Friday night at Olympia is Puissance night and with prize money for 10 runners on offer there was surprisingly 10 combinations on the start list!

The commentary team had great fun telling the 8,000+ crowd that Geir Gulliksen had only "entered for the money and was too chicken to jump past the first height" and so were greatly surprised when he jumped the second round clar and retired with his World Cup horse L'Espoir, the 13 year old gelding formerly ridden by Ludger Beerbaum.

The wall started at 1.80m and in the first round we lost the still over the moon, Abdel Said.

9 went through to the second round at 1.95m and in this round we lost Geir Gullikson (retired) and Guy Williams (GBR) and Billy Twomey (IRE) leaving us with 6 through to the third round at 2.05m.

The horse which drew the most gasps from the 8,000+ crowd was definitely Ellen Whitaker's Ladina B, the 12 year old mare who according to Geoff Billington was auditioning for Strictly Come Dancing.

Geoff Billington was also giving advice to each rider in - some of which was tongue in cheek and some of which was given with great seriousness - in the case of Ellen's mare the advice was that "tonight is not the night to have an argument" but to allow the mare to just do the jumping - and that is what this combination did to share in the final prize split which saw 5 share first place collecting £2,340 for their effort.

Cousin Robert Whitaker copped a fair bit from the commentary panel, especially Geoff Billington who called the miss before it happened and asked repeatedly "Robert....why....why" while laughing at the very experienced Puissance jumper making such a basic error - Robert laughed himself and recovered himself and the horse to come back to attempt the 2.15m but the horse was clearly over the whole expereince and refused in front of the wall.

Robert made the right decision for the 10 year old stallion, Sherlock K and they retired.

Penelope Leprovost for France made her Puissance debut this evening in London and was delighted to be one of the 5 to take home their share of first place. Leprovost and the 12 year old stallion, Johnny Boy II - pictured below right - looked very comfortable and no doubt she will jump many more in the future.

Italian Natale Chiaudani was another who made it through to the last round and shared the prize money at 2.05m jumped successfully. Natale, known for his sunglasses and pipe have been almost incognito this show as neither have been present to date!

Natale - pictured left - aboard the 10 year old Darco stallion son, Vigaro Z put in a great effort for equal first tonight.

Also joining the winners list tonight was Michael Whitaker and the 14 year old Carthago stallion son Fairview Cyber-Space - pictured far right and this completed the Puissance night with 2.05m being quite some way off the records of previous years.

The Puissance is all about the bravery of both horse and rider and the trust between the two. Ahorse coming to a brick wall that they cannot see over really needs trust from horse to rider and then once they are up at the top of the wall, the rider needs to trust the horse knows how to come down - and tonight we saw some very brave stallions who happily jumped the wall - and it is not often we see a field of so many stallions and mares in a Puissance.

Our thanks to all 10 riders for putting on a great show tonight.