While EI has had a devastating affect on all horse enthusiasts around Australia, the “Gumboots Ball” was a great reason for people to temporarily forget the gloom and come together to support Equestrian Sport.

The Ball was also our official launch for the much anticipated 2008 4* International 3 Day Event being held in Adelaide next year - running from November 14 to 16 - and a wonderful opportunity to show Government Departments, committed sponsors and “would-be” sponsors our new rejuvenated approach to making sure the Australian International 3-Day Event is bigger and better than ever.

The crowd also witnessed this year’s presentation of the Anna Savage Medal to the “Best and Fairest Eventing Rider of the Year” – a well deserved win to Stuart Tinney – and the presentation of the Peppermint Grove “Horse Of the Year” to Wendy Schaeffer’s Koyuna Sun Magic.

Superb food, fabulous wine, a great band that had everyone up on the dance floor and a fun “Cross Country Challenge” were some of the other highlights of the night. Some great bargains were to be had in the silent auction and one of the most sought after items in the main auction was the new Anky Saddle kindly donated by Saddleworld and knocked down to Nick Wendt as a present for his lucky partner.. . as well as an original ‘Gold Medal Rosette’ from the Atlanta Olympics very kindly donated by Franz Venhaus.

Bates Saddles were also great supporters of the evening, donating a fabulous Momentum Jumping Saddle for the Table Raffle which was presented to a very chuffed David Willson by Gold Medallist, Anna Savage Medal 3 time winner and Bates Ambassador, Stuart Tinney.

The night was a veritable “who’s who” of Eventing in SA with some notable interstate additions including Stuart Tinney and wife Karen, Simone Kahn and EFA HPP manager Brett Mace all in Adelaide for the evening. We certainly appreciated them making the effort!

“Cross Country Challenge” provided the thrills for the evening with six  entrants including Eventers, Dominic Jones and Cammy O’Rourke and US based Hawaiian Iron Man winner (and sometime dressage rider…) Michelie Jones doing battle over hurdles and our “pair of kids wading pools” water jump  for the cash prize along with three other keen contenders in Mark Lindh, Marc Harrington, just in from London and Danny Rowe.

In the end, it was Cammy who won the day in a hard fought photo finish and proceeded to donate her prize money back to the 3-Day Event – as long as she could keep her mount (a pretty cute chestnut stick horse from Ikea …!) Much appreciated Cammy!

Her very generous donation was followed by Megan Jones who’d been savvy enough to buy Cammy as a rider in the Calcutta-type auction that preceded all the action, also donating her winnings back to the cause. Thank you Megan.

All in all it was great night for all involved, with some very much needed funds raised for the Australian International 3-Day Event as well as raising the profile of this world class event. 

Our sincere thanks to all of our supporters, volunteers, sponsors and everyone who helped get such a great night together in just five short weeks.

We look forward to seeing you next year for the “2008 Black Tie and Gumboot Ball”!