Hello to all our viewers and readers of our articles. This is the last ‘news bulletin’ we are to do in 2020, and what a year it has been – really, for all the wrong reasons. Charlotte Dujardin won the British Dressage national Championship once again and Piggy March has been made ‘event rider ‘
2020 has been the most extraordinary we have all witnessed at least since the mid-1940s. Many countries have been in some form of ‘lock down’ since mid-March and as we review the sport horse year for both showjumping and dressage, two of the major European competing countries have just announced Christmas cancellation and a further
The main European breeding sales are completed successfully in Newmarket and Deauville. For the first time since March this year, a few spectators have been allowed back to watch racing live. Top hats are outlawed in future dressage competitions from January 1st and Holly Smith takes the main showjumping Grand Prix of the week in
There are four classical riding academies in the world and by far the most famous is The Spanish Riding School with their unique Lipizzaner stallions, based in Vienna, Austria. For very nearly 350 years, the school has reigned supreme and been the centre of ‘classic dressage performance’. The other three are also Europe based –
With hugely higher Covid 19 cases reported every day and governments scrabbling around, trying to find a way through this most hideous pandemic, most of Western Europe is now in or about to be in lock down once again. Slightly different from the first lock down in that elite sports are set to continue but
The weekend saw the first and only five star horse trial eventing take place in 2020 in France at Pau, won by Laura Collett. There was also top class racing around the globe, on what was mainly atrocious heavy ground. To make a change, there were also World Cup qualifiers in the USA, the first
As European racing comes to an end for the year in Europe, the Champions Day at Ascot was another race meeting where further records were broken. It was the tenth anniversary of the ‘Champions’ meeting. There were also two dressage World Cup qualifiers over the weekend. At Ascot, the racing provided the first ever double
In a rare feat for this year, Keysoe Equestrian managed to complete its second FEI dressage competition on schedule. It was doubles all round for Charlotte Dujardin in the dressage and The O’Brien trainers also completed a double in The Fillies Mile and Dewhurst. Britain’s Scott Brash has been away for so long now, one
Over the years, Isabell Werth has personified the German code for excellence in dressage – “to combine the leg and the seat into the hands to form a connection with the horse”. She is the most decorated equestrian Olympic rider of all time with ten Olympic medals to her name. She has had a plethora
The main equestrian news of the week again involved racing. With the autumn coming on apace, juvenile Group 1 races are being run around the globe. In St Tropez, showjumping put on its 5 star Grand Prix; and a rare Dressage World Cup qualifier did actually take place in Hungary. Ireland held the main horse
