique, we have been impressed with his technique and his seemingly endless scope from the very first time we saw him jump, and we have no doubt that this combination will do Australia proud.

It has been all too long since we have had an Australian bred and produced horse which is well capable of jumping against the best in the world - and Ashleigh Drossel Dan and Laurie Lever are a combination to change that statistic.

Congratulations to Colin Gronn for having bred a superstar and having the foresight to place the horse with a talented and professional rider and congratulations to Laurie Lever for having produced this horse to the standard of excellence he has reached with the future brightly ahead of the two of them.