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The new Australian Showjumping Champion –\u00a0<\/strong>Jamie Kermond<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Rebecca Ashton interviews Jamie – and took the portrait<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0 Three National titles under your belt<\/strong>\u2026.and you<\/strong>\u2019re up there with some big names!<\/strong><\/p>\n It is great when you go to Werribee and you see all the names on the board. It does get you motivated. Dave Cameron and myself have had it for the last five years so if I\u2019m not there next year, he has to win it. I think his horse is coming back into work now.<\/p>\n Jamie and Stylish King at the 2006 WEG<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0I sort of tried a few times before I won the first one. I think I finished fourth on Stylish King and then I had Valhalla and Colthaga and I was in contention a lot coming into the last day, but I just couldn\u2019t get the job done. I was feeling more and more pressure so to get the first one with Caracas in 2013 was great. He\u2019s now being ridden by Jos Verlooy overseas and pretty well jumps all the GCT comps and he\u2019s had some high placings. It\u2019s great for me to have produced a horse that\u2019s jumping around all the top classes in the world.<\/p>\n Jamie and Colthaga<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Then to win the Australian Champs again last year with Yandoo Oaks Constellation, when he\u2019d just got back from overseas was amazing. He\u2019d had a big prep in Europe and he was a bit spent when he got back but we got him right enough to go to the Nationals and it was great that he could still win. This year I thought I had him pretty good; he was in good condition and really fit and feeling well and it was nice for him to jump three days without a pole down. It was good that we had a plan going in, the horse was healthy and he performed really well for us. Nappa (Yandoo Oaks Constellation) is 11 now and was bred by Alice Cameron from Oaks. He\u2019s by Conquistador who was Helen and Chris Chugg\u2019s horse and he\u2019s out of Galaxie Piereville who is a Jalsico B mare. It\u2019s had a few nice foals.<\/p>\n A national title for Jamie and Constellation<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0He keeps getting better. He went really well at Hagen in the 4* show when we were in Europe, he jumped clear with a time fault. I was hoping he\u2019d hold that form and perhaps get a little bit better but he got a bit of a virus in the stable and he just went off a little bit going into the selections for Rio. When he\u2019s not feeling great, he\u2019s often not that easy to ride, he gets a bit stiff, a bit difficult and it was just a pity that happened before the selections. My main horse Quite Cassini ended up getting sold and Constellation was a back up but we thought while we\u2019re there and he\u2019s jumping well we\u2019d try to short track him into the Olympic Team. He was probably six months off but I still think he should have gone.<\/p>\n Now we\u2019re back in Australia and we have him in a bit of a programme, he\u2019s definitely getting better and better. He\u2019s a really big horse and he\u2019s got a really big stride and he\u2019s not that great at compacting his stride, but he\u2019s getting better at it. I think if I can get him 10-15% better in terms of rideability, I think he\u2019s good enough to jump any course in the world.<\/p>\n And he won a couple of Six Bars in Europe<\/strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah we started at Rotterdam 5*. Yves Houtackers, who I was training with, he\u2019s a great guy and he runs Rotterdam CSIO 5* and they didn\u2019t have enough horses for the Six Bar so Jamie (Jamie\u2019s other half) and her parents bought me the spot in the 5* show for my 30th birthday so we were there. I said to Yves, if I go into the Six Bar and win it, then you have to give me an invitation for next year. I didn\u2019t know how it would go, but he won it jumping 2 metres. Edwina Alexander Tops was really good to us and a spot came up for the GCT in Paris so with the prize money from Rotterdam, we bought the spot in Paris and won the Six Bar there. With that prize money we ended up going to Dinade in France. It was great. The horse really helped us get to a few big shows.<\/p>\n A win in Paris in the Six Bar<\/em><\/p>\n What are the plans heading into the end of the year, WEG next year ?<\/strong><\/p>\n We jumped a World Cup this weekend at SIEC. I had one down in the second round after a clean first round. John Vallance built a really big track. I don\u2019t think a lot of the World Cup courses have been true tests, but this one was a really good track with some tricky lines and big oxers which was a great test and the horse jumped nearly a perfect first round then I made a mistake in the second round and we had a rail down. But it was a good show and the idea of a pop up World Cup was great.<\/p>\n Moving forward, I might go the Adelaide World Cup in a month, and perhaps New Zealand for Equitana.<\/p>\n When you only have one Grand Prix horse going around, you just have to be a little bit more careful and pick your shows. I think Billy (Raymont) is nearly out of reach now so I think he\u2019ll win the series and I think he\u2019s planning to go to the final, which is good. I\u2019d really like to go again but I\u2019m not sure if this is quite the right horse for the indoor shows. It really depends on the size of the arena.<\/p>\n WEG\u2019s the big one. I\u2019ve been a couple of times, but Woody, Kerry, Jamie (Winning) and I haven\u2019t owned one of the horses that have been there, so that\u2019s sort of what we\u2019d like to do. Jamie and Brooke Campbell bought him as a yearling but he got too big for the girls, however he\u2019s been here his whole life so it would be great to get him into a Championships, but he is only a 10-year-old so if we don\u2019t take him to WEG, we could just look after him for the next 18 months and have a go at the Olympics. I\u2019ve never made an Olympic team so that\u2019s something I\u2019d really like to do. We\u2019ll make our minds up after Christmas I think.<\/p>\n We haven\u2019t really heard what the selection process for WEG will be yet but possibly they want us to all go to Europe. I don\u2019t really want to go and base myself there for a long period this time. There\u2019s too much going on here, and we just spent three years there which is a big chunk of life. So if we have to, I\u2019ll go over maybe for a shorter spell.<\/p>\n We\u2019re more interested now staying in Australia and developing the sport here. Jamie\u2019s parents are really keen to do that too. It\u2019s a long way behind Europe and it\u2019s always going to be but if we could bridge the gap a little bit and get the sport more popular in this country, that\u2019s our aim. It\u2019s a good sport, it\u2019s entertaining, I just think people don\u2019t know about it.<\/p>\n You<\/strong>\u2019re content to train in Australia then?<\/strong><\/p>\n I feel like in any profession, you need to do an apprenticeship and I feel I\u2019ve done my apprenticeship now, I know what it takes. When you go to Europe, it\u2019s fine if you can buy your own property and have your own place, you can do what you want, but when you go over there and you\u2019re renting stables, working at someone else\u2019s place and renting a house, it costs a fortune and you never really feel at home. I feel like we can produce horses better here because we have the facilities, it\u2019s ours, and it\u2019s a lot easier for us to do it here.<\/p>\n Any special horses coming up?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nappa\u2019s the only Grand Prix horse I have at the moment but I\u2019ve got a nice six year old coming along and we have some really nice young ones.<\/p>\n (Actually the Yandoo paddocks look quite full of youngsters<\/em>\u2026there<\/em>\u2019s nothing nicer than driving into the property with all those young heads poking over paddock rails). <\/em><\/p>\n We brought a few over from Europe with us. We have a colt out in the paddock who\u2019s really young but he\u2019s pretty fancy when he free jumps. There are plenty of young ones to keep us busy over the next few years.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/jamiePORT.jpg\")
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