The last weekend in June saw three major show jumping events. across Europe at Hickstead, Paris and Rotterdam and the one 5 star dressage event at Rotterdam; and to top it all off, in Ireland there was the Irish Derby. At Hickstead in the UK, there was the sixtieth running of the famous Hickstead Derby
Lester Piggott, many would say was the best jockey of all time sadly died yesterday in a Swiss hospital. The out pouring of adulation for ‘the greatest’ is a testament to the brilliance of his jockeyship. We offer our condolences to trainer William Haggas, Lester’s son in law and his daughter Susan as well as
In Leipzig, the Finals of the World Cup took place allowing the top riders to compete against one another for 2022 World Cup glory after two years of absence. Putting on the event in itself was quite an achievement considering how many of the early rounds of the World Cup qualifiers succumbed to the Omicron
The racing festival at Meydan in the UAE had its final weekend with the World Cup as the flat racing season begins in Europe at Doncaster and the Curragh. In dressage and showjumping, there were no 5 star classes, but the Spanish Sunshine tour at Jerez de la Frontera staged the final weekend on the
Delight was taken with the first major international show of the year in Europe – at s’Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands as the Paralympics end in Beijing. Once again we have marvelled at the shear guts and determination of the athletes. Sadly, we continue to see the horrific daily atrocities in Ukraine, delivered without any morals
The festival of horses at Wellington in Florida is now in full swing with top international competitions taking centre stage for both dressage and showjumping together with Doha in Qatar. In the rest of the world, unfortunately, as we all know, Putin has decided to invade Ukraine in a vain attempt to re-introduce the iron
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
