Aussie Equestrians Show the World How Its Done

Well it has a been a wonderful collection of pure awesome for our Aussie riders across multiple disciplines these past weeks. Edwina Tops-Alexander, Kristy Oatley, Boyd Exell and Jake Hunter have all done Australia proud, and then some.

Show jumping’s legendary lady Edwina Tops-Alexander has taken top honours two weeks in a row. She started by becoming not only the second woman rider to win the Longines Grand Prix of Paris, but the very first Australian to stand at the top of the podium in the main class of the Paris leg.

Just a week later, at the Coruna World Cup in Spain, Edwina had a another winning performance, this time on 9-year-old stallion Vinchester, when the pair won their first ever 1.60m start. It was some feat, he’d only just jumped 1.50m for the first time earlier that week.

Extended trot now over to dressage and we applaud rider Kristy Oatley and ‘her best horse ever’ Du Soleil. The dancing duo set another new Australian Grand Prix Freestyle record at a World Cup event in Salzburg, Austria. The pair scored an impressive score of 79.300% placing them in fourth position. The previous record was also theirs, set only seven weeks ago. But records are made to be broken, and Kristy is taking care of that.

Slow and steady wins the race, unless you're Boyd Exell competing in a Carriage Driving Marathon. A clean, quick and nail-biting round saw Boyd shine yet again, when he won the Geneva leg of the FEI Driving World Cup. While he’s won many, Boyd doesn’t like to keep count.

"On the day I start counting, I begin to lose," says Boyd.

Leaping back to jumping, coming up the ranks is spring chook, 22-year-old Jake Hunter. Jake has recently been helping young pony riders do well over in Ireland, but he’s been making his own big waves too.

Last week Jake and the impressive 12-year-old stallion Chiricco Z, won the CSI4* Energy AG Challenge 1.45m speed class in Salzburg, Austria. A great result, stepping it up from their previous well-deserved 2^nd place achievement at the CSI4* in Samorin, Slovakia just a month earlier.

Congratulations to all our Aussie competitors. You are doing great and your country is proud to have such wonderful equestrians representing us across the board.