Photos by Julie Wilson
Ahh Queensland!! What a lovely part of the world to be in during an Aussie winter. Cool nights and generally lovely, sunny days and some seriously nice jumping shows to attend…
Queensland is now dominated by several very capable, feisty women! Principally Becky Jenkyns, who is Queensland Jumping Chair, Michelle Lang-McMahon, who was the mover-and-shaker to get the fabulous Elysian shows happening again earlier this year, Letitia Langbecker, who headed up the team for the Gatton World Cup show, and Sharlene Smith, who pretty much single handedly ran the great jumping that happened at Gatton Ag Show this year, as husband Clem was on the sick list with a pretty major stomach bug.
Vicki and her stallion, Dynamite Bay
Gatton Ag Show was the first on the run for me, and it was a no-brainer decision to miss the closer Sydney Jump Club Winter Championships, as Gatton had 1) Graeme Watts as Course Designer, arguably our best Course Desinger in the country, 2) excellent stables, footing and facilities courtesy of the Gatton Show Society and 3) entries on the day! Which for a computer illiterate person like me is an absolute joy – not to have to enter classes and sell a kidney in order to enter a show months beforehand. It was great to see my mate and student Rob Moffatt win the Grand Prix on Sunday with an outstanding double clear round over quite a tough Wattsy track. It was an excellent pipe opener for my horses, and winning three classes was a bonus with the likes of Merrick Ubank, Billy Raymont and the Hamood ladies being absent, but Clem Smith on the sick list.
Nambour was the following week, and again a really lovely show, with the Organising Committee consisting principally of the Raymont family. Mum Sue is the hard working secretary, dad Paul was doing course designer duties in Ring 2, and Jamie and Billy juggling riding and administration duties. Kiwi Kevin Hansen handled CD tasks in Ring 1, and did his usual super job. This ground, which is normally unbelievably fantastic and amongst the best footing in the country, was not quite so good this year, having had a fair bit of rain on it in the preceding weeks. However, jumping was still great, especially when we got the use of the entire arena on the last 2 days of the show. Billy Raymont used his
home-town advantage well by being 1st and 3rd in the Grand Prix on his super stars Anton and the wonderful thoroughbred Stardom.
Elizabeth Ballard and Bramley Star, took out the 1.30m Young Rider Championship
Then on to Gatton World Cup, and the main arena this year looked super with many pot plants making it look more like an international arena, and the footing being as good as it possibly could be. Many long hours were sweated over this, especially in the warm up arenas, where Kerry Langbecker and ground caretaker Cam McDonald put out irrigation every night, and in Ring 1 Graeme Watts was on the aerator well into the dark on Wednesday night. It is so heartening now that Show Organizers realize the absolute need for excellent footing, especially in the warm ups in order for our equine athletes to thrive. And this was shown on Sunday when Wattsy got 6 clears around his tough World Cup track (1 more than he had predicted!). Kiwi Gerrit Beker looked after us in the second ring, and his courses were also outstanding.
A great class at this show was the State of Origin class. This event, loosely based on the football model, sees riders classified by where they were first registered with EA. So this year there were teams from Queensland, NSW and SA. Always a super class, it also gives riders a bit of a taste of what it is like to be in a Nations Cup team, of which we get woefully little experience, because the riders have to get in and help each other instead of just being an individual sport, plus it gives valuable experience to the potential team managers (Chefs d’equipe, to give them their correct term). The surprise winners were SA, Matt Afford, Olivia Hamood, Kristy Bruhn and Tyrone Latham, who just beat the strong favourites, Queensland, Clem Smith, Billy Raymont, Rob Moffatt and Stuart Jenkyns, by a whisker in the jump off round. Our NSW team of me, James Arkins, Jess Stalling and Rhys Stones had a couple of debutantes in Rhys and Jess, but they both stepped up to the mark really well with 4/0 rounds. The more than capable Chefs were Josh Barbour for SA, Becky Jenkyns for Qld, and Ben Blay, assisted by Will Mathew for NSW.
The World Cup was an outstanding class. The Queenslanders are always up for a start in this event, and there were originally about 30 nominations, despite so many being in Europe, i.e. last year’s winner Dave Cameron (although technically he was now back in the country, just a bit under-horsed at this time), Chuggy and Gabi Kuna, and sort of local boy, Merrick Ubank. 25 fronted up in the end, and first horse out was the veteran 18-year-old Nero GHP, a winner from two years ago with Paula Hamood, but on this occasion being ridden by her awesomely talented daughter, Olivia. Nero showed his liking for this arena by skipping around clear, and pretty much making it look like 1.30! 
Olivia Hamood and Nero GHP
Next horse in was one who may have been considered a bit of an underdog, Michael Lees on his $250 thoroughbred Keilor Canny Ever, having their second World Cup start. He also popped around with just two unlucky rails that Mick probably blamed himself for. At this stage Wattsy may have been worrying that the track was a bit straightforward, but I can assure you it walked tough enough, with the treble coming early: vertical, oxer, vertical, all one stride, and eight strides around a bend from a formidable oxer out of a bit of a corner. However, only five more kept all the rails in place, Livvie Hamood on her super little machine Carado GHP, Billy on Anton, James Arkins, just back from Europe on his extremely tough globe trotting Rothswaite Vigilante, and another justabout local Matt Afford on his improving Kaluna Salute.
Michael Lees on his $250 Thoroughbred Keilor Canny Ever
Two rides in the World Cup for Olivia
Jump off saw only two double clear rounds, Livvie Hamood recording her first World Cup win on the tough stager, Nero with a super jump off to just overhaul Billy on the in-form Anton. Matty was a bit unlucky to have one rail in a quick time on his great little grey machine, and yours truly overrode the second fence vertical (’cos Congo had chucked me off at it a couple of years ago in the same class!) to run 4th. Great show, quite a big crowd, good sponsorship organized by Letitia and Emma Langbecker, can’t wait for next year!
– Vicki Roycroft