Perfect facilities

Equestrian Company Deputy Chief Executive Officer Miranda Chiu said everything has gone smoothly.

"So far all the reactions have been positive," she said. "We hope this competition will cultivate more intense interest in equestrian [events] before the Olympics."

Frank Ostholt, a member of Germany's World Championship winning team in 2006, was impressed with the facilities at Sha Tin after completing his dressage test.

"The facilities are perfect," he said. "[The organisers] are trying to do a good job which is good. There are a few things to improve like the traffic flow to the stables. Little things."

Bruce Davidson Jnr, a member of the American team and son of five-time Olympian Bruce Davidson, was equally happy following his first competitive ride at Sha Tin.

"The lighting is perfect and is situated in a good place," he said. "I think a few things need to be ironed out like communications, but overall the facilities are way ahead of previous test events."

Rain relief

The International Eventing Competition went ahead on schedule despite the influence of Tropical Storm Pabuk which prompted the Hong Kong Observatory to raise the No.8 typhoon signal a day earlier. The contest for local entries had to be rescheduled until after the international competition. However, the weather didn't affect the performance of the horses.

"The rain doesn't matter," said German rider Andreas Ostholt, the younger brother of Frank Ostholt. "The weather was no problem, no different to Germany."

The rain was a relief to the horses who have been acclimatising to the heat and humidity since arriving in Hong Kong.

Bruce Davidson Jnr said the most important thing is to get an idea of what to expect next year and what preparations need to be made for the Olympics when 200 horses will be taking part.

"This is a test event. We did not come here thinking about winning or losing but to get things ironed out for next year."

Contest results

Germany's Dirk Schrade, riding Grand Amour, is leading after the first phase of the competition. The 29-year-old came in with 48.8 penalty points. Another German, Anna Junkmann, is in second place on Cancun with 51.2 penalty points. The UK's Caroline Moore is in third place after day one.

In the local contest, Annie Ho riding Super Bomb, is out in front with 51 penalty points. Mak Kar-yan is in second place followed by Kwan Kwok-ming.

Jockey Club Chairman John Chan said he was pleased with the response from the participating teams.

"So far the feedback has been extremely positive. We have stood the test of the weather and the stabling facilities have been very well received. We will review the experiences to see if any improvements need to be made to the physical facilities."

The cross-country phase will take place at Beas River tomorrow before the teams return to Sha Tin for the jumping contest on Monday.