HOEKSTRA LEADS THE BRITS TO OVERALL THIRD IN THE 2010 MEYDAN FEI NATIONS CUP SERIES

Friday 06 August 2010

HOEKSTRA LEADS THE BRITS TO OVERALL THIRD IN THE 2010 MEYDAN FEI NATIONS CUP SERIES

The final competition of the FEI Meydan Nations Cup 2010 series saw the grandstands at 137th Dublin Horse Show absolutely packed to the gunnels. With spectators standing in the alleyways, the atmosphere was electric and the only thing that seemed to be missing was the sun as the weather took a bit a downturn with blustery winds starting up just as the competition started.
London 2012 course designer Bob Ellis built a demanding track for the horses and riders and commented before the competition “we’ve some great teams with great horses - it will be a difficult, but not too difficult competition which will bring some great competition and great sport”.

This was most definitely the case as although there was a number of clears, the combination, the last fence on the course caused quite a few problems whether it be as horses jumped the upright in or the enormous oxer on the way out.

With France going into the final knowing they had secured the overall standing on the League, Great Britain and Ireland were also reassured that they had performed enough through the season to retain their places. With the rest fighting for their places, the competition was particularly tough with the tension and importance of the task ahead clearly evident as competition played itself out.

It was the Netherlands however who celebrated their success by winning the final leg of the series with 4 faults,  a clear four fences ahead of Ireland who slotted into second place alongside USA on 20 faults. 

With Great Britain finishing on 16 faults after the first round, the team managed to climb back up the leaderboard to finish in fifth place as a result of the superb clears jumped by both Tina Fletcher and Nick Skelton.   Hello Sailor, an 11year old gelding owned by Lady Harris catching a pole in the first round certainly made up for it with a powerful clear in the second just inside the time allowed. This was shortly followed by Nick Skelton with Beverley Widdowson’s eye-catching eight year old grey gelding Carlo who produced a foot-perfect clear in the second having had an unfortunate four faults in the first.

Peter Charles and Murka’s Pom d’Ami, owned by Olga White and Team Murka Limited , the mainstay of the team throughout the series, incurred a very uncharacteristic rolling of five poles across both rounds. Billy Studs, Billy Congo with Will Funnell incurred similar with his  British Bred 9year old finishing as the drop score having incurred 12 faults in each round.

World Class Showjumping Performance Manager Rob Hoekstra commented “I am extremely pleased with today’s result. Dublin comes close to Hickstead and I feel both Pom d’Ami and Billy Congo were a little tired bearing in mind that Pom d’Ami has been our mainstay of the series and Billy Congo is still such a young horse.

"Carlo and Hello Sailor have been exceptional and I speak for all of the horses we’ve had out this year when I say they are as focused on the job in hand as are our owners and riders and I feel extremely fortunate to have such a strong group to work alongside. When you consider that three of the horses here today only started competing at  Top Level  this year, the results are outstanding and I feel extremely optimistic about our sports future.

“We have finished in third place overall on the League Table which is a tremendous result. Our aim was always to secure ourselves and finish in the top six – so finishing so strongly leaves us all highly delighted”.

The nations to be relegated are Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland whilst the six nations listed below retain their place for the 2011 FEI Meydan Nations Cup league. The nations to move up from the promotional league to join them will be decided in Barcelona in September. More information on the series can be found by visiting www.meydanfeinationscup.org
 
Television coverage of the event will show on both Eurosport next week and Horse & Country TV (Sky 280) shortly afterwards.  Please visit www.britishshowjumping.co.uk and click on ‘What’s on TV’ for broadcast times.
For start list and results please visit www.dublinhorseshow.com
For all the latest news, information, standings, results and more information on the Meydan FEI Nations Cup visit www.meydanfeinationscup.org.