Quarantine laws make it hard for international riders to import their horses and compete in Ausrtalia, which means there are there are no five-star equestrian events held here.
The highest-level event in Australia is the Adelaide three-day, which is a four-star event.
Even Edwina Tops-Alexander, one of our most successful Australian showjumpers, admitted in a interview in 2014 that she couldn’t see a five-star event ever happening here.
Unfortunately she’s right. The logistics just don’t work, as European and American riders would have to wait for their horses to be cleared by customs. And this lack of big events makes it hard for young Australian riders to get noticed – a move to Europe is the only real option.
In saying that, it can be done. Just look at Andrew Hoy and Tops-Alexander. Hoy has competed in the three-day event at every Olympics since 1992, and Tops-Alexander competed in showjumping in the 2008 and 2012 games. She has also won the Global Champions Tour twice, and became the first rider to earn over $2 million in an equestrian event.
Both riders made the tough move to Europe at the start of their careers, which ignited their success. Equestrian still has a large fan-base in Australia, despite this.
Unlike Europe, or even North America, equestrian is rarely covered by mainstream television channels, except during the Olympics. Occasionally highlights pop up on Fox Sports or the Special Broadcasting Service. Equestrian Australia needs to adopt a better media strategy.
jane
Guest
Andrew Hoy has been competing in every Olympics since 1984, where the Australian team place 5th and Hoy 15th individually. You really need to use spell check before publishing an online article.
Carol Neller
Roar Rookie
Event Director of the Australian International Horse Trials, Gillian Rolton, is working with Quarantine Officials now to overcome the barriers that make participation by OS riders challenging.