I had the honour and pleasure of meeting this years Jumping "Star" in 2002 on his home turf - Arnaud Evain, a purveyor of the finest horse flesh in Europe and he was the most generous of hosts!

Arnaud runs the largest French sale of Young Horses and to make this happen he looks at all the horses offered for sale and decides which ones are good enough for the famous FENCES sale - this would suggest that Monsieur Evain would by now have quite an eye for horses - and he has just that - one of the finest eyes in the business and he misses nothing. Arnaud watches for the attitude of the horse as much as the actual jump and Arnaud is one who believes that pedigree is a huge indicator in a young horse of what will come as the horse matures - and Arnaud emphasises that one must look strongly at the dam line for the trainability factor which is in his opinion, all important.

This is a man to be listened to when he speaks about Young horses throughout the world as he has probably seen most of them.

Editors Note: Jumping with the Stars is an event very close to my heart as I was actively involved in the first running of this event in 2002.

I found it distressing to hear that some on the committee were suggesting that due to the lack of support from the showjumping fraternity this event would not be running in 2004.

I hope this is not the case and that the organisers will be patient and allow for the jumpers to get used to the idea of a very different way of doing things.

Arnaud's "partner in crime" was Australia's favourite son Gavin Chester. Gavin has been showjumping at the top level for more years than not and his reputation as one of the finest horsemen in the country is well deserved as he has consistently proved that he can take a young horse from the beginning trot poles through to the Grand Prix fences and that is what it is all about in the sport of showjumping.

Gavin Chester is still considered by many of the top European Internationals as the "best catch rider in the world".

The concept of Jumping with the Stars was to encourage Australian showjumpers to produce their horses carefully and correctly and it was hoped that by encouraging them to do this the breeders of showjumping lines would also be encouraged to continue to breed. Jumping with the Stars is a way for the showjumpers to acknowledge the breeders and for the breeders to see the quality of what they are breeding being judged in a way other than "how fast can the bastard go"!

All in all the event is a very positive event for the future of showjumping in Australia where we have long run with the off the track thoroughbreds we now are seeing more and more purpose bred horses in all the lineups - some imported, some homebred - all of improving quality.

Right: Mary Long chats at the scoreboard and relaxes for a moment - and it would only be a moment as Mary being Showjumping Director would have had little time to breath, let alone rest!

Mary Long did a sensational job and no doubt her teaching background would have helped her!

I hope that Mary can be encouraged to take on the task again next year.

Left: Gavin Chester and Arnaud Evain were excellently assisted by Tegan Chester who is perhaps developing her eye for a young horse by sticking close to Arnaud.

Tegan also assisted in presentation but sadly she is just a wee bit short yet to be seen - but the smile on the riders faces will give you a clue that Tegs is somewhere there.

Right: No amount of drooling was going to convince the sponsors who provided the BMW for display, to give the car to the showjumpers - but they did enjoy dreaming for the weekend!
Left: The Bronze section seemed to be the most popular this year, with many sitting in bronze with their gold wrist bands - it seems to be the most popular section - perhaps it is the proximity to the bar.
Right: Showjumping is a very labour intensive sport and there are some that can be relied on all the time to help - and Andrew Long is one of those - as is Scottie Barclay! Allan and Yvonne Morrison are another couple who can always be relied on to pitch in with a helping hand when things need doing.
Left: "AEA Tony" just can't stay away from the place even

though he doesn't work at AEA anymore - Tony will always be "AEA's" Tony - and he does always come back to help work on the Dressage With the Stars show - but he does get well fed for his effort - as you can see here!

Although numbers were down on the first year I would like to think that as people have been watching the event develop they will be feeling more confident about preparing their youngsters and entering for next year.

I would hope though that the heights of the courses will become more stabilised and that they will be at a reasonable height to actually show off the horses style over the fence - it is virtually impossible to do this over 80cm, as confirmed by Arnaud who felt

the tracks were well undersized for this style of competition. For a horse to be judged for technique and style it needs to have something to jump which will encourage the horse to use all these attributes - sadly a smaller track can often make a quality horse look ungainly.

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