BERMUDA will take on the best show jumpers from Barbados, the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands, Haiti and Jamaica this weekend when the FEI World Jumping Challenge is staged at the National Equestrian Centre at Vesey Street.Riders will jump on both Saturday and Sunday starting at 9 a.m.

Although Bermuda will compete with other countries in Category 10 of the Challenge, the competition is organised so that riders do not have to leave their own country. All the rings, jumps and courses are the same in each country and all the competitions will be judged by the same FEI judge. The courses used this year by all countries have been designed by Stefan Wirth from Germany.

Bermuda will compete in two categories — A and B.

The tougher A category will have five riders — Nick DeCosta on Bajan Blue, Philip Correia on Lees, Lindsay Sousa on Croft Little Doll, Claire Howard on Hello Harry and Catherine Jones on Lyric.

Category A consists of two competitions of two rounds while Category B consists of one competition of four rounds over the different courses designed by Wirth.

The riders in category B are Melissa Pereech on Touch the Sky, Stephanie Wilkinson on Tattertales, Trevor Rawson on The Patriot, Melody Moran on Wanderpreis, Christian Baier on Cinderella, Vee McKey on Pirouette, Michael Rodrigues on Scooby-Doo, Gemma Morrison on On Air and Frances Weddup on Mr. Sandman.

The AON Trophy, presented for the first time in 2002, will be given to the first place rider in Category A. In addition, the AON Group of Companies will present a cooler for the first place and has made available $500 in prize money.