Friday nights Puissance was the final jumping competition on a day dominated by "foreign" riders. Swiss riders Beat Mandli and Willi Melliger won the Pairs Relay, French rider Hubert Bourdy took the Christmas Cracker class and Belgian Philippe Lejeune took the Christmas Cake Stakes.

Building the Puissance wall.

The Puissance was not to prove any different as no British rider progressed beyond the second round. Germany's Rene Tebbel was the outright winner of the class, the only rider to jump clear in the third round over a 2 metre 5cm wall that dwarfed the horses. His huge grey gelding Remornetto loped up to the daunting wall and almost made it look easy!

Germany's Rene Tebbel & Renemetto win the Puissance.

Norway's Gier Gulliksen and Ireland's Peter Charles both made it through to the third round but neither Alex H nor Traxdata T'Aime could threaten Remornetto.

Saturday's highlight and indeed, for many, the highlight of the show, was the Traxdata World Cup Qualifier. The Qualifier attracted many of the World's greatest show jumpers though not, sadly, Rodrigo Pessoa, the current World Gold Medallist and World Cup Champion. With an automatic ticket into the next World Cup Finals Rodrigo was resting his best horses though the crowds were treated to displays of his riding in the smaller classes.

Of the 30 multi-national starters only nine jumped clear over Finnish course designer Aki Ylaenne's huge and technical course. For the home crowd it was rewarding that six of the nine were Brittish: John and Michael Whitaker, riding V.V. Grannusch and V.V. Ashley, Geoff Billington with the long striding It's Otto (a favourite with the crowd due to his large frame and white face).

John Whittaker & Virtual Village Grannusch Winners of the Traxdata World Cup Qualifier

Nick Skelton with V.V. Hopes Are High, a horse brought to the top by young Welsh rider Andrew Davies, Di Lampard, one of our Nations Cup stalwarts, with Abbervail Dream and James Fisher with Traxdata Renville. Swiss riders filled the remaining jump off spots - Beat Mandli with Poor Boy, Willi Melliger with the incredible grey jumping machine Calvaro V, and Lesley McNaught with Dulf.

John Whitaker was on a mission from the second he set off and Grannusch was every bit as keen as his rider to finish ahead of the field. As they brushed past jump wings and took fences at seemingly impossible angles the pair looked absolutely invincible.

Incredibly, V.V. Hopes Are High shaved 0.03 of a second off of John's time but had the last fence down, leaving the ten year old in eventual 7th place. Beat separated the Whitaker Brothers and his compatriots took fourth and fifth, with Willi coming home half a second faster than Lesley. Geoff Billington asked It's Otto an impossible question turning into the final line of fences causing the big bay to refuse and they eventually finished in sixth place.

John later confessed that he had considered retiring Grannusch, an Hannovarian by Grannus, at the beginning of last year but said "He seemed so fit and well that it had seemed a pity to let him vegitate, so I decided to keep him going while he seems happy in his work." At the beinning of the year Grannusch was Britains sole representative at the Show Jumping World Cup in Helsinki and won the Speed section there.

For the Members of four Riding Clubs Saturday's highlight was the Bankers Equine Direct British Riding Clubs Quadrille of the Year. Teams from all over the country have been practising their quadrilles throughout the year and at the Semi-finals four were chosen to compete at Olympia.

Last years winners, Aspley Guise, were first to go depicting a Spanish fiesta. Their idea came from a visit to the Classical Riding School in Northampton. Saffron Waldon and District followed, displaying their skills as "The Four Musketeer's. One of the groups horses - Lord Of The Dance was 26 years old! Hampshire Rural Riding Club blew hot and cold as Sun, Rain, Wind and Snow. Fantastic make-up and costumes were the highlight of their performance.

Aspley Guise and District Riding Club. Winners of the Quadrille last year and runners up in 1998.

Rearsby Lodge's drama unfortunately happened out of the arena. Team member Maria Harvey borrowed Cassie at the last minute when her own horse, Bertie Wooster was unable to compete. Sadly Cassie suffered a severe colic on the morning of the competition and was being tended to by the show's vets as the rest of the team tried to put their anxieties behind them in the main arena. Saffron Waldon won the competition which is judged for appearance, content of programme, performance and general artistic impression.

The rest of the days jumping classes again belonged to the "away" team. The Top Score and the Christmas Carol Stakes went to Germany riders Luger Beerbaum and Franke Sloothaak and the Christmas Pudding Stakes to Norways Gier Gulliksen.