Kevin McNab and Casperelli
As Germany started to stamp their authority on Aachen by taking the lead in the Dressage Championships at the FEI European Championships 2015, the eventers started their own competition with the first horse inspection on Wednesday afternoon after having had a chance to recover from the Opening Ceremony
43 combinations presented to the ground jury of Martin Plewa (GER), Sue Baxter (GBR) and Sándor Fülöp (HUN) and all were passed, meaning that nine teams will compete in the FEI Nations Cup CICO3*. The Australian team consisting of Chris Burton, Paul Tapner, Andrew Hoy and Kevin McNab have settled in after their journey from the UK; there were concerns about potential delays for horse boxes at Calais due to the migrant crisis but all UK based riders made the trip safely without problems. The British and Irish teams both dropped a rider before the trot up with Ireland’s Mark Kyle not presenting Jemilla and Izzy Taylor’s Allercombe Ellie out.
That leaves the recently engaged Padraig McCarthy, Michael Ryan and Austin O’Connor as a three for the Irish team while Britain still has four in Flora Harris, Gemma Tattersall, Francis Whittington and Holly Woodhead
Francis Whittington and Easy Target are the first combination in the draw
The U.S. team also now have four members having added Colleen Rutledge and Covert Rights to the existing team of Lynn Symansky, Lauren Kieffer and Phillip Dutton while the Canadian team also had a last minute addition with Canadian based Holly Jacks-Smither. Riding her own 10 year old OTTB More Inspiration Holly will be representing her country for the first time overseas after a last minute call-up joining the two UK based riders - Rebecca Howard riding Riddle Master and Kathryn Robinson riding Let It Bee
So cool - Tim Price and Wesko
The Kiwis have a strong team with Tim and Jonelle Price aboard Wesko and Faerie Dianimo (this will be a tricky one for Jacky Green who is part owner with Trisha Rickards of the talented little grey mare as well as being the Chef d’Equipe for Canada – who will she be rooting for??!!). The in-form couple are joined by Sir Mark Todd on NZB Campino and Jock Paget on Clifton Lush in the team, while Caroline Powell will ride Onwards and Upwards as an individual.
The remaining teams are Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. Defending champions at Aachen, Germany is always hard to beat on their home soil - in fact, just always hard to beat - especially when they have a team comprising of World Champion Sandra Auffarth (Opgun Louvo), recent 4* winners Ingrid Klimke (Horseware Hale Bob) and Michael Jung (Halunke FBW) and Dirk Schrade (Hop and Skip).
Sandra Auffarth takes a walk around the course
The dressage, which takes place in Stadium 2, starts tomorrow at 8:30am with Britain’s Francis Whittington riding Catherine Witt’s 14 year old grey gelding Easy Target, the pair that won the CIC3* at Blenheim last year and finishes at 3:30pm with Australia’s Andrew Hoy riding Cheeky Calimbo. The riders then return to Stadium 2 at 5pm for the show jumping phase around the Frank Rothenberger course (Andrew Hoy should feel at home here – he has some lovely jumps at home designed by Frank)
On Friday the competitors head out on the cross country from 2pm – you can view every fence in our cross country course walk here and see who Libby Law bumped into on course!
