After the final Australian selection event held at Sydney Easter Royal Show this week, the decision has been made to fund three Australians to attend a final selection event to be held in Balve, Germany.

This final selection event is open to any Australians who have their Certificate of Capability but they will be there at their own expense.

The three funded Australians, for this final selection event are David Robertson and Sharpe Seal, Peter McMahon and KS Genoa and Jamie Kermond and Stylish KIng.

The riders who attend the European selection event will be vying for two team positions and a reserve.

At this stage I would like to wish the riders the best of luck in their pursuit of a place on the Australian team and I would like to say that despite many believing this Editor to be negative and unhelpful towards Australian Showjumping, this is not the case!

Over 12 months ago when I was told by the then High Performance Manager, that there was no way of the Australians getting invitation to a European 3* show much less a 5*, I was able to organise invitations for up to 8 Australian riders at both a 3* and a 5* event in June and July this year. This invitation included assistance with transport, stabling and housing for the riders and grooms - the invitations were never taken up and the final selection event will be, as I understand it, at a 3* show in Balve in Germany.

I am passionate about Australian showjumping and would like to see our excellent riders and horses going to these major events, well prepared for the job - I would never ask a kindergarten child to go to university - and it is not about going to win - it is about going and being prepared - it is not a discussion of whether our riders and horses are good enough - it is a question of whether they are properly prepared or not!

The final team will be made up of Edwina and Rod and the two top placegetters will make up the final team to go into Aachen for the World Equestrian Games. The reserve will be hand picked by whatever selectors are in Europe at the time in conjunction with the Chef d'equip, Stephen Lamb. Presumably the complete Selection Committee will be on hand to make these all important decisions - and obviously the main selector would be the Chairman of Selectors, Graeme Watts.

At this time, no team has been picked - and we apologise for any confusion caused by our earlier announcement.