2010 WEG Photo Gallery – EVENTING

Photo gallery of riders/winners in the Eventing phase of the World Equestrian Games. Click on an image to use the PicLens for larger image with the details. Click the image to exit the gallery.

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German Riders Take the Lead in Eventing World Championships – The cross-country course was almost four-miles long. It was designed by Mike Etherington-Smith.

Quotes:

“It’s a true championship track. It’s demanding, and the terrain is tough,” said Fox-Pitt, 41, who rode Cool Mountain to win the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event here at the Kentucky Horse Park in April. “A few fences out there are going to cause problems. It has a similar feel to the spring [Rolex Kentucky], but I think that’s more of a Mike E.-S. feel. It’s warm enough here, and the terrain is tough enough that you have to be prepared to come to Kentucky. They have to be fit.” Read more>

Michael Jung (La Biosthethique Sam) GER took the lead as the dressage phase of the Eventing Championship — The German team go into tomorrow’s Eventing Championship cross-country challenge at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games with a 14 point lead over their nearest rivals from Great Britain. On a day when the standard of dressage just kept getting better and better it was Germany’s Michael Jung who took over at the head of affairs.  He admitted during the post-competition press conference that he regularly competes in pure dressage, “but not at the World Equestrian Games!” he pointed out.  He described his 10 year old gelding La Biosthetique Sam as “a bundle of energy”, and he used that energy today to post a superb score of 33.0 to go out in front. Read more>

Cross-Country Keeps Germany’s Jung atop Eventing World Championships — As the day’s third-last starter, Germany’s Michael Jung and La Biosthetique-Sam FBW made the cross-country course look easy at the Eventing World Championships, presented by Reem Acra.  The pair added nothing to their dressage penalty score of 33.00, to keep the lead they took yesterday in the dressage phase at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.  Creeping up behind Jung after equally impressive rounds are Great Britain’s William Fox-Pitt on Cool Mountain, finishing on their dressage score of 42.00, and USA’s Becky Holder on Courageous Comet, finishing on 42.50.

Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010 Final – Eventing/Jumping — final results for the Eventing Championship at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky had Great Britain taking the team title and Germany’s Michael Jung securing an all-the-way individual win with La Biosthetique Sam, 9 points ahead of the second place winner, William Fox-Pitt.

Final Results:

Team: Great Britain 139.40; 2, Canada 151.50; 3, New Zealand 154.50; 4, USA 160.30; 5, Germany 200.70; 6, Belgium 227.10; 7, Ireland 236.50; 8, France 245.70; 9, Japan 334.10.

Individual: 1, La Biosthetique Sam NRW (Michael Jung) GER 33.00; 2, Cool Mountain (William Fox-Pitt) GBR 42.00; 3, Nereo (Andrew Nicholson) NZL 43.50; 4, Gazelle de la Brasserie (Karin Donckers) BEL 44.40; 5, Redesigned (Pippa Funnell) GBR 45.50; 6, Imperial Cavalier (Mary King) GBR 46.20; 7, Clifton Promise (Jonathan Paget) NZL 46.40; 8, Vettori (Stuart Tinney) AUS 47.60; 9, Port Authority (Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch) CAN 48.20; 10, Neville Bardos (Boyd Martin) USA 49.50.

More Facts and Figures about the Eventing Championship:

Michael Jung is Germany’s first-ever individual eventing World Champion.
The German team, which finished fifth, were defending champions at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.
Michael Jung, age 28, is the youngest rider to take the individual title since Lucinda Prior-Palmer in 1982.
Great Britain holds the record for the biggest number of World Team titles – 1970, 1982, 1986, 1994 and 2010.
Both Mary King and Tina Cook were also on the winning British team at The Hague in 1994.
Two riders in the Eventing Championship were following in their father’s footsteps – Buck Davidson’s (USA) father, Bruce Davidson, and Sam Watson’s (IRL) father John Watson won individual gold and silver in 1978 at Kentucky.
Newly-crowned individual champion Michael Jung holds the Pferdewirtschafts Meister qualification.  This is issued to top-level trainers in Germany. Michael competes at a high level in both dressage and jumping, as well as eventing.
Before Great Britain’s Nicola Wilson went into jump in the final phase of the Eventing Championship yesterday her husband, Alastair, was at a concession stand and was approached by an American spectator who pressed a dime into his hand and said, “This is for luck for you and your horse!”

Read more>

On a sad note:

USA’s Becky Holder, riding the 14 year-old Courageous Comet as an individual rider,  was in third place after cross-country. But he pulled his left front shoe on course and subsequently came up lame by the next day.  As was viewed on NBC showing of the cross-country phase of the WEG, spectators saw the shoe fly off her valiant horse. A few strides more and we saw Becky look back as she felt something may have been “off”, but she continued on to complete her time just .05 seconds behind the second place winner, Fox-Pitt.

By that evening and into the next day, Comet’s opposite leg (right leg) had some slight swelling due to overcompensation of the stress on that leg. The WEG veterinarian examined the leg and performed ultrasound and found no pain when he palpated it; there was no tendon or ligament damage either, but this meant that Becky had to withdraw from the final phase of the competition, the Jumping phase. It was acknowledged that Comet should make a complete recovery with the standard cold water hosing, walking, and layup that many of us horse people have experienced at one time or another in ownership of horses.