Franke Sloothaak earned his money in Australia on this, his first trip - after doing 3 days of clinics, he then had two days of judging young horses where his brief was to judge the horses on rideability and ability and he then critiqued each horse after the round.

In keeping with his refreshing honesty through the clinics, Franke gave a great deal of very constructive criticism to each and every rider that came through the finish flags in the four year old class.

As with Franke's comments about the clinics he had already conducted, he commented on the lack of rideability of so many of the horses he was seeing - the riders seemed to lack discipline and understanding of the true engagement required of horses to jump correctly, using their scope and technique to the best of their ability.

Perhaps some riders did not quite understand the level of knowledge of Sloothaak as they treated the age classes with quite an amount of disrespect and Franke was not bashful about commenting on the fact that this was not a "circus event" and that the way the class was ridden by one rider in particular it showed great disrespect to a lovely young horse.

Again it was refreshing that Herr Sloothaak was not impressed by "names" nor the "imported" tag behind those horses which were not home bred - Franke was honest and frank about what he saw.

Many of the riders stood quietly at the end of their rounds and took on board the constructive criticism offered by a world champion and Franke was happy to give them solid advice on how to improve the way of going of their horse - many of the riders got great benefit from his comments.

Sadly the heights jumped in the age classes are still well under what they need to be to judge horses for scope and technique - each year the judges comment on the height and width of the courses being well under par, making their job virtually impossible.

The showjumping world has undergone many changes in Europe over the past couple of years and one of the things which is no longer tolerated is what is referred to as "preparation" of young horses - this preparation includes the use of weighted boots and compression boots which are no longer legal for use in age classes and also of course the industry "secrets" of preparing horses. Franke commented that this type of preparation was painfully obvious to those watching and that it was considered "cheating" and he would not be marking horses who jumped in this prepared manner. The comments around the grounds showed that many knew exactly what he was saying and thankfully many agreed that this was no longer, and should never have been, acceptable in our sport where the interest of the horse must be paramount.

There were 15 plus horses in the class this year and some showed some real talent while sadly some seemed to have little technique to speak of which may have been more due to the lack of rideability than a lack of technique.

Adam Wootten was one Victorian rider who supported the show with some class horses - he had two stallions in the 4 year old class.

Pictured left - Adam Wootten riding the Cruising stallion, Bellhaven Secret who is owned by Adam in partnership with the breeder, Debra Hiendl.

Pictured right - Adam riding the grey stallion, Valhalla 3 by Quattro out of a Clinton mare. This horse is owned by Desmond Russell and was bred by Fokking and Thexton.