Showjumper Tina Fletcher is back in the saddle and in winning form after suffering concussion in a fall at the Horse of Year show last month.
Tina fell from Hello Unique during the Puissance on the 8th October – the horse jumped 6ft 11 in clear but hit the wall in the final round, when it stood at 7ft 3in. Tina hit the back of her head, causing concussion.
Tina and Hello Boyo won at The Hand on 26th October and the pair won again at Crofton Manor on 29th October
Tina is hoping to head to Olympia and then to Florida next February to jump some big tracks ahead of Olympic selection
Laura Bechtolsheimer is the latest star to be added to the British Horse Society’s Equestrian Hall of Fame.
A ceremony to mark the occasion was held at the household Cavalry’s Knightbridge Barracks on 10th November.
This year Laura has risen to world number two and was part of the gold medal winning British team at the European Championships in Rottendam, where Laura took individual bronze.
Nick Skelton took his second leading International Rider title in a week on Saturday 5th November at the Kentucky Horse Park, but he just missed out on a win in the grand prix when Richard Spooner posted a slightly quicker time in the jump off.
Meanwhile, John Whitaker and Peppermill put up a fantastic performance to win the grand prix in Munich on the 6th November
The class produced only two first-round clears and John flew round with 14 year old Burggraaf stallion to win by a 1sec margin!
King Solomon III, Mary King’s Olympic partner, has been retired from affiliated competition aged 23.
The Athens medal winner suffered a bout of lymphangitis this summer which left him with a severely swollen hindleg
In an eventing career spanning 12 years, King Solomon III knocked up Four Top-Five CCI****placings, including finishing third at Burghley in 2002 and fourth at Badminton the following year.
As a star in the dressage arena with Paula Lee, he also knocked up numerous wins at advanced medium level.
King Solomon will spend his retirement with Paula, hacking around the estate at Nutwell
Britain leads going into the second day of the team competition at the European dressage championships in Rottendam.
Emile Faurie, the British pathfinder, took a little pressure of his teammates by laying down a plus 70% score. He used all his experience to guide the impressive Elmegardens Marquis through their test.
Charlotte Dujardin, made her championship debut riding Carl Hester and Roly Luard’s Valegro, scoring a personal best of plus 78%. The nine year old by Negro cruised through the movements without error, finishing on 78.83%.
This is only the pair’s sixth grand prix
British number one Laura Bechtolshelmer will fight alongside Carl Hester to maintain the British lead and to take team gold for the first time ever!
Blair Castle Horse Trials has applied to host the European Eventing Championships in 2015.
The body for international horse sport, the FEI, has announced that five nations have applied to stage a senior European championship in one or more disciplines under the new bidding process launched in March.
Aachen, host of the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games and the annual World Equestrian Festival, wants to host the showjumping, dressage, eventing, driving, vaulting and reining in 2015.
Blair Castle is also up against Waregem in Belgium, Strezogom in Poland and Breda in Holland for the eventing championships.
The second phase of the selection process starts on 1st September 2011 and the championships in the Olympic disciplines of showjumping, dressage and eventing will be allocated by the FEI Bureau in April 2012.
The successful candidates for the championships in the non Olympic disciplines will be announced in April 2013.
Nick Skelton from Alcester, Warwickshire and Big Star’s convincing victory at the Wellington Equestrian Festival in Florida, USA has been voted ‘Performance of the Month’ for January.
Nick riding Beverley Widdowson’s eight year-old bay stallion Big Star, were one of only three combinations from the thirty-seven strong starting line-up to jump clear over the tricky first round course. Emulating their first round performance the pairing produced another superb clear in the jump-off stopping the clock over three seconds quicker than their nearest rival.
The Performance of the Month Award is an amalgamation of the former Showjumper and Owner of the Month Awards, and recognises the achievements of not just our riders, but our horses and owners too.
Chairman of British Showjumping’s International Committee Clare Whitaker commented:
“It gives me great pleasure to award the January Performance of the Month to Big Star, Beverley Widdowson and Nick Skelton, for their fantastic win in the Wellington Grand Prix. My congratulations go to them and their hard working Team”.
Irish eventer Eric Smiley has been appointed to coach the Belgian event squad until the 2012 Olympics.
Led by star rider Karin Donckers, Belgium qualified for the Games by finishing sixth at WEG and also won team bronze at the 2009 European Championships.
“They’ve always been one of those teams who are competitive with a fair wind,” said Eric. “They punch above their weight — they don’t have many riders or many horses, but they’ve got two or three riders who are competitive in any company. The riders have all reached four-star without me, so I hope to tidy and sharpen things up and add polish here and there.
“It’s great that the pressure of qualification for the Olympics is off so we can make plans from now until London. For the next 530-odd days, the focus will be on the three- and four-star riders, but it would be lovely to also have the opportunity to bring on the next generation.”
Eric Smiley’s first team trainer job
Eric is based in Northern Ireland and was a regular member of the Irish team in the 1980s and 1990s, winning two European team bronze medals. He is a renowned coach, Fellow of the British Horse Society and FEI international judge who often sits on ground juries up to four-star level.
With the start of the season not far away now, some early British Eventing events are short of Fence Judges and Volunteers.
Isleham, Cambs, first event of the season on March 5 & 6 runs from BE90 to Open Intermediate. They URGENTLY need more Fence Judges. This is a very popular event with many of Britains top riders starting their season here. Contact Jackie Seddon on jackie@tompsettgrowersltd.co.uk to offer your help.
Lincolnshire, Lincs, running on March 18-20 with BE100 to Open Intermediate and the first Pony Trial of the season also needs more Fence Judges. Anne Whitton would love to hear from you if you can help contact her on anne.whitton@burghley-horse.co.uk
Hand Equestrian Centre saw a hotly contested British Showjumping Business Partnership Winter Novice Qualifier. Sixteen of the forty four starters made it though to the jump off and with less than a second between the top three places the two qualifying tickets were well earned.
Emma Slater from Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire was drawn early in the jump off and lay down the gauntlet on Neil Hamer’s 6 year old British bred chestnut gelding Blaencwm Jester, the combination jumping clear in a time of 32.30 seconds which was good enough to hold on second place.
Drawn second from last the eight year old bay gelding Rambo Flyer lived up to his name, owned and ridden by twenty two year Louise Clarke from Ivybridge in Devon the combination jumped round clear in an unbeatable time of 32.08 seconds.
The British Showjumping Business Partnership Winter Novice Final will take place at the Royal International Horse Show, Hickstead between 28th – 31st July 2011
British Showjumping Business Partnership Winter Novice
Hand Equestrian Centre
1st Louise Clarke riding Rambo Flyer – 0/0 in 32.08 seconds – Qualified
2nd Emma Slater riding Blaencwm Jester – 0/0 in 32.30 seconds – Qualified
3rd Ann Ring riding Bijou – 0/0 in 33.06 seconds
4th Sophie Heaven riding Mersley Chakotay – 0/0 in 35.40 seconds
5th Emma Slater riding Lord of Kings – 0/0 in 36.20seconds
6th Alo Brake riding Ilka II – 0/0 in 36.83 seconds
