Paul Tapner has won his first Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials. He went into the show jumping arena with a fence in hand in a tense finale, but his horse Inonothing came up with the goods and jumped a clear round to maintain the lead. Paul, like many of the top Australian riders who is from Sydney came up through the ranks of Australian Pony Club. He grew up near Sydney and attended Pony Club with the likes of Edwina Alexander and Shane Rose – in fact his bright red eventing colours go back to Pony Club days when Penny Rose (Shane’s mum and Pony Club supported extraordinaire) dressed the team in red. From 1999 Paul visited England on a regular basis and enjoyed success in 2000 when he won the Bramham International Horse Trials in North Yorkshire, England. Since then he has had good success at major events in the northern hemisphere but this win at Badminton now rockets him into a different sphere and has no doubt made him a definite contender for the Australian team at the WEG in Kentucky in October. His winning horse, Inonothing is an English thoroughbred by Basildon Bond and owned by Jenny and Claus Waler. He also has a very handy second horse in Stormhill Michael, an English thoroughbred by Stormhill Miller, who also placed 10th at this year’s Badminton. In fact, Australia had a very showing in the 2010 Badminton leader board with Bill Levett on Hippolyte also in 7th place. It all bodes well for the future of Australian eventing! Well done Paul and Bill! If you like Badminton, you’ll love the new book “An Eventful Life – Life Stories of Eventing Champions” to be released in June – order your copy now!
