The competition kicked off on Saturday with the showjumping, dressage and the first round of the cross country events, and continued on Sunday with the last of the cross country. 

Over the course of the last 40 years, the competition has changed immensely from a small event into one of the major eventing competitions in Australia. 

“If I look back 40 years ago, what we built out here is pretty ordinary in terms of today’s standards,” Kennedy said. 

“We had a break in the early ‘80s because the property changed hands, but Alan Cardy bought this place in ‘86, we came back and asked him whether we could get the event going, and it’s just grown and grown and grown.” 

As the competition has grown, so too has the work required to pull it together. But the quality of the final product continues to earn acclaim. 

Two-time Olympic medalist Shane Rose is one of the big names in eventing who makes a point of competing at Lynton each year, and says the quality of the courses is what keeps him coming back. 

“I would’ve been here from probably [the age of] 16 or 17,” the now 45-year-old Rose said. 

“It’s a beautiful part of the world. Neil Kennedy, who’s been building the course for years, he’s quite nice in the way he lets the horses gallop and jump. 

“Weather’s good to us, the ground’s really nice, they put on a great show.” 

The numbers for this year were down on previous years, and Kennedy put this down to another competition in Albury in a fortnight. 

“Numbers are down because we’ve got another event in two weeks’ time which attracts the same riders,” he said. 

“[The riders] choose very carefully where they run their horses, and they won’t run them week in, week out.” 

Despite the lull in competitors, Rose said that the competition “seems very relaxed this year.” 

“It’s been a pretty good atmosphere … [I’m] really happy with it, the jumps were really good today.”