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
Little to get excited by this week sadly. Corona has seen the cancellation of all the major winter indoor events which is frustrating for all concerned, but with the latest news of vaccines becoming available soon with any luck, we may start to see the end of the decimation of the equine calendar. However, one
It was just before Christmas in 1935, that one of the world’s greatest show jumping riders was born in Brazil – Nelson Pessoa. He is a man who can look back on an illustrious career in the saddle, but what is not so well known is the fact that the breeding of the horses he
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
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
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
The first and only long format 4 star eventing competition this year took place at Burnham Market in Norfolk GB over the weekend. Last week, Pat Smullen, the one of the most successful Irish jockeys of recent times died, a great loss to the racing community. The FEI are talking about re-instating the 2021 European
While most equestrian competition has been decimated this year, a new competition in the UK finished yesterday – The Nexgen Young Horse series which has been open to young horses of four, five and six years old for dressage, showjumping and eventing. There have been nine qualifying rounds around the UK with the final at
