It takes time and patience and a slice of luck for everything to fall into place.

Robert Agnew relies on it and says it's crucial to making a footprint in the caper.

"It takes a few years to develop a good relationship," he says.

"It takes about four or five years to get one through the grades to get them competitive to be able to jump at the Royal Show."

Agnew, of Hanging Rock, is a farrier and has been competing at the Show for three decades.

He grew up around horses in Dunkeld.

His father was a racehorse trainer who won the 1971 Cox Plate with Tauto.

Agnew was too heavy to become a jockey and turned his attention instead to show jumping.

"I was probably a bit heavy to ride racehorses, so show jumping was the next best thing," he says. "It started off as a hobby, but I got some fairly decent horses and stuck with it."

Agnew has had success at the Show over the years, including winning the Prince of Wales Cup and the Grand Prix in 2000.

He hasn't competed for two years because he hasn't had the mounts, but this year he's saddling up two promising young horses, KS Windfall, and a grey mare called Alice's Wonderland.

"I think they'll be really competitive. I expect both of them to be.

"I'm looking forward to getting back to the Royals and being really competitive."

Agnew competes at several shows across the country, but says he most looks forward to the Royal Melbourne Show because it offers unrivalled competition.

"Because the Royal's a little better than the other shows you do build up to a Royal and it's pretty satisfying to win."

Asked how long he would continue in the sport, Agnew says it's never a matter of riding ability in show jumping. It's almost always reliant on what you've got beneath you.

"As long as I've got good horses I will, it's as simple as that. If you've got the horsepower you can compete. You're only as good as what you're sitting on. "