Despite some solid performances hopes are dashed in Falsterbo

Friday 11 July 2014

Rob Hoekstra, the World Class Showjumping Performance Manager would have had mixed feelings today after the CSIO 5* Furusiyya Nations Cup competition in Falsterbo, Sweden.  As one of the Nations Cup competitions in which Great Britain had been allocated in terms of accruing points it was an important day and one in which he had hoped to finish within the top four and not in the 6th place that did.

That said there were some tremendous performances put in by the team with Joe Clee and Utamaro d’Ecaussines, the 10 year-old bay stallion owned by Ludwig Criel producing a brilliant opening clear in the first round.  An unlucky fence down in the second round saw them finish on 4 penalties but overall Rob must have been incredibly pleased with not only their performance this afternoon but also during the season so far.

Spencer Roe, with his mothers (Sally) 11 year-old bay gelding Wonder Why, both of whom are heading to Arezzo next week to contest the Young Rider European Championships, accrued 4 penalties when they were caught short in the middle of the combination. The combination gained many prisoners with its big oxer that led to a vertical on a short stride before another short striding vertical on the way out.   Learning from this, they came back in the second round to produce a brilliant clear despite Wonder Why dropping his feet in the centre of the oxer and almost unseating Spencer before the final couple of fences.  An absolutely jaw-dropping moment that met with much jubilation when their miraculous recovery posted a clear within the time allowed.

Robert Whitaker with his parents (John & Clare) 11 year-old brown stallion Catwalk IV put in an extremely impressive performance in the first round. Making the course look incredibly easy they sailed their way through and his disappointment was evident for all to see when having jumped clear they were given 1 time penalty for finishing a fraction of a second outside the time allowed.  The second round didn’t go quite as smoothly for them as they accrued 8 penalties plus a time penalty in the second round.

It was good to see London 2012 Team Gold medallist rider Peter Charles on the team, this time with Murka’s Odie de Frevent a 12 year-old bay mare who is jointly owned by Olga White and Team Murka.  Taking the role of anchor they looked to be going incredibly well until they erred at the combination. Having made some ground jumping in over the oxer resulted in them being tight coming out and Odie almost coming down with a pole.  Managing to stay on her feet she was clearly unsettled and lowered a fence accruing a further 4 penalties and a time penalty shortly after.   Having come out of the arena and identifying a minor injury it was decided to withdraw Odie from the second round.

For the rest of the field it was a competition that was slugged out in true fighting style.  Sweden and Germany had more or less been head to head throughout the competition vying for pole position. With Sweden looking like they had it in the bag an absolute silence fell around the arena when it was stolen from them at the very final stages by Germany with their 4th member of the team and final rider of the competition. 

It was a stunned audience that sat calculating in disbelief that they had just been relegated to 2nd position by 1 point.  With one point separating each of the top three placing the competition had to be one of the hardest ones fought so far. 

Rob Hoekstra now sets his sight on Hickstead as the third competition at which Great Britain will accrue points at with their fourth and final one being in August at the Dublin Horse Show. Sunday will see them look to the Grand Prix in Falsterbo which takes place at 14:30 hours local time.

Results:
1st         Germany            7
2nd        Sweden             8
3rd         USA                   9
               Spain                9
5th         Netherlands       13

6th        Great Britain      18
             Joe Clee/Utamaro D’Ecaussines (0/4)
             Spencer Roe/Wonder Why (4/0)
             Rob Whitaker/Catwalk IV (1/9)
             Peter Charles/Murka’s Odie de Frevent (9/NS)

7th         Switzerland       25
8th         Ukraine              28

Further information on the show and for results once the show is underway can be found by visiting www.falsterbohorseshow.com. 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 programme will also be shown at a later date on Eurosport and Horse & Country TV. Please visit www.britishshowjumping.co.uk and click on ‘What’s on TV’ for broadcast times.

The British Showjumping Teams are supported by Exchequer and National Lottery funding via UK Sport.

 
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