Tag Archives: FEI

Competitions, Events, FEI, FEI, Show Jumping

FEI Nations Cup 2011 Promotional League Update

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SWISS LOOKING STRONG IN PROMOTIONAL LEAGUE SERIES by Louise Parkes

Lausanne (SUI), 9 June 2011 – The Swiss, relegated from the Top League in 2010 but clearly on form when making a guest appearance in the FEI Nations Cup on their home ground at St Gallen last week, are heading the 2011 European Promotional League table after the first three legs of the series and look set for an early return to the elite level of the sport.

This year the Promotional League looks a little different, with teams from three qualifying groups entitled to battle it out for a place in the 2012 Top League.  The 12 nations which have competed in the European series so far are Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Brazil, Australia, Austria, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Portugal, Hong Kong and Hungary, but the Swiss advantage is a slender one going into the fourth of the six rounds at Drammen, Norway next week.

OPENING LEG
The Swiss finished sixth at the opening leg in Linz-Ebelsberg, Austria early last month, and ninth at round two in Copenhagen, Denmark a week later.  However, runner-up spot behind Sweden at Lisbon, Portugal two weeks ago has given them a 0.5 point advantage over the Spanish who have registered an eighth and two fifth-place finishes so far.  The Spanish put up some tremendously spirited performances when joining the Top League last season and are making a determined effort to qualify once again.

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*Featured/Spotlights, Dressage, Events, FEI, USEF

2011 Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage Selection Trials Conclude with Three Horses Meeting the Qualification Requirement for FEI World Breeding Championships

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Eastern Selection Trial 5-year-old champion Lauren Chumley and Somer Hit. Photo by Pics of You.

Lexington, KY – The Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage Selection Trials 2011 qualifying season concluded last week at the Eastern Selection Trials in Leesburg, Va.

The top five 5-year-olds and top five 6-year-olds that earned a minimum score of 7.8 from the three competitions will make up the short list of horses moving forward to the 2011 Markel/USEF Dressage National Championship at Lamplight in Wayne, IL, August 26-28.

The first selection trial was held at Dressage at Lamplight, May 20-22. The 6-year-old class was dominated by Emily Wagner and WakeUp (Wagnis – Maiden Montreal by Macho), an American Warmblood owned by Wagner and bred in the United States by Beverly McLean. WakeUp’s final score was an 8.244. Wagner and WakeUp were the only U.S. pair to compete at the 2010 FEI World Breeding Dressage Championships. Reserve Champion in the 6-year-old class went to Angela Hecker-Jackson and Allure S (by Rousseau – Sizarma by Farrington). The Dutch Warmblood is owned by Kerrin Dunn and was bred in the U.S. by Sonnenberg Farm with a score of 7.156. There were no 5-year-olds that qualified for the Central Selection Trials.

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Conferences, Endurance Riding, Events, FEI

Australasian Endurance Forum Attracts Multi-National Attendance

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Lausanne (SUI), 8 June 2011 – Over 150 delegates representing nine different nationalities are attending the Australasian FEI Endurance Conference and Forum, which began in Brisbane (AUS) today.

Delegates from Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, the UAE and the USA are taking part in three days of lectures and discussion sessions across a wide range of topics relating to international Endurance.

This is the first time the world forum has been held outside Europe and guest speakers have travelled from Canada, America, the UAE, Malaysia and Switzerland, and from across Australia.

The members of the FEI Endurance Technical Committee who are in attendance will also meet during the Forum and attend the Australian Endurance Festival taking place this weekend featuring FEI competitions at 1*, 2* and 3* level.

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Competitions, Events, FEI, Show Jumping, USEF

Fellers and Flexible Withstand the Rain to Claim Second in the St. Gallen Grand Prix

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Rich Fellers and Flexible. Photo by Beatrice Scudo.

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.

*Featured/Spotlights, Competitions, Dressage, Driving, Events, FEI

Weber Wins in Vecsés

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Chester Weber (USA) won the dressage and stayed in the lead throughout the competition in Vecsés to claim the first CAIO victory of his career. (c) Marie de Ronde-Oudemans.

Vecsés (HUN), 5 June 2011 – Chester Weber, the USA’s top four-in-hand driver, has won the international combined driving competition in Vecsés, Hungary this weekend. Weber took the lead in the dressage and held onto the top spot throughout the weekend. Dutch driver Koos de Ronde was runner-up, ahead of Vecsés-organizer József Dobrovitz, but it was the home side Hungary that won the nations competition, ahead of The Netherlands and Germany.

Birthday present
Chester Weber celebrated his 36th birthday on 3 June with the victory in the dressage competition at Vecsés. The five O-judges, chaired by Dr Franz-Josef Vetter from Germany, were impressed and unanimously awarded Weber’s test first place. Chester used Jane F. Clark’ s two KWPN-geldings Uniek and Splash, which previously formed the pair of US pair driver Keady Cadwell. Before the dressage, Chester had some discussions with his trainer Michael Freund about whether or not to use the new horses at Vecsés, but Chester decided he had to try them somewhere. Chester got his way; the team went beautifully and put down a fantastic performance. József Dobrovitz came second in the dressage, ahead of Zoltán Lázár.

Marathon heat
The marathon was won by Werner Ulrich of Switzerland. Ulrich drove his team of three Lusitanian horses and a Swiss-bred gelding very fast through the eight difficult obstacles, designed by Gabor Fintha from Hungary. The thermometer at the start of the marathon indicated no less than 39 degrees Celsius, but the Portuguese Lusitanian horses proved that they are used to the heat and took Ulrich into first place. Koos de Ronde had to take an extra loop in the last obstacle which cost him precious seconds and the victory in this exciting phase. Zoltán Lázár finished third in the marathon. Weber was further down the order in sixth, but still held onto the overall lead going into the cones.

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*Featured/Spotlights, Competitions, Events, FEI, FEI, Show Jumping

Dutch Do the Double at St. Gallen

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L to R: Peter Stoessel, CSIO St-Gallen President; John Roche, FEI Director of Jumping and Dutch team-members Eric Van Der Vleuten, Maikel Van Der Vleuten, Chef d’equipe Rob Ehrens, Piet Raymakers Jr and Jur Vrieling. Photo: FEI/Katja Stuppia.

St Gallen (SUI), 3 June 2011 – The Dutch team recorded a back-to-back double when topping the third leg of the 2011 FEI Nations Cup series at St. Gallen, Switzerland today.  Just a week after sweeping to victory in Rome (ITA), they produced another stunning performance which promoted them to the top of the leaderboard going to the next leg of the series in Falsterbo (SWE) next month.

The unpredictability of Nations Cup Jumping has rarely been more graphically illustrated than by the swings of fortune in today’s competition.  There were high expectations for the defending champions from France, but once again things did not go their way and pathfinder, Kevin Staut, was eliminated for the second time in the current series.  The German team withdrew when things fell apart for them in the second round and the Irish, heading the leaderboard, struggled to finish in front of the Danes who slotted into eighth place.

The Swiss were the surprise package of the day.  Relegated at the end of last season, they came out with all guns blazing to finish equal-second with the resilient British while the Americans started strongly, but faded in the second round to finish fourth.

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Community/Charity, Dressage, FEI

In Memoriam: Henri Chammartin (SUI), 1918-2011

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Henri Chammartin (SUI) and Woermann during their winning test at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games

Lausanne (SUI), 2 June 2010 – Olympic and European Dressage champion Henri Chammartin (SUI) passed away this week at the age of 92. A legend in the Dressage world, he competed in five consecutive editions of the Olympic Games – Helsinki 1952, Stockholm 1956, Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964, and Mexico 1968 – winning a total of five medals.

During his first Olympic participation in 1952, Chammartin was a member of the Swiss team that claimed team silver. He received his second Olympic medal – a team bronze – in 1956.

Henri Chammartin became Olympic champion in 1964 and also won his second team silver that year. He rode the 13-year-old Swedish-bred Woermann which had travelled to Tokyo only as a reserve horse to his stablemate and reigning European champion Wolfdietrich, which was unfortunately lame.

Tokyo 1964 was the first Olympic Games to which horses were flown by aircraft. The Swiss team departed from Amsterdam on 28 September at noon and arrived, with a stop-over in Anchorage, Alaska, on 29 September at 3pm.

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Competitions, Events, FEI, FEI, Show Jumping

FEI Nations Cup 2011 – Draw Report, Round 3

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USA HEADS THE START-LIST FOR ROUND THREE AT ST GALLEN by Louise Parkes

L to R - Peter Stossel, President CSIO St Gallen, John Roche, FEI Jumping Director and Henk Nooren, Chef d'Equipe for the French team. Photo: FEI/Katja Stuppia.

St Gallen (SUI), 2 June 2011 – The American team will be first into the ring for tomorrow’s third leg of the 2011 FEI Nations Cup at St Gallen, Switzerland.  A total of nine nations will compete, as the Swiss, who were relegated at the end of last season, join the eight Top League countries for a guest appearance on their home ground.

And the host nation looks strong, with Steve Guerdat (Jalisca Solier), Werner Muff (Kiamon), Jannike Sprunger (Uptown Boy) and Pius Schwizer (Carlina) ready to show that their country is still a force to be reckoned with.  The teams will start the first round of the competition in the following order:  1, USA; 2, Denmark; 3, Germany; 4, The Netherlands; 5, Ireland; 6, Belgium; 7, France; 8, Switzerland; 9, Great Britain.

BIG ATMOSPHERE
The generous dimensions of the St Gallen arena helps create a big atmosphere and tremendous competition at this popular annual fixture, and, as Dutch Chef d’Equipe, Rob Ehrens, said last week after leading his team to victory in Rome (ITA): “It will be great to be back jumping on grass again at St Gallen.  When the footing is good on grass, then there’s nothing better!”

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*Featured/Spotlights, Contributors/Press, FEI, Show Jumping

Eric Lamaze Celebrates Elevation to Rolex Rankings Number One Slot

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Eric Lamaze (CAN) elevated to number one in Rolex Rankings

Lausanne (SUI), 1 June 2011 – Olympic champion Eric Lamaze (CAN), 43, is celebrating after securing the world number one slot in the Rolex Rankings for the third time in his career.

The Canadian’s back-to-back Grand Prix wins at La Baule (FRA) and Rome (ITA) on his super-stallion Hickstead have put him 111 points ahead of 31-year-old Kevin Staut (FRA), who had topped the Rolex Rankings since 1 August 2010.

Lamaze first shot to the top of the Rolex Rankings on 1 January 2009 and stayed there for three months. He was back in the number one slot for a second time in July 2010, the month in which he famously won the Rolex Grand Prix of Aachen with a broken foot.

Lamaze, who took individual gold and team silver with Hickstead at the Beijing 2008 Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong, has represented Canada at five consecutive FEI World Equestrian Games – 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010 where he earned individual bronze with Hickstead – and at three Pan American Games, at which he earned team bronze in 1999 and team silver and individual bronze in 2007.

European Champion Kevin Staut is now in second place ahead of Billy Twomey (IRE), with Hong Kong individual silver medallist Rolf-Göran Bengtsson (SWE) in fourth and Twomey’s compatriot Denis Lynch in fifth.

The updated Rolex Rankings are available here.

Awards, Community/Charity, FEI

Hollywood Superstar Michael Douglas Supports FEI Awards

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1 June 2011 – Multiple award-winning actor and producer and United Nations Messenger of Peace Michael Douglas has lent his support to the FEI Awards 2011 by highlighting their significance and calling on the worldwide equestrian community to make nominations.

Commenting on the FEI awards, which reward the horses, men, women and youngsters who have contributed to the progress and excellence of equestrian sport, Douglas said:

“The FEI Awards provide a platform for the global community to applaud riders and organisations for their outstanding achievements. I am delighted to offer my support and urge you to submit your nominations for the 2011 FEI Awards. At the end of the year, in Rio de Janeiro, we will pay tribute to equestrians who have gone above and beyond the call of duty and in doing so, celebrate the very best of equestrian sport.”

Over his hugely successful career, Douglas has walked the red carpet numerous times to receive prestigious awards. These include two Oscars (Best Picture for his production of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1979) – a film that scooped Oscars in five categories – and Best Actor for his role in Wall Street (1987).

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