With a full program and big entries things moved along at a good pace at Tonimbuk on the opening day with many riders taking the opportunity of warm up classes. The weather was kind with the sun shining without too much heat beating down which was a welcome relief for the jumpingaround.com crew who had only arrived that day from the first of the Irish winter frosts.

The Indoor arena was in use for this show as were two outdoor grassed arenas which seemed to have an endless supply of riders keeping the judges and ring crews there busy from first horse through to the end of what must have been a long day for the officials and competitors alike.

Saturday promised just from the program to be a hectic day with plenty of finals running plus of course the all important World Cup qualifying class, the event on the program that actually brings the interstate riders into the picture as they travel Victoria for that States run of World Cup classes. With Australia being such a vast country the World Cup classes can often be difficult to access for many of the riders from the northern and western areas of Australia and as I understand it there is a push coming for Western Australia to host some 3 World Cup qualifying classes in the 2004 season - Australia is already allocated 18 world cup qualifying classes and surely adding anymore would become "overkill" so one has to ask the question - which shows will lose their World Cup status? No doubt this will cause some "angst" over the next couple of weeks/months as this gets sorted out but perhaps we may see an Australian National Grand Prix League come out of changes made to show status - and that wouldn't be a bad thing!

It was so great to once again hear the dulcet tones of Mr Brian Brennan who was sitting in the announcers chair at Tonimbuk this weekend - he adds such fun to the commentary, coming from a Games horse background, and when he calls a jump off you are sitting on the edge of your chair!

Saturdays program includes the Final of the Young Horse Classic Cycle which was started some years ago by Cate Wallace of Wondaree Stud and Australian Olympian Russel Johnstone - it has gathered in momentum over the years and is a great way to encourage clear jumping from the younger horses - to qualify for the final these horses have had to jump double clears in specified D Grade classes through the season.

Saturday also saw the International Young Rider Challenge which saw the visting English riders returning the visit after the Aussie tour to Manchester in February this year. No doubt the English visitors saw a huge difference between showjumping at home and showjumping in Australia.