A NEW horse sports festival about to hit the Hawkesbury has a number of riders in the area, including a husband and wife riding team at Ebenezer.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
Jamie Kermond, the husband, and Jamie Winning-Kermond, the wife, are both excitedly looking forward to EquiFest, a four-day event at the Hawkesbury Showground, starting on Thursday, March 30 to Sunday, April 2.
There will be show jumping, dressage and showing, with an estimated 1000 horses at the event.
The recently married couple will compete in the show jumping events.
Jamie Winning-Kermond said the festival promised a very high calibre of competition.
“This will be a show where everyone wants to win and they will be very competitive,” she said.
“It is a new show, which is pretty exciting for us in the show jumping community.
“It is always exciting when someone like Kevin wants to go to the effort to put on a show like this.”
Mrs Winning-Kermond said she would compete in multiple events, as would her husband, who would ride the reserve horse for the Australian Rio de Janeiro show jumping team.
“Sydney Royal Easter is just after EquiFest, and it will be a good lead in to that for what is a big event for us in the show jumping community,” she said.
The couple are heavily into show jumping, and last year returned from a three year stint in Europe, where they travelled across the continent competing in a variety of show jumping events.
Mrs Winning-Kermond said her husband competed in the 2014 World Equestrian Games, and the World Cup Final, also in 2014.
Together, the pair competed in the Odense Nations Cup, Denmark in 2014, and then in 2015, they were both at the Nations Cup Final, Barcelona.
“For the first seven months we lived in our horse truck, it was a bit like a caravan,” she said.
“Then we committed to staying longer and rented a place.
“Living away from friends and family was taxing but you were over there doing what you love and you were trying to compete against the best.
“There were lots of challenges but it was really good to do. It was definitely worth all of the stress.”
Back in Australia and the husband and wife team helped organise October’s Showcase of Showjumping.
Thanks to the European travels, they had acquired Caro jumps, the premier gear used in the world, which they plan to lend to the Equifest organisers.
EquiFest will run from March 30 to April 2 at the Hawkesbury Showground.