By Joy Ringrose
Cooroy showjumper, Billy Raymont has done Australia proud by holding his own in his World Cup bid against the very best in the world.
He was riding a warmblood horse from Western Australia, belonging to the Tucker Family, Oaks Redwood, known as Bas. Billy had only been competing Bas for six months before their overseas venture.
Sent over in July, Bas won the Glenhaven Park Grand Prix, then had mild pneumonia for two months, only competing again in October 2017. From that time on he improved his performances, and Billy won the last two World Cup Qualifiers on him in Adelaide and Sydney. This made Billy a clear winner of the Pacific League World Cup Series, and qualified him and second place getter, Jamie Kermond, to go to the World Cup Finals in Paris, to compete against series winners from all over the world.
The bigger leagues in Europe and the US sent six to ten riders for this event. They comprised highly experienced and successful riders, most of whom ranked in the top 50 in the world. Ranked at number 502, because of his Australian and New Zealand wins, Billy began his campaign by competing against these riders in Hong Kong, The Netherlands and Germany. Both he and Jamie were the only two ‘wildcard’ entries to the Hong Kong Masters – riders ranked much lower, but of unknown capacity, because they were not competing in top world competitions. Billy won prize money in all but one of the six classes that he entered gaining two thirds, one fifth, a seventh and an eighth with prize money awarded to 12th place. Under Billy’s careful guidance, Bas had quickly stepped up to top international level.
“He is a very solid horse,” Billy said. “He is the same every day. I don’t have to get on and work out what horse I’ve got today. He takes everything in his stride. He ate and drank on the flight to Hong Kong, and again to Europe. He’s never missed a beat. He never looked tired once.“
Billy carefully selected classes to prepare him for the 1.60m World Cup Classes. In Paris in March, in the Hermés International Show, he did his first 1.60m track, having only one rail down. Many of the top ranked riders did considerably worse than this.
They then went back to their base in Holland for further training, and went to Paris again in April for the World Cup Finals.
Billy rode him cautiously on the first day, for a slow time and one rail down. Considering that the Western European League’s winner Kevin Straut, had three rails down on this tough track, it was a marvellous effort.
At the end of the next qualifier, with two rails down, Billy was placed 32nd missing the final round by two places but he qualifying to compete in the second round Grand Prix.
The 47 entries in the Grand Prix read like a Who’s Who of the world’s top riders. Bas and Billy did a lovely clear qualifying round, with one time fault, putting them in the top 20 who were eligible to go on to the second round.
In this round, against the clock, they pulled one rail and had one time fault. Some of the biggest names in the game crashed and burned in this round, pulling rails and putting themsleves out of contention for the 12 prize-wining places.
Billy and Bas came in 9th, winning a cool $A5,000 for this terrific end to their Paris World Cup Show campaign.
Showjumping is a very expensive sport, and, aside from Billy’s sponsors, the Tinknel and Hanslow families got together a fund-raising effort that raised over $10,000 to aid Billy’s overseas campaign. With the cost of horse transport to Europe alone costing $40,000, and expensive board and entries to Europe’s biggest shows, this is a great help in supporting what has been a wonderful first international tour for Australia’s best onshore show jumper.
