Left to right: Michael Jung on Leopin FST, Andreas Dibowski on Butts Leon, Team Coach Hans Melzer, Dirk Schrade on King Artus and Frank Ostholt on Little Paint. Photo: Hanna Broms/FEI.
Lausanne (SUI), 25 March, 2013 – The German team produced yet another excellent performance to score victory at Fontainebleau (FRA), the first leg of the FEI Nations Cup Eventing 2013, and seem to be carrying on their winning ways from last year, when they took four out of six competitions in the inaugural series.
Team manager, Hans Melzer, had again fielded an ‘A’ team, made up of Olympic, World and European Champion Michael Jung on his second string Leopin FST (they finished third individually), Olympic team gold medallists Dirk Schrade and King Artus, plus Andreas Dibowski (Butts Leon) and 2011 European bronze medallists Frank Ostholt and Little Paint.
The quartet scored an emphatic victory over the host nation, France, and were dominant from the start, even without Jung’s top horse, La Biosthetique Sam, on which he scored an individual victory in the CIC3*, and Olympic bronze medallists Sandra Auffarth and Opgun Louvo, who finished second.
There were only five clear Cross Country rounds inside the optimum time on Pierre Michelet’s twisting, accuracy-testing course around the forest tracks, and two of them came from Jung. French team member Donatien Schauly riding Seculaire*Mili produced another, finishing on his Dressage score in individual fourth place.
Vittoria Panizzon, riding the little grey mare Borough Pennyz, was one of the fastest across country for two time penalties and, jumping clear for seventh place individually, she led the Italian team to third place, ahead of the Netherlands.
An all-female British team lay second after Dressage, with Kitty King and Zidante in individual fourth place behind the German trio. However, King and Izzy Taylor, riding KBIS Starchaser, both faulted at the influential fence 18c on the Cross Country, a narrow brush fence on a curving line in water. The team dropped to fifth and Emily Llewelyn and Pardon Me, who had started out as the discard score after Dressage, ended up best of the quartet in 17th place with a clear Jumping round.
Fence 18c was also the downfall of the New Zealand team, as both Mark Todd on Regent Lad and Megan Heath (St Daniel) faulted here, and the Kiwis were unable to finish any higher than sixth, ahead of Spain in seventh.
The next FEI Nations Cup Eventing leg is on British soil in May, at Houghton Hall, where it will be interesting to see if the home side can resurrect their fortunes once more. Further nations, such as Australia, Ireland and Belgium, will also be expected to make their seasonal débuts.
Full results on www.sportequi.fr/fontainebleau/fontainebleau.html.
The FEI’s first team Eventing series, the FEI Nations Cup Eventing, has seven events and is open to all nations fielding one team composed of 3 or 4 riders at each leg. The series runs under FEI Eventing rules at CICO and CCIO 3* level and riders accumulate points under a dedicated system. Visit the FEI Nations Cup Eventing series hub here for rules, results and Organiser details.
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