Dressage: European Championships: Great Britain's Team Preview

17 August 2011

British dressage riders; Laura Bechtolsheimer (Mistral Hojris), Carl Hester (Uthopia) Charlotte Dujardin (Valegro) and Emile Faurie (Elmegardens Marquis) will be representing Britain at this week’s FEI European Dressage Championships at the Kralingse Bos arena in the Dutch city of Rotterdam (17 - 21 August). The team will be one of a record number of 16 contesting the Championships.

The British team comes with good form as the current European and World team silver medallists. While it will be a team debut for the young and exciting combination of Dujardin and Valegro, the team has the experience of three former Olympic, World and European Championship team riders. Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris, winners of an individual bronze medal at the European Championships at Windsor in 2009 and silver at last year’s World Equestrian Games, are currently second in the FEI world rankings and it is anticipated that the combination will be amongst those fighting for individual honours.

Carl Hester made his team debut 21years ago and has a record 51 National titles to his name. He was a member of the silver medal winning team at the 2009 European Championships and 2010 World Equestrian Games. With Uthopia, he has this year been posting high scores in Europe; scoring over 80% on their last two outings at Fritzens (AUT) and Hickstead (GBR) where the combination gained a personal best score for Hester of 81.80% in the Freestyle.

The Championship team test will be only the sixth international grand prix test for Dujardin, a pupil of Hester for five years. In January the twenty-six-year old scored 74% per cent on her winning international grand prix debut in Vidauban (FRA) and has since recorded grand prix wins at Saumur (FRA), Fritzens and Hickstead, including beating her tutor. 

The Gloucestershire based trio of Bechtolsheimer, Dujardin and Hester will be joined by Oxfordshire based Emile Faurie winner of European individual bronze and team silver in 1993 and a further team bronze at Hickstead in 2003. With Elmegardens Marquis, who shares the same sire, Michellino, as Mistral Hojris, Faurie has impressed with consistent good scores particularly at the recent Aachen CDIO (GER).

There will be strong opposition from both the Dutch and German teams. Germany, formerly undefeated in European Championships from 1965-2005,  now have former Dutch world record holding mount Totilas (Matthias Alexander Rath) on their side and will be keen to re-establish their authority on the Championships since relinquishing the Championship title to the Dutch in Turin (ITA) in 2007. The Dutch, who also won at Windsor in 2009 will be determined to hang on as the best in Europe and will be banking on the experience of this year’s high scoring World Cup winner Jerich Parzival (Adelinde Cornelissen) who will also be one of the favourites, along with Totilas, for individual honours.

For further event information, and competition timetables please visit: http://www.ecdressage2011.com/

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Jumping: Lausanne: CAN MARCUS OR MEREDITH MAKE IT A RECORD FOURTH TITLE? -- by Louise Parkes

Marcus Ehning (GER) celebrates being crowned Rolex FEI World Cup™ 2010 champion in Geneva (SUI) with joint runners up Pius Schwizer of Switzerland (left) and Ludger Beerbaum of Germany (right). Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI

ROLEX FEI WORLD CUP™ JUMPING 2010/2011 - FINAL PREVIEW
Lausanne (SUI), 15 April 2011

With less than two weeks to go to the Rolex FEI World Cup™ 2010/2011 Jumping Final in Leipzig (GER), excitement is at fever pitch and speculation is rife about whether defending champion Marcus Ehning or his German compatriot Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, can secure a historic fourth victory.

Just four riders have been three-time winners throughout the 32 seasons of this most prestigious indoor tournament, which brings together the leading competitors from 14 leagues staged all around the globe.

Two of those won't make it to this year's 33rd annual grand finale as Austria's Hugo Simon, the first man to hold the coveted trophy aloft back in 1979 and winner again in 1996 and 1997, didn't make the cut and Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa, who proved unbeatable between 1998 and 2000, has already said he won’t be making the trip to Leipzig.

That leaves only Ehning and Michaels-Beerbaum, members of Germany's gold medal winning team at last year's Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ and multiple champions in their own right, in contention for a record-breaking fourth success.

One way or another, the host nation is hotly-tipped for the honours after dominating the Rolex Western European League with six wins from 13 qualifying competitions and an awesome list of top placings.

BATTLE FOR POINTS
At the opening leg in Oslo (NOR) last October it was a German one-two-three when Christian Ahlmann pipped Ludger Beerbaum and Lars Nieberg in the battle for maximum points, and Ahlmann made it a double a week later in Helsinki (FIN) where team-mate Philipp Weishaupt slotted into the runner-up spot. Michaels-Beerbaum won round three at Lyon (FRA) and then in November Carsten-Otto Nagel nosed in ahead of Marcus Ehning at Stuttgart (GER).

Ehning came out on top at Zurich (SUI) in January before Weishaupt swept to success in Bordeaux (FRA) the following month, and although Nagel did not accumulate sufficient points to make it to the Final despite his victory, the six-strong German line-up for Leipzig is a star-studded one, including 1993 champion Beerbaum and former Olympic bronze medallist and European champion Marco Kutscher. They will be tough nuts to crack, especially on home ground.

However, non-Europeans have a tremendous record in this series down the years. The USA secured seven titles between 1980 and 1987 and again fields an impressive line-up this time around that includes Rich Fellers, who was second in 2008 and McLain Ward, who was runner-up in 2009.

The honours have gone to Canada on three occasions, firstly to Mario Deslauriers in 1984 and then to the legendary partnership of Ian Millar and Big Ben in 1988 and 1989, and Canadian prospects look particularly promising again this season with Eric Lamaze and his fabulous stallion, Hickstead, champing at the bit. They are a formidable partnership, with a turn of speed that could give the reigning Olympic champion and World No 2 rider the edge on the final afternoon.

MOST ATTENTION
Challengers from the New Zealand, Japanese, South American, Mexican and Central European Leagues will also compete, but it is one of the Arab League contenders who is likely to attract most attention over the early days of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping final. Saudi Arabia's Abdullah Al Sharbatly sprang a big surprise when taking individual silver at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Kentucky last year, and his many fans will be keenly following the fortunes of the effervescent 28-year-old, who brings the brilliant mare Seldana di Campalto to Leipzig. 

However World No 1, Kevin Staut, will be hoping to bring the trophy home to France for only the second time, and the start-list is bursting with talent including Staut's cohort Simon Delestre, the impressive Spaniard Sergio Alvarez Moya, Olympic silver medallist Rolf-Goran Bengtsson and his Swedish counterpart Malin Baryard-Johnsson, 2000 Olympic champion Jeroen Dubbeldam of The Netherlands and Portugal's Luciana Diniz.

Never discount the Irish either. Billy Twomey's fabulous run of form has boosted him to seventh in the Rolex Rankings, one place ahead of Denis Lynch, who demonstrated true grit when snatching those invaluable last-minute points at 's-Hertogenbosch (NED) just over two weeks ago. The Irish are hungry to clinch the title that has eluded them for so many years and to which they came so close when Jessica Kuerten was runner-up in 2006.

The winner however must be well-placed after the opening speed class which takes place on Thursday April 28 and the Table A competition with a timed jump-off the following day. The top two-thirds of competitors will then go forward to Sunday's two-round final from which the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping champion for 2010/2011 will emerge.

For the first time in the history of equestrian sport, the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping, Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage, FEI World Cup™ Driving and the inaugural FEI World Cup™ Vaulting will take place under one roof in Leipzig (27 April to 1 May), bringing together four world-class disciplines for a fabulous festival of

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WEG Carriage Driving Preview

Carriage Driving (7-10 October)
Reigning WEG champions: Germany (team) and Felix Marie Brasseur, BEL (Individual)

 Driving is a growing sport in the USA and the goal of World Championship Course Designer Richard Nicoll is to stir the enthusiasm of the large number of spectators at Kentucky Horse Park during the forthcoming Games.

 Dutch, German, Swedish, Swiss and American sides will battle it out for the team medals, and will be joined by Australia's Boyd Exell, twice winner of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Driving Final, who will be bidding for the individual title.

 There are three phases of competition - Dressage, Marathon and Obstacle Cones – similar to Eventing, but with four horses!

(Courtesy FEI)

WEG Vaulting Preview

Vaulting (6-10 October)
 Reigning WEG champions: Germany (team) and Megan Benjamin, USA (Female Individual), Kai Vorberg, GER (Male Individual).

 In this demanding sport, judged over two rounds consisting of compulsory and freestyle  tests, competitors must show technique, balance and athleticism along with  creativity. The performance of the horse has become much more important since the  last  World Equestrian Games in Aachen, as this vital member of the Vaulting  team  must  remain  calm,  controlled,  balanced  and  happy  while  being lunged by a longeur who ensures a steady, true canter is maintained on a circle as
 the vaulter executes their movements. The horse's way of going now accounts for
 20% of the overall score.

 The Austrian team won the 2009 European Championships at Bokeberg in Sweden, where Joanne Eccles claimed the Individual Female title and the British rider goes to Kentucky  as  one of the favourites. Germany's Kai Vorberg, defending Male Vaulting  Champion  at  the  Alltech  FEI  World  Equestrian  Games™,  was  silver medallist at last year's European fixture where Nicolas Andreani from France took gold.

(Courtesy FEI)

WEG Para Dressage Preview

Para-Dressage (5-10 October)

 This continually evolving sport, included for the first time at the World Equestrian Games,  will break new ground if other nations can beat the British stranglehold. Great Britain has won team gold in every championship since the sport began, and fields the most medalled rider in history, Lee Pearson, plus Anne Dunham, the only rider to have competed at every Paralympics.

 Para-Dressage,  which  joined  the  FEI  disciplines  in  2006,  provides  riders  with physical  disabilities the opportunity to compete in high performance equestrian sport alongside able-bodied riders from all over the world.  The FEI was one of the first international  governing bodies to regulate sport for both able-bodied and disabled athletes.

(Courtesy FEI)

Weg Jumping Preview

Jumping (4-9 October)
Reigning  WEG  champions: Netherlands (team) and Jos Lansink/Cumano/BEL (Individual)

 The defending Jumping champions from The Netherlands had a tough year avoiding relegation from the top-level Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ series in 2010 so don't look the force they were four years ago.  Both Germany and France have won the World Equestrian Games team title twice, and the French are on form having claimed the Meydan title for  the second successive season this summer. However the host nation and reigning Olympic champions are the ones to be reckoned with on their home ground in Kentucky.  And never discount the Irish. They scored a surprise victory at Aachen in July and are fielding the same team.

 The USA will also challenge strongly for the individual honours, with McLain Ward and  Sapphire  in  sparkling  form  in  recent  months.  Frenchman  Kevin  Staut  is currently  leading the Rolex World Rankings and other major contenders include 2010 Rolex FEI World Cup™ champion Marcus Ehning from Germany and Olympic champion, Canada's Eric Lamaze. But the individual title is a wide-open affair. Riders must have a really talented horse to make it to the closing stages when it all comes down  to  horsemanship as the top four go head-to-head in the deciding competition during  which they exchange mounts.    Experience, and the ability to adapt to a horse you have never ridden, are key to victory.

(Courtesy FEI)

WEG Eventing Preview

Eventing (30 September – 3 October)
Reigning WEG champions: Germany (team) and Zara Phillips/Toytown/GBR (Individual)

 Eventing is a familiar sport at Kentucky, home of the world-famous Rolex CCI4*, but the Cross-Country course, across the Horse Park’s magnificent rolling acres, will have been given a totally new look by Course Designer Mike Etherington-Smith (GBR).

 Once again, Germany looks the nation to beat, with three members of the winning team from Aachen 2006 returning to the fray – Ingrid Klimke, Andreas Dibowski and Frank Ostholt.

 Other former gold medalists in the field include Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson, members of the winning New Zealand squads in Stockholm 1990 and Rome 1998;
 Mary King (GBR) and Kristina Cook (GBR), members of the winning British team in The Hague (NED) in 1994; and Jean Teulere, France’s Individual World Champion at Jerez (ESP) in 2002.


(Courtesy FEI)