Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the Hickstead Derby this year as I was in the US. This is one of the few showjumping competitions which continues to be regularly shown on TV in the UK. Although the competition takes place over the same course each year, which sounds a bit boring, I’ve always enjoyed watching this class. The course is long and the fences are very big and an unusual mixture of natural obstacles of hedges, walls, banks and ditches etc. There are always very few clear rounds and the result often comes down to time faults. This year was no different and the winner was Geoff Billington from the UK with a clear round and one time fault.

I used to enjoy watching Showjumping Puissance events as I was amazed by how high the horses would actually jump and the height the riders were in the air when jumping such massive fences.

It is quite a specialised showjumping event and many riders do not enter as they do not want to risk their best horses. There are usually a small number of competitors so I thought it unusual when three members of the Whitaker family took part this year. Two were joint winners after clearing 7ft 4 ins and the other went out at a height of 7 ft 1in.

The highest I jumped on a couple of my ponies and horses was approx 5ft which was high enough for me…..

I saw the Showjumping World Cup qualifying event at Olympia at Xmas, There were lots of very nice horses which looked exceptionally well bred and jumped with great style and scope.

The horse that stood out for me was Corlato which finished fourth. The commentators said that the horse had just returned from injury. When I looked into this, I found out the horse had been injured in June when a car had driven into the stationary horse lorry. The horse had to be cut free from the metal partition and fractured its leg. It had not been expected to return to competition until 2007.

I enjoyed watching one of the Showjumping World Cup qualifying events which was held recently in New York. Michael Whitaker was the one of the few British showjumping competitors and I was not surprised when he won as he has been an extremely successful rider on many different horses over the years.
I was surprised though, when I found out that the first prize was a mere $22500. When you consider the prize money available in the major sports these days and you appreciate the cost of buying, keeping, travelling and competing horses at this level, you realise how much of a poor relation this professional sport is.

I know how difficult it was when I was competing regularly as an amateur showjumper with couple of horses. Even within a 50-100 mile radius, it was difficult to cover the cost of travel and entry even if you were relatively successful, and this was when fuel was a fraction of its current cost.