British showjumping performance manager Rob Hoekstra has chosen another experienced team for the third competition in the 2010 Meydan FEI Nations Cup series.
The British team for St Gallen, Switzerland this Friday (4 June) will be as at Rome last week, but with Scott Brash replacing Nick Skelton.
The full squad is as follows:
# John Whitaker from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire with Rebecca Stones’ thirteen year-old bay stallion Peppermill.
# Michael Whitaker and Beatrice Mertens’ GIG Amai II, a ten year-old dark bay gelding.
# Scott Brash will ride Intertoy Z, an eleven year-old black gelding owned by Scott’s father, Stanley Brash.
# Peter Charles will partner Olga White’s eleven year-old bay gelding Murka’s Pom d’Ami.
# Ben Maher will ride Robin Hood W, a twelve year-old bay gelding Ben co-owns with Mike and Emma Phillips of the Quainton Stud.
Following a second place in Rome (28 May) and equal third with Germany at La Baule (14 May), Great Britain is in second place on the series points table.
France currently tops the table with maximum points with the USA in third.
Team GB must finish in the top six in the rankings to avoid relegation to the ‘promotional league’ for a second year.
This article is taken From London2012.com and offers a good rundown of what is involved with equestrain jumping at the Olympics:
Jumping: A short history
The discipline of Jumping as we know it today developed in the 18th century after fences were put up in the English countryside following the Enclosures Act. Previously, hunters would gallop across open fields in their pursuit of foxes. But when fences were erected following the Acts, a new and much desired trait took to the fore – the jumping horse.
Many regard Italian Federico Caprilli as ‘the father of modern riding’, a status he earned by revolutionising the jumping seat. Before him, riders would lean back and pull the reins when jumping a fence. However this technique was awkward and uncomfortable for the horse. Caprilli’s solution was the more natural ‘forward seat’ position. This technique is now universally used.
Jumping at the Olympic Games
The horse made its first appearance at the Ancient Olympic Games in 680 B.C. when chariot racing was introduced – and was by far the most exciting and spectacular event on the programme.
Equestrian has been part of the modern Olympic programme since Stockholm 1912, when 62 competitors from ten nations with 70 horses were involved. Over the next few decades Jumping was dominated by the military. But with the mechanisation of the army over the years, civilians competed more and more.
The decline of the military teams also paved the way for women, who made their first Olympic appearance in Jumping at the 1956 Games in Stockholm. Today they are as often if not more on the top spot of the podium.
How the competition runs
Jumping (known as ‘Show Jumping’ in the United Kingdom) takes place in an arena, around a course of approximately 15 fences.
Jumping courses are now highly technical, requiring boldness, scope, power, accuracy and control from both horse and rider. The fences are designed so that if the horse hits them as they jump them, part or all of the fence will knock down and the rider will be penalised with ‘faults’.
Faults are also awarded if the rider does not complete the course within a set time. The winner is the rider with the fewest faults; if there is a tie, the result is decided by jumping a shortened course as fast as possible without knocking fences down (“against the clock”).
The Team medal is decided over three rounds by four riders and the Individual medals over five rounds.
Jargon buster
Fault: A set number of penalty points for making a mistake.
Jump-off: An extra round held to break a tie for first place after the final scheduled round of competition.
Refusal: When a horse stops at a jump and therefore incurs faults.
Following this weekends British success with our win at the Children’s Nations Cup in Bonheiden, Belgium our up and coming talent have proved themselves once more by taking the top two spots in the Grand Prix this afternoon (Monday 24th May).
1st Millie Allen from Stockton on Tees with Mrs Steel’s Trueleva 0 39.21 secs
2nd Charlotte Smet based in West Malle, Belgium, with Louise Morley’s Maneken du Coty 0 40.72 secs
3rd Brent Gaublonne from Belgium with Vivalden V H Bildeken
This Article is taken from Horse & Hound, you can read the full article here.
What advice would you give to a young rider hoping to make it?
My advice to any young rider in any discipline is to find someone you trust, who has a proven track record — and listen to them unfailingly. You are not allowed to have opinions of your own until you’re at least 30!
Don’t take short cuts — they never work. Don’t get too excited when you are doing well, nor too despondent when things go badly.
What do you wish you’d known when you were 18?
That I was going to be a dressage rider, so I could have got started a bit sooner. I’d had riding lessons and I was doing my British Horse Society (BHS) stages, but I didn’t know anything about dressage.
What was the best thing you did back then?
When I was 21, I went to Talland to train with Pammy Hutton and Adam Kemp. Going there was pivotal for me and opened my eyes to the world of competitive dressage. I remember watching Pammy riding in the indoor school and being gobsmacked by it all.
Anything you’d have done differently?
No — though I did struggle with the jumping aspect of my BHS stage exams. I managed to pass my stage four, crying and holding on to the mane, as I was a useless jump jockey. I did enough jumping to know that I wasn’t very good at it.
What exercise regime do you follow as a rider?
I go to the gym three times a week minimum and have a personal trainer there who shouts ‘Come on Anna, that’s one Wispa bar you’ve just burnt off’ to encourage me.
The other reason I go to the gym, apart from to look vaguely respectable in my white breeches, is to keep me symmetrically strong as I’m quite right-handed, so I do exercises with free weights to level me up.
If I’m away at a show and can’t get to the gym, I go running.
Ellen Whitaker has said she won’t jump for the British team again this year after falling out with performance manager Rob Hoekstra in the run-up to La Baule.
British riders finished a creditable joint third place with Germany on their return to the Meydan FEI Nations Cup super league in La Baule on Friday, 14 May (report in H&H magazine, 27 May). But Ellen was absent from the team at La Baule, having been replaced by David McPherson.
Problems started when Mr Hoekstra asked Ellen to take the horse to Lummen (29 April-2 May).
Ellen said: “I didn’t want to go as I thought it was too close to La Baule, but Rob would not listen.
“Then he didn’t want me to jump Ocolado at Newark and Notts County Show before La Baule.
“In the end, I decided the best thing would be for me to pull out of the team. I’m not trying to be awkward but I can’t work with somebody who won’t listen.”
She said she had not ruled out jumping for Britain again, just not this season with Ocolado.
Her father and manager Steven Whitaker added: “It’s not a matter of Ellen not wanting to jump for her country, but we won’t jump again until Rob Hoekstra is finished.
“We have to mix jumping for Team GB with making money. He has left us with no alternative.”
I found this article and thought it might be quite useful for people that are just starting out in horse jumping and want to learn the basics:
Once you feel secure in the saddle, you might think about taking a horse riding course which teaches you to jump over manageable fences. Even dressage riders work over raised poles on the ground to vary their horses’ routine, supple them and improve their gaits.
If your goal is to ride on the trails, learning to jump will increase your fun. You will be able to clear small obstacles and spice up your riding.
Here’s what to expect when you learn to jump on a horse riding course.
Preparation
You start with work on the ground, so don’t worry about being asked to do something you are not ready for. Read a well-illustrated horseback riding book which incorporates the basics of jumping, and it will help you adopt the correct position in the saddle.
The course instructor will make sure you have mastered the riding basics of walk, trot, canter, turn and halt in a controlled fashion before you begin jumping.
Baby Steps
You will start by walking and trotting your horse over poles on the ground, and get used to the feel of ‘going over’ something in the jumping position. Riding in both directions, you will learn to control the speed of your horse while you ride round corners and through the poles.
First Fence
Once you are comfortable with this, you will trot over a pole placed on the ground, at the correct distance in front of the cross-pole to aid your horse in making a smooth jump over it.
A ‘cross-pole’ comprises two poles crossed in front of each other which form their lowest point in the center where they meet. To jump correctly you must aim for the middle of a fence and since this is the easiest place to go over a cross-pole, both horse and rider are naturally drawn to the correct jumping spot.
Pop over this and you will have cleared your first fence! It’s now up to you and your riding instructor to decide how much higher you should go during the rest of your course.
Do You Have the Right Horse?
You may worry that your horse is not a ‘jumper.’
As long as he’s not a hot-head, overweight or unfit, it doesn’t matter whether or not your horse has a natural talent for jumping. Virtually every horse can clear a 3 foot fence, and you are starting with a few inches. So if you have a large Shire horse or little pony, your equine friend will have no problem clearing small fences.
Both you and your horse will benefit from the gymnastic exercise jumping provides and feel refreshed when you return to your regular riding routine. Or maybe you will get hooked on a new riding discipline!
Berkeley, whose score of 48 put her in 25th place after the dressage, flew around the cross-country with just 2.4 time faults to take her up to sixth place.
However, a stunning clear in windy conditions ensured another podium position for our Olympic team bronze medal winner and her highest finish in a prestigious four-star event, behind eventual winner Paul Tapner (Australia) and second place Andreas Dibowski (Germany).
“I’ve always known it was in the horse,” said Berkeley.
“He had some big wins last year, and he has been better than ever – he’s like a fine wine.
“I knew he could do it. He finds Badminton quite exciting, and it was just a case of whether or not the nerves would get to him.
“But I was thrilled with how he jumped. He was great in the cross-country yesterday, and he felt fabulous today”
Winner Tapner, who is based at Highworth, rode superb clears over Sunday’s cross-country and Monday’s show-jumping courses, leaving him with a score of 44.9 and a first prize of £60,000 – as well as the prestigious Badminton title – for his efforts.
Finishing in 11th place after his dressage test, he picked up just 0.4 time penalties on Sunday’s cross-country and showed no nerves on Monday’s show-jumping to jump clear – five points ahead of second place rider, Germany’s Andreas Dibowski.
Tapner, who grew up in Sydney but who has been based in the UK since 2003, becomes Australia’s third Badminton champion of the past five years, following Andrew Hoy in 2006 and Lucinda Fredericks a year later.
“This means everything,” he said.
“Every second of this year has been focused on this moment.
“This is the biggest and best event, and you just want to be here. It can’t get much better than this.”
Chapel Ambel was also first to complete Sunday’s cross-country test, following Dan Jocelyn’s elimination, and Gauntlett was able to report back on the situation at Colt Pond, which had been a cause of much speculation prior to the event.
“I just saw a line and went for it. The course actually rode really well, despite the last minute changes,” said Gauntlett.
“It was a brilliant ride.
“She’s a lovely mare and this was her first try at this (4*) level, so it was a big ask, but she rose to the challenge.
“I’ve brought her on from 2* level and it’s been lots of fun.
Reigning world champion Zara Phillips had less success, however, collecting 24 jumping and seven time faults to finish in 48th place on Glenbuck.
“He didn’t showjump well enough,” she said.
“I can’t do anything about it if he doesn’t help me out as well.”
This article was taken from the Gloucestershire Gazzette and the full article can be read here.
The Showjumping Edition highlights program, presented by Clare Balding, of the Badminton Horse Trails is on Sunday the 3rd of May 2010 on BBC2 at 17:55 – 18:30
“Badminton is the pinnacle of the world’s Three-Day-Event calendar and the entrants include current European Three Day Event Champion Tina Cook, World Champion Zara Phillips and 2009’s winner, Oliver Townend.” - BBC
BBC2 is showing highlights from all events at the Badminton Horse Trails event from Sunday the 2nd of May. The showjumping highlights are the last program, keep ypur eyes peeled for the others.
