The World Cup qualifying class had quite some excitement surrounding it today at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre - not for quite some years has there been such a tight tussle at the top and then quite a gap!

Coming into this fourteenth round of the Australian League we see Gavin Chester leading narrowly (111 points) from Paula Hamood (108 points) who is just marginally ahead of Paul Athanasoff (105 points) and then we drop down to fourth on the leaderboard, Adam Mellers sitting on 80 points and Laurie Lever on 70 points - so at this stage anything can happen!

As always the organisers of this great weekend of jumping, Jane Frankum and John Vallance, again made sure there was a great spectacle prior to the jumping, which always builds the excitement!

In previous years we have had Rachel Sanna giving a lovely dressage display but this year we had the fun of the Agility Dogs going through their paces which was followed by the Carriage Driving folk showing us the agility of their harness ponies and their own driving as they negotiated their way around the track set out by cones in between the world cup course!

The riders then had their opportunity to walk the Leopoldo Palaccios track and see what he had in store for them - again there was no public course walk and no mention of it! The fun began as, first Leopoldo was brought out into the arena by buggy - pictured below left and right - and then major sponsors and supporters of showjumping, Charles and Gail Blinkworth were also driven in to the arena for a very special presentation.

Leopoldo and Santa wave to the crowd - pictured right - and Leopoldo always remembers his manners and thanks the Elf - pictured left - for driving so well.

Mr and Mrs Blinkworth arrive

with big smiles - pictured below - and obviously enjoying the festive season being able to be celebrated with the change of date for this great show!
No doubt with the change of date now permanent the christmas theme will get stronger each year - could this be the Aussie version of Olympia?
The Blinkworth family have certainly thrown themselves deeply into the sport of showjumping
and their enthusiasm is huge - it is people like the Blinkworths who keep the sport going and this family have not only sponsored classes but are contributing to the betterment of the sport with ever increasing excellence being seen. In honour of their commitment to the sport a presentation was made to them, commemorating their past years to date.

Pictured above from left to right - Jane Frankum, John Vallance, Mrs and Mr Blinkworth and Leopoldo

The riders were then brought in by horse drawn carriages to be introduced to the dignitaries - pictured below left - Laurie Lever, driven by Cookie Engelsman and Groomed by Chuckie got right into the spirit of Christmas when he discovered a set of reindeer ears in his carriage!
For most riders, on greeting Leopoldo, there was a dignified handshake - pictured below left - but for old pal Vicki Roycroft, a big hug was the order of the day - pictured below right.
Then it was time for the National Anthem and strange as it seemed, this was played by a
Lone Piper! It was a very surreal experience as the Lone Piper is generally associated with Scotland, which in December is cold and preparing for snow, if it has not already arrived - and here was the Lone Pipe in bright sunshine on a 40+ degree day in New South Wales, Australia - but having said that he did a super job of Advance Australia Fair while the riders stood as still as they could prior to the big class of the weekend - pictured below
So the festivities were done, the presentations and thanks were over and it was almost time for the jumping to begin! There was obviously a problem with the dryness in certain areas of the arena and after course walk was done and the riders were in the warm up arena getting ready, the JK Willams water tanker arrived on the scene to do some last minute watering - pictured below. The JK Williams water tanker was possibly the busiest man on the grounds, other than the refreshment vans who found it difficult enough to keep the people hydrated, let alone the main arena!
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