1st FEI South East Asian Youth Showjumping

Peter

3 years ago

It was an honour to course design the first ever FEI South East Asian Youth Showjumping Championship at the Royal Horse Guards, Bangkok, over the weekend. What a weekend it was, with history made by Cambodia.

In all my years in equestrian sport in South East Asia (since 1977), I had never known Cambodia to win anything… till this last weekend.

Cambodia held their nerve when tied with Philippines. Their last rider jumped clear in the quickest time of the day to pile the pressure on the Philippines, who could not respond and dropped to second place.

Congratulations to Cambodia, especially to Princess Amrita Norodom. for their win in the Nations Cup in the 1st FEI South East Asian Showjumping Youth Cup.

With the two best qualified riders from each country, 13 riders started the Individual Final on Sunday morning. As the course designer, I was very pleased that we got four through to the jump-off with clear rounds.

It helped that the two Thai riders knew the horses they had drawn – that is the advantage the home country has. In fact, the winner, Supinun drew her own horse!

1st Supinun Jullobol (THA) Javier 0/0 41.07 secs
2nd Elly Poh (MAS) Hareitai 0/0 42.77
3rd Siriwat Thitiphobromyen (THA) 0/4 43.41
4th Jasmine Baez (PHI) 0/8 44.24

Malaysia’s Elly Poh did really well to ride double clears. She was only a second slower on time, showing a little inexperience in running wide around the track. If her name isn’t familiar to Malaysian riders, it is because she trains in Singapore with Edric Lee.

When I was asked to course design this championship, it was an invitation I could not refuse, even though I knew I would have only two days between arriving home from Argentina and leaving again for Thailand. I got home on Tuesday, and flew to Bangkok on Thursday. On Friday, I watched the trial rides of all the teams. I picked rank outsiders Cambodia to win and told them so too. It’s nice to know I still have an eye!

It was the first time back to course design in this super Maxwin ebb & flow arena since 2016. The footing was created and maintained by footing expert Ollie Hoberg, and is possibly the best footing in an arena I have ever course designed in.

On Friday, I was elected to the board of the South East Asian Equestrian Federation. I was at its creation in 1993 in when we held the 2nd Asean Showjumping Championship. I was lucky enough to win the individual championship that year at the Bukit Timah Saddle Club, riding Andiamo. As great a story as Andiamo was, the South East Asian Equestrian Federation is an even greater story. It is being revived by Dato’ Harald Link, and now, 30 years into its existence, its relevance is finally being realised.

The guys who have taken over to help run it are the generation after me. Chalermchan Chamswad (Tor) is the new Secretary General. South East Asia, as a region runs about 20 FEI shows a year. Between Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, we have enough shows that FEI accredited officials can maintain their official levels and move through the ranks. This is essential to keeping the organizational costs down.

I have proposed bringing CSI-W FEI South East Asian World Cup Jumping League events back to Malaysia. Malaysia has lagged behind other SE Asian countries in showjumping since we stopped jumping World Cups. It is time to step up to World Cups again.

While I coach mainly polo at the Kuala Lumpur Academy of Polo, I have also been asked to be part of a team of educators that will create a program to mentor new show jumping course designers in the region. Through the South Wast Asian Equestrian Federation and the Equestrian Association of Malaysia, we can develop more course designers. Even riders should attend these courses so that they have a better understanding of the tests that course designers pose to them in their tracks. I am really looking forward to helping riders and new course designers from all-over South East Asia.