Saturday dawned as a bright an sunny day with a gentle breeze to keep temperatures and humidity down but in what seems to have become the pattern this week in Pfrozheim, the afternoon brings thunder, leghtening and rain - although today was near the deluge of Friday which was a blessing and it did not last nearly as long either which was, again a good thing.

The Big Tour was the third class of the day beginning punctually at 2.15pm with Australian Laurie Lever leading the barrage today, as first rider out. Todays track was not complicated but would require educated jumping over a track which saw 5 out the 15 efforts sitting at 1.45m, 7 efforts at 1.50m and the rest at 1.55m.

The original time on course was set at an all too generous 88secs and this was changed after the third rider to 82secs, which was still very generous.

Laurie Lever, at 60 years of age is no stranger to top level competition and this year, as he makes his bid for Australian Olympic Team selection he is sitting on what we consider to be one of the best horses in the country. Ashleigh Drossel Dan, a 10 year old grey gelding was bred in Victoria by Colin Gronn (who retains ownership with Laurie) and is by Drosselklang II and today the horse showed how scopey and talented he is with a rider of excellence in the saddle.

Ashleigh Drossel Dan was jumping his socks off in the practice arena - pictured above - and then put it all together just as easily in the main arena - pictured right - when he seemed to skip around the course, without even raising a sweat, coming through the finish flags with all fences standing in a time of 80.28secs.

The second clear came from Jorg Naeve and Catoki for Germany who were the eighth combination into the arena.

Naeve's clear was quickly followed by Germany's Otto Becker and the stallion Grandilot and he was joined by Germany's Marcus Ehning and Noltes Kuchengirl.

Second out for Australia was veteran of many Olympics and World Championships, Vicki Roycroft and Nobelwood Park Blatini, the 13 year old mare by Burgraaff out of a Cantus mare.Things did not go according to plan for Vicki and Blatini - pictured below - when the first fence (a 1.45m vertical) fell and they then nudged fence 2 (a 1.45m oxer) but it stayed put. Unfortunately for this combination fence 3, a stand alone 1.45m oxer fell. They negotiated the treble at 4abc (vertical/verical/oxer) very well and when they came through the finish flags they carried 8 faults in 80.87secs.

Pictured right - Vicki Roycroft walks the course with Australia's German Coach Gilbert Boeckman.

Markus Renzel for Germany, riding Conally made clear round number 5 and at starter number 12.

Third out for Australia was Chris Chugg and the 10 year old stallion,

Chuggie (as he is known affectionately in Aus) is also no stranger to the winners circle having won the Australian Pacific World Cup League on numerous occasions and also having been National Showjumper more times than most can remember.

Pia-Luise Aufrecht and MCB Chanel 228, also for Germany, made number 6 when they left the arena as the 18th combination under starters orders.

Switzerland's Clarissa Crotta and U2 made clear round number 7, while Franz-Josef Dahlmann and Pikeur Calanda (GER) made clear round number 8 .

Clear round number 9 came again from Germany, this time with Felix Hassman and Calyx 6.

Fourth out for Australia was the "young one of the Aussie contingent", having just turned 23 this month, Matt Williams. Matt

has been based with Henk Noren in Belgium for a few years now and has put together an excellent team of horses which he competes regularly throughout Europe.

For this class Matt is on his Olympic hope, Leconte 6 - pictured below left - the 12 year old gelding by Lasino out of a Contender mare, which is owned by Australian's Yvonne and Alistair Young who have been fabulous owners for this talented young man.

Matt and Leconte were another combination who looked easy and happy over this course, with barely a bead of sweat forming on either horse or rider as they came through the finish flags with everything in place and the excelelnt time of 77.70secs.

During his time in Europe Matt has made many new pals - moving so far a way from home is never easy and moving to a country where you don't speak the language and drive on the other side of the road makes it that much harder.

So it is hardly surprising that Matt has made pals of other ex-pats such as Sam McIntosh (formerly from New Zealand and now riding for Bulgaria)- pictured right during the course walk with Matt.

Fifth out for Australia was Paul Athanasoff and the gorgeous Australian bred chestnut stallion Wirragulla Nicklaus - pictured below. The 11 year old stallion by Falkrich makes up for a slight shortfall in height with the heart of a lion and he tries every step of the way, and this combined with natural scope makes the combination a delight to watch.

Today things didn't go quite according to plan when there was a touch of mis-communication between fences 1 and two which saw fence 2 land on the floor and then the 1.50m x 1.60m oxer caught them unawares and it too landed on the floor leaving this combination with 8 faults

Combination 34 into the ring gave us clear round number 11. Gert-JanBruggink for the Netherlands gave us his clear with Primeval Wings in 74.93secs.

Germany added clear number 12 when Timo Beck and Marlin 15 added a clear round and fFollowing right after Beck was young Egyptian rider, Abdel Said and Team Harmony Pablis making clear number 13.

Jan Sprehe and Areno 5 for Germany made clear number 14 followed by countryman Stefan Abt and Galant de Semilly giving us number 15 to the jump off.

The seventh Australian to enter the ring was Peter McMahon and the 14 year old grey mare KS Genoa who is by Graf Landau. Any comment about this combination can simply not be made without reference to the mare and her "wild child" behaviour! This mare has the crowd gasping in disbelief as she comes into the ring wired and seemingly unrideable - and then as she jumps her first fence you realise something very important - this mare LOVES to jump and of that there can be no question - what she seems to hate with a passion is all the "nonsense about how to get to the fence"!

KS Genoa is a mare few riders would have bothered with long enough to see if she had any talent or scope - but Peter took the time and discovered that this mare has so much scope she doesn't seem to know what to do with it and he rides her with the ultimate tact and kindness, allowing her the eratic personality that is obviously part of what makes Genoa so incredibly talented. No it is not pretty to watch but at the end of the day "pretty is as pretty does" and this mare does just fine!

Today Peter and Genoa - pictured below - had fence 10, a relatively stand alone 1.55m vertical down but other than that the mare never laid nail to rail - a seriously amazing pair to watch - and they finished with just four faults in 76.34secs.

Pictured above left - how does "this" go to - pictured above right - "this" with such consistency?! A close look at the first photo shows Peter allowing the mare her personality - he never drags her to try and make her submit and she replays him with such scope and technique as you see above.

America's inclusion in the jump off came from Peter Wylde and Esplanade 7 and the unluckiest rider in the class today was definitely Peter Geerink who jumped clear but exceeded the time allowed by a mere 0.42 of a second leaving him out of todays jump off.

Last out for Australia was Queenslander Tim Armitrano and the grey quarter horse cross Mr Innocent - pictured below. This combination seemed to come into the first fence a little underpaced with a short step and although the maaged to negotiate the first fence, the second fence fell but after this both horse and rider seemed to step up the pace and things improved seeing them leave with four faults in 77.95secs.