Great to get this letter from Vicki Roycroft - we held off in the hope that the organisers of the event would reply regarding our request for photographs to go with Vicki's great report but as no answer has been forthcoming we bring you the news.........

Hi all,

Quite a triumph for the principally Australian mounted and coached Philippine team at the recent South East Asian Games, when the Philippine team quite comfortably won the Team Gold Medal, from the European mounted and coached Malaysian team, and the European mounted (but Australian coached!) Thai team in Bronze.

The Philippines, despite their climate problems and lack of good equestrian centres, has always been able to produce good riders. Australians may well be familiar with 31 year old Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski, whom I have been coaching since she was 16, and has now followed up her Individual Gold Medal at the 2002 Asian Games (one of only 2 Gold Medals for Philippine athletes), on the Australian bred and produced RUSTIC ROUGE, with the Team Gold in the SEA Games, this time riding tem mate Toni Leviste's mare, GLOBE PLATINUM LEAP OF FAITH. Mikee only started to ride the mare 2 days before the Team class, and suffered from the Flag Bearer's Curse (she had the the honour of carrying the team flag at the Opening Ceremony), with quite a bad fall from her in the first round of the Nations Cup. However, she then showed what a tough, talented competitor she is, and came back in the afternoon's second round to provide a 4 fault round that put the team well on their way to Gold. It was a bit tough that the next day's Manila press mainly featured photos of Mikee's bum on the floor!!

Other members were Jones Lanza on the Rod Brown bred and produced DON'T CRY FOR ME, who provided 5 and 4 fault rounds, and 2 days later an Individual Bronze medal under Rod's expert guidance. Then the 'baby' of the team, Joker Arroyo, who trained with me on the Australian bred and produced WITHOUT A DOUBT. Joker showed a maturity and talent beyond her tender years to record 4 and 0 on the less than technically perfect horse, with whom she has formed a great patnership since she purchased him here last year on a visit with Mikee. Finally Toni Leviste showed all her experience including an Olympics and World Ch'ship representation with the only double clear of the competition on GLOBE PLATINUM MAKTUB, all under the guidance of long time coach, Jos Kumps.

The Malaysian team were on all European imports, and principally under the guidance of World Champion, Dermott Lennon. Qabil Ambak on the French purchased CAMELIAS was able to save some national pride with the Individual Gold, (2,1) from Toni Leviste (4.0) and Jones Lanza (4,1) in Silver and Bronze. The Thai team showed enormous improvement over the show under the tutelage of Aussie Maree Hewitt, whose quiet, unassuming ways belies her extremely capable skills.

Courses were designed by Olaf Peterson Jnr, who appears to have inherited his father's talent with tracks around 1.30 for the Nations Cup, then 1.40 for the Individual Finals, with the 2nd round track being the toughest I have seen built for these guys in this part of the world.

The show was very well run with lovely European built gear, but also included feature fences such as the Philippine Jeepney, and a giant Spanish Galleon, neither of which caused any drama at all. There was a flock of European and local officials there, almost seemed a bit much for the amount of horses that were there, but a good time was had by all, with a constant round of social events and dinners, showing the hospitality that the Philippine people are famous for. In fact, on the final evening, the Thai entourage, about 12 of them (but not Maree, who went to the party under her own steam), went to the wrong address, and had been welcomed into another party for about an hour before they realized that they knew absolutely no one, and perhaps had the wrong place!

My thanks go to Mikee and Joker, who arranged my trip there, and to Team Chef d'equip Iyay Coscoluella, who did an outstanding job in her role, and made all our jobs very easy. It is so good for these riders to have this sort of team experience, and a real shame that we can't have a similar event. See if we can try and get into the Asian Games perhaps?