Debutante horses gain experience in Al Ain
Thursday 18 February 2016
World Class Performance Manager, Di Lampard, got the 2016 season underway for Great Britain in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, this afternoon when her selected team contested the CSIO 5* Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup competition.
Taking a young team of riders with her, Di had also selected a team of four horses which were all making their debut on teams at this level. Her focus had very much been that the show should be used to give an opportunity for as many up-and-coming horses and riders to gain experience and have the opportunity to learn from a top level competition early on in the season.
Despite Al Ain staging the sole leg of the Furusiyya Nations Cup within their region it was a very strong line up of eleven nations that contested the opening round. Great Britain were drawn 8th of the teams with the UAE, Qatar, Ukraine, Italy, Egypt, Switzerland and France going before them and Syria, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Ireland following.
The course which was built by Italy’s Uliano Vezzani was big and up-to-height and required forward riding to ensure the finish line was broken within the 79 seconds allowed. The time played a major factor throughout with many incurring time penalties and perhaps riding slightly more forward than they would have liked to given the choice.
With only eight of the eleven teams invited to compete in the second round, Great Britain were relegated out having finished the first round in joint 9th position on 22 penalties with Syria. The UAE took 11th place just one fence behind on 26 penalties.
Joe Clayton from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with Conman JX, a 9 year-old bay gelding owned by Sarah Billington took the role of pathfinder for the team. A superbly ridden first round saw Conman JX leave all fences untouched, but falling victim to the time allowed they picked up a time penalty in what was otherwise a faultless round.
For the remaining three riders it was a mix of penalties that were accrued. Joe Davison from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire with Calimero Van't Roth, a 14 year-old bay gelding owned by Team Harmony lowered three fences in the first round in addition to incurring a time penalty. Third to go for the team, Jessie Drea from Haywards Heath, West Sussex with her own Mullaghdrin Touch The Stars an 11 year-old bay stallion incurred a similar fate with four down just outside the time to finish on 17 penalties. Last to go Emma O’Dwyer and her mother’s HHS Figero lowered two fences early on in the course to finish on 8 penalties in total giving Great Britain a total finish score of 22 penalties with Jessie’s round being taken as the dropscore.
Talking to Di Lampard after the competition she said “For horses competing on their first top level Nations Cup so early in the season and in their education programme I’m quite happy. Joe gave an absolutely fantastic start to the competition and delivered a really impressive performance. The other horses just need a bit more time in the arena and I feel confident we will see marked improvements in their performance, they are all talented and just need some more experience at this level. We are now looking ahead to Saturday when we have the Grand Prix to look forward to”.
The eventual winners were France who finished on just 4 penalties with second and third place being taken by Qatar and Switzerland respectively.
The Grand Prix takes place on Saturday 20th February at 14:30hrs local time.
RESULTS:
1 France (4)
2 Qatar (18)
3 Switzerland (19)
4 Ukraine (22)
5 Italy (23)
6 Ireland (24)
7 Egypt (28)
8 Saudi Arabia (47)
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9 Great Britain
9 Syria
11 United Arab Emirates
Full information in respect of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup series can be found by visiting www.fei.org.
FEI TV will be showing live footage from the event. To access this please visit www.feitv.org.
The British Showjumping Teams are supported by the UK Sport National Lottery funded World Class Programme.
The World Class Development Programme underpins World Class Performance and, together with the Equine Pathway, they comprise the Equestrian World Class Programme, incorporating the three Olympic sports of dressage, eventing, showjumping and the Paralympic sport of para-equestrian dressage. The Programme has been funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, through Exchequer and National Lottery funds, via UK Sport since 1998.
