St. Gallen, Switzerland – Switzerland’s CSIO St. Gallen ended successfully for the show jumping riders who have been representing the United States at the first three shows of the 2011 FEI Nations Cup Series. In Sunday’s Longines Grand Prix of Switzerland, Rich Fellers and Flexible defied both the tiny chestnut stallion’s size and the weather, jumping impressively to second place behind Great Britain’s Nick Skelton in a deluge of rain. Christine McCrea rounded out a successful U.S. effort with a fantastic third-place effort on Romantovich Take One.
Out of the 36 starters, 10 went forward to the jump-off. Five went clear again so the clock decided the winner. Skelton’s flashy grey Carlo outran Flexible by just over a second, but Fellers and Harry and Mollie Chapman’s Irish Sport Horse stallion’s time of 44.83 proved he was clearly in the right league with his effort in the soaking conditions.
McCrea and Candy Tribble’s Romantovich Take One closed out the top three places with a time of 46.93.
Complete results and more information can be found here: http://www.csio.ch/.
For photos and other highlights visit: http://usefnetwork.com/.
Complete FEI Nations Cup Series information is available here: www.FEI.org.
The next stop on the Nation Cup series is Falsterbo, Sweden, on July 8.