Leading British and foreign riders graced the all-new LG Arena for the start of the International classes at Horse of the Year Show yesterday. The opening class, the Grandstand Welcome Stakes was won by H&C blogger Shane Breen on Dorada. Seven of the 11 riders who went through to the jump-off were British, with Britain’s number two, Nick Skelton, taking second place riding Nemo 119. Impressively, third, fourth and fifth places went to fellow Brits, Geoff Billington, Peter Charles and John Whitaker respectively.

The luck of the Irish continued in the next big class of the day, the Sky SportsTrophy, with Irishman Billy Twomey taking the top honours on Ceaser. This was a great result for Billy, who has only competed Ceaser at four or five shows since he took on the ride. Once again the British contingent were nipping at the leader’s heels with John (Utah Van Erpekom) and Ellen Whitaker (CS Online) securing second and third places, and Ben Maher finishing fourth on Skywalker IV.

In the class that is known as the FA Cup final of the show jumping world, Bruce Menzies riding Sultan V was crowned the 2009 Horse & Hound Foxhunter Champion, taking the top spot with an impressive double clear. Having “fulfilled a dream” by winning this highly sought-after title, and getting engaged on Friday, this really has been an amazing week for Bruce. Eight horses made it through to the jump-off, with Essex’s Laura Renwick narrowly missing out on the top spot by 0.15 of a second on Oz De Breve. Graham Lovegrove took third place with Tin Tin, also producing a double clear.

The last show jumping class of the day was The Tagg Cup with a prize fund of £16,000. It was all about accuracy and speed in this class and tonight it was the athletic Torinto Van de Middelstede ridden by Guy Williams from Kent, who combined pace and tight turns to win the class with six seconds to spare. William Funnell and Kepi D Elle took second place in a time of 62.97, while New Zealand’s Samantha McIntosh was third on Loxley 38.

International classes continue today with the climax of the week, the Leading Show Jumper of the Year, taking place on Sunday evening.