As 2021 draws to a close, we look at the highlights and low times of the year in our much loved equestrian sport. Like many media publications, we have our own review and suggested awards to finish the year; the best and the worst. In general, the main talking point of the year has nothing
We know that Christmas is just around the corner when the London International Horse Show puts on its festive World Cup Qualifying 5 star events. As usual, there were competitions for showjumping, dressage and driving. This year, however, the show was hosted by a new venue in London. In 1907, the show was held at
The World Cup Qualifiers are now back in full swing with the relaxing of the Covid restrictions across the globe, but this weekend saw another black cloud on the horizon with the new Omicron variant threatening to derail further international competition down the road. In Spain, there was a dressage 5 star World Cup qualifier
The top echelons of the sport horse world were out in force over the weekend with 5 star competitions in France for eventing, showjumping and dressage. A surprise for the dressage world was the selling by Charlotte Dujardin of her Olympic horse Gio or ‘Pumpkin’ to his friends to 16 year old Annabella Pidgley, a
In Aachen at the northwest tip of Germany finally got to stage their Festival of the Horse. The event was cancelled in 2020 and was postponed from its usual June date, partly due to the pandemic, but also to accommodate the Olympics. The Aachen festival is a celebration of the horse with top level international
As we move swiftly from the summer into autumn, sport horse competition continues unabated. The postponed CHIO from Aachen in Germany over the weekend has its own headlines in another post on our site. In the UK the British Dressage National Championships at their new venue in Cheshire took place as well as the Blenheim
As the world marvels at the new tennis sensation Emma Raducanu from Great Britain, equine sporting competition was in full swing. After last week in Riesenbeck in Germany, for the showjumping European Championships, the dressage European Championships took place, again in Germany, this time in Hagen. There were several Group 1 races in Europe including
The last week has certainly been a busy one with the European Championships for showjumping coming so quickly on the heels of the Olympics; and the 5 star horse trial eventing, which took place at Bicton in Devon The first of the big time shows at Calgary in Canada were staged after a long absence
As the summer ends and the Olympics have finished, the Paralympics take over in the same venue in Tokyo. Like the Olympics, all the Paralympics sports were held behind closed doors. Eventing and show jumping do not happen in the Paralympics for obvious reasons, but the dressage competition has grown enormously in popularity for the
In a more normalised week for sport horse competition there was another Longines World Champion Tours round. In dressage, the holiday for the German Olympians has come to an end and racing saw a plethora of Group 1 races in the UK, France and the United States. Meanwhile the Paralympians continued to ready themselves for
All over bar the shouting! As the riders and horses return to their respective countries with success, or not as the case may be. There is no doubt that following all the difficulties with the pandemic, that staging the Olympic Games at all was a spectacular achievement. We have to make an apology for always
The Olympic Games have started with yet another spectacular opening ceremony and all the razzmatazz necessary to show the host country off at its best. That done, the equestrian games began with the dressage, firstly the team and individual Grand Prix, run simultaneously, that’s the first two days, then a day off before the second
It’s all go for the Olympic Games which start in five days time. We take a quick look at what we might expect for the equestrian participants. As usual, there are three different equine disciplines, dressage, show jumping and horse trial eventing. This is the second time that The Olympic Games have been held in
The centre stage of world sport this weekend was quite definitely Great Britain. There were major dressage, showjumping and horse trials around the country. Oh and there was also a football match, the Euro finals and the final of the men’s championships at Wimbledon. The dressage international CDI was held at Hartpury in Gloucestershire and
As the French Open Tennis championships come to an end, and the French arm of the Nations Cup was held in La Baule with a dressage CDI 4 star in Austria. However, the main menu this coming week has got to be the iconic Royal Ascot Meeting for five days, although sadly, again this year,
