By Joy Ringrose
The audience gasped as Cooroy’s Billy’s Raymont took his horse, Anton, where no other horse had dared to go, to win the Caboolture qualifying round of the Pacific League World Cup Showjumping series.
Billy had the fastest time out of the 27 horses competing in the first round of this two round event. This gave him the advantage of being last rider to jump.
The best 12 horses qualified to go through to the second round, but only four of them had had clear first rounds.
Most of the best showjumping horses in the nation came to Queensland to compete in this event, and the riders, which included several Olympians, came from all over Australia and New Zealand.
Held at the beautiful State Equestrian centre on Saturday night, the jumps were huge, and the jumping spectacular.
Several horses stopped at the massive final jump, and others crashed and burned elsewhere.
In the second round, many took the course at breakneck speed, but still did not get inside Anton’s incredible time of 76.23 seconds.
In the second round, several jumps were removed, and the course made more difficult.
Victoria’s James Arkins, on Da Vinci’s Pride, sizzled around clear in 43.69 seconds, but had a knockdown in the first round, for 4 faults. Only one other competitor did two clear rounds, and that was Sydney’s Gabrielle Kuna, on the massive, powerful grey horse Cera Cassiago, who came home in the final round, where time is the final decider, in a careful time of 51.54 seconds. Billy had to get inside this time, and go clear, to better this score.
Anton did not appear to be going fast, but he was covering a huge amount of ground with his big open strides between the jumps.
The altered final course had two 180 degree turns, and a corner jump that could be taken with a 90 degree turn, or cut with a 45 degree approach, risking the horse hitting the wall, or crashing the jump.
Billy, confident in Anton’s brilliance, cut many seconds off his time by doing short 90 degree turns, and taking the tight inside line on this corner, a line that no other rider had dared to take.
Anton shaved the jump, and zoomed home to take the last massive jump in a sizzling 44.39 seconds, clearing the last jump seven seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
Anton, a warmblood horse, was sent to Billy by his owner, Michele Clark, from South Australia.
He was a horse with problems – very spooky and inclined to stop at jumps, if given the slightest distraction.
With Billy’s careful riding, he has gained the confidence to tackle the most difficult lines, and the largest obstacles, with ease, and his exceptional talent is now shining through. At home he is a gentle, friendly soul, who loves people.
This win puts Billy and Anton clearly on the top of the World Cup leader board, having gained maximum points in the first Qualifying round at Gatton the previous weekend.
