Snowy Mountains Showjumping Festival a Huge Success!

Winners are grinners and Tom McDermott certainly had many reasons to be smiling all week long. Tom is pictured here with Tim Dreverman, receiving his award for winning the Stars of the Future Class (Photo: Equiscape Photography).

 

Tim Dreverman, President of the Monaro Equestrian Association, has reported that the 2011 Snowy Mountains Showjumping Festival, held at Cooma Showground 4 – 9 January was hailed an amazing success.  This year's event, the fourth and largest yet, had a very positive impact on the region’s economy and provided great entertainment for visitors and locals.

 

Tim advised that this year saw many records broken, "the largest number of horses ever housed on Cooma Showground, 45 000 jumps completed in over 3000 rounds of competition, more than 1400 km ridden around the Cooma Arena by 245 riders aboard 500 horses and can you believe? Our visitors used about 7.5 km of toilet paper!  A most enjoyable addition to the program for 2011 was an Art Exhibition ‘Everything Equine’, which was held at the Raglan Gallery and opened on the Tuesday night".

 

People, horses and trucks rolled in on Sunday, transforming the showground into a mini city for the week, with the competition officially kicking into gear on Tuesday.  Mr Greg Grant was the judge in the Monaro Equestrian Association Ring 3 and had a huge week overseeing riders who ranged in age from 5 to 65 years young, competing in cross rails through to 70cm events.  Highlights from the MEA ring included Heidi Staples (age 6 from Collector) jumping her first ever double clear round and adult riders like Donna Poulos, Lynne Oldfield and Krista Mower mastering their first competition over jumps.   The unofficial leading rider in the MEA arena was Jessica Davies from Sutton riding Kooralyn Jackie Paper.

 

Moving to the middle of the ground, we saw the Snowy Mountains Performance Horses Arena cope with an enormous number of riders and horses, the busiest place to be every day.  Judge Bridgette Cross and course designer Tim Dansey worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk all week and riders young and old enjoyed jumping a wide variety of obstacles and courses.  Riders who found themselves in the winners circle in the SMPH arena included Stephanie and Riley Mackillop from Terry Hills, Jodie Hughes from Canberra, Alan and Danella West from Young, and Emma Hair from Gippsland.  Many of our professional riders used this arena to give young horses, the next generation of showjumpers, some competition experience.

 

The 2020 Financial Solutions arena was where all feature events were held and spectators were treated to some truly first class showjumping with top national riders and horses competing for excellent prize money.  At times you could have been excused for thinking this arena belonged to Tom McDermott (Wagga), the reigning National Junior and Young Rider Champion.  Tom showed class, professionalism, and incredible skill in riding his 9 horses to win a total of 10 classes, including a clean sweep on Friday of all four classes, winning the feature event, the Grand Prix on Saturday, and leaving the crowd speechless as he set the arena alight in winning the inaugural Cosmorex Coffee sponsored Speed Derby from Jamie Smith (Bega) and Grant Hughes ( Canberra).  The quality of jumping in this arena was assisted by one key factor, International Course designer, Leeson Sirett.   The skill that this man has in designing courses that test horses and riders, pushing them to their limits and yet still encouraging them to improve as the week progresses is second to none.  Leeson loves the challenge of the different events and he puts huge effort into coming up with new and novel ideas for each situation.  Chief judge Michael Archer, pencillor Di Dansey and marshall Rhiannon Ellis worked tirelessly in this ring to average 28 horses an hour,  making great watching for spectators and smooth running for competitors.

 

A new concept for Saturday night saw free live entertainment from After Dark, a cover band from the ACT, the Hoof and Woof, a fun novelty event and the Speed Derby.  Many families relaxed on the hill, enjoying a casual meal provided by caterers John and Sean Dowdell from Dalgety, whilst being treated to some of the best showjumping this region has ever seen.

 

The official opening was held on Saturday with Mayor Dean Lynch, Patron of the Festival welcoming competitors and their families to the region.  SMGS student Celia Dalby sang a wonderful rendition of the National Anthem to begin proceedings.

 

On completion of the event, Tim Dreverman said, "this event would not be possible without the support of all our wonderful sponsors, and the extraordinary efforts of volunteer workers from the MEA and other local organisations.  Five days of competition is a major undertaking and when it involves a dynamic sport such as showjumping with all those extra variables, the task is enormous.  The Snowy Mountains Showjumping Festival hopes to be back in January 2012 with some new ideas to keep our event at the forefront in the sport.  Our provisional dates are 3 – 8 January 2012".  We're sure it will be back - bigger and better than ever!

 

CLICK HERE to view all the fabulous photos from The Snowy Mountains Showjumping Festival.

 

CLICK HERE to view full results from the event.