Birregurra’s Jonathon Smith will need luck on his side in international championships.

LUCK will play a big part in Birregurra showjumper Jonathon Smith’s international campaign this weekend, his coach says.

Smith, 20, travelled to Singapore yesterday where he will represent Australia at a youth international show jumping championship.

Smith and teammates Zoe Bolton, of Victoria, and Pascoe Young, of Western Australia, will compete in two rounds a day tomorrow and Sunday with hopes of bringing home the glory.

Riders receive penalty points for faults they make during the course, with the officials awarding the title to the team with the lowest combined score.

But Jonathon’s coach Chris Smith, also his father, said a lot of the results would depend on the horse he got to ride.

“In this sort of competition you don’t know what horse you’ll be riding because you ride borrowed horses and they’re drawn out of hat,” he said.

“Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good you are, you can only do your best with what you’ve got – it’s a little bit of a luck of the draw and how quickly you can adjust.”

Mr Smith said Jonathon’s preparation, which involved riding a host of different horses at their Birregurra home, would hold him in good stead.

“I expect he’ll be able to adjust quite quickly which can be the hard part,” he said.

“He rides five or six different horses in his own team.”

Jonathon’s national selection came after a stellar season on the horse, contesting under-21 events around Australia, boosted by performances in senior world cup qualifiers.

Mr Smith said Jonathon had also impressed while representing Australia against teams from New Zealand and South Africa at young riders’ championships at Werribee in December.

“I don’t know much about the Western Australian girl but she’s supposed to be a very good rider,” Mr Smith said.

“And Zoe Bolton has done very well this year so hopefully they should go quite well.”