Toowoomba showjumpers win international title for Australia

Four Toowoomba students shook off the pressure of international competition and ‘foreign’ horses to secure a major showjumping title for Australia under lights in New Caledonia.

Tom Sturgeon, Ellie Michel, Savannah De Ceuster and Xavier De Ceuster celebrate their Royal Pacific Showjumping Challenge victory.

SHOWJUMPING: Under lights and under pressure – four Toowoomba students have written their names into international history books.

Saddling up as Team Australia at the Royal Pacific Showjumping Challenge in New Caledonia, Ellie Michel, Tom Sturgeon, Xavier and Savannah De Ceuster won gold for their country.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Savannah De Ceuster said.

“To be honest at the beginning it was all for a bit of fun, we had a dream of winning but we were not expecting to.”

Team Australia did win however and they did it in thrilling fashion with Savannah winning a jump off.

The competition required each rider to complete two rounds of 12 obstacles with Australia and Team Tahiti finishing all square at the end of the competition.

Savannah took the reins for the jump off and completed a ‘clear round’ to secure the championship for Australia.

“I felt a little bit of pressure but I have ridden in this competition a couple of times and I’ve been involved in jump offs before,” she said.

“Having the reassurance of my teammates, hearing them say ‘it’s okay you will do fine. You can do it’ helped take the nerves off.

“It was a big moment and it meant the team coming first or second in the end we still wanted to have fun and enjoy ourselves.”

Team Australia celebrate their Royal Pacific Showjumping win in New Caledonia

As well as competing under lights riders in the competition also had the added hurdle of competing on strange horses.

Every rider had 45 minutes on the morning of the night competition to connect with their horse.

“It was a really big challenge having to adjust to riding a new horse,” Sturgeon said.

“We had about an hour on the morning of the competition to warm up, get some jumps in and work out how our horse moved.

“It’s an amazing feeling to connect with your horse and to help Australia win a title.”

Representing Australia and competing overseas for the first time did make Michel nervous but the end result was worth it.

“It was amazing, really, really amazing,” Michel said.

“I’ve never had the opportunity to ride overseas so this was very special for me.

“I was a bit nervous at the start but I had a good horse and my teammates helped me a lot.”

Like Michel, Xavier De Ceuster admitted to nerves before the competition.

“I was pretty nervous before the competition and I did have a penalties,” Xavier said.

“My team was there to support me though and I felt I rode to the best of my ability.

“It’s a really big challenge (competing on a new horse) but we rode really well us as a team and it was great to win.”