As anticipated, the reigning Olympic and European champion Michael Jung (GER) has made quite an impression on his first visit to the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR), sixth and final leg of the FEI Classics™ 2014/2015, and is in the lead after the first day of Dressage (3rd September 2015).
Michael Jung (GER) has won most of the glittering prizes on offer in the sport of Eventing, but the reigning Olympic and European Champion has yet to take on the special challenges of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR), sixth and final leg of the FEI Classics™ 2014/2015.
The Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games are now just around the corner, and to celebrate the first Games to be held in South America, the International Equestrian Federation (Fédération Equestre Internationale, FEI) has specially commissioned a stunning online Rio 2016 FEI Reportage photobook.
The top Dutch rider Anky van Grunsven is competing at the FEI European Championships Aachen 2015. However, this time the three-time Olympic dressage gold medallist and two-time World Champion will be taking part in the western dressage competitions.
Together with Jurgen Pouls, Olivier van den Berg and Rieky Young, she is namely a member of the Dutch reining team.
Gina Schumacher opened the reining competitions of the FEI European Championships Aachen 2015 as the first rider in the ring. The double-European Junior Champion will enter the arena as the official “guinea pig rider” before the decisive team competition starts on Friday, 14th August 2015.
The currently most famous equestrian sport pair missed the last Championships. Just in time for the FEI European Championships Aachen 2015 from August 11th-23rd 2015, Matthias Alexander Rath and Totilas are in top form.
The 30-year-old dressage rider revealed in an interview what competing in Aachen has to do with superstition, what he is expecting to happen in the duel between the top stars Totilas and Valegro and why competing in the Main Stadium could be an advantage for him.
An all-female team from Great Britain eventually beat an all-male trio from Australia after a tight competition at Strzegom (POL), fourth leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2015 (25th to 28th June 2015).
The three-man Australian team led after Dressage, with Andrew Hoy taking the individual lead on Cheeky Calimbo, but the Brits, who were third at that stage, were collectively faster across country to take a tiny two-penalty lead going into the final Jumping phase.
Ingrid Klimke (GER) rode brilliantly to produce a clear round under huge pressure to win her home CCI4* at Luhmühlen (GER), presented by DHL, for the first time and set up an unassailable lead in the FEI Classics™ 2014/2015.
In a thrilling finale, her flawless round on the spring-heeled 11-year-old Hannoverian mare FRH Escada JS denied New Zealander Jonelle Price her first CCI4* victory by just one-tenth of a penalty.
William Fox-Pitt (GBR), the multiple Olympic, World and European medallist, is back as world Eventing number one after victory in last month’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials, fourth leg of the FEI Classics™.
He had held on to the world number one slot for a year until last month, when Michael Jung (GER), who became the first Eventing athlete to hold the European, world and Olympic titles simultaneously in 2012, jumped to the top of the FEI World Eventing Rankings for the first time in his career.
Words by Louise Parkes
Defending champions, Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro, lived up to expectations when winning the Grand Prix on the opening day of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage 2014/2015 Final at the Thomas & Mack Centre in Las Vegas, USA today (17th April 2015).The reigning Olympic, World and European title-holders produced a brilliant test to finish over six marks ahead of The Netherlands’ Edward Gal and Glock’s Undercover, but the big hero of the day was America’s Steffen Peters who lined up third with Legolas just over two marks further adrift.