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from January 2022 Digital Edition

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the London international Horse show ran December 14-20, 2021 and included fei world Cup Jumping, fei Dressage, and fei Driving. find full information here: https://londonhorseshow.com/

Show Jumping Media Release: December 19, 2021 the Longines fei Jumping world Cup

brought top-class sport to exCeL London as the world’s best equestrian athletes battled it out for the prestigious title. the testing 1.60m course set by Brazilian course designer guilherme gorge saw 11 combinations master the first round without fault.the first to achieve this feat, ireland’s anthony Condon riding sfs vincomte, got the jump-off underway, incurring four faults coming out of the double at fence eight. great Britain’s Jack whitaker followed Condon into the arena, suffering the same fate. ireland’s michael Duffy was the first to produce a clear over the shortened course, which featured nine jumping efforts, setting a time to beat of 39.38 seconds. norway ’s geir gulliksen put in a brilliant effort to take the lead, however it was short lived, as he was followed into the arena by the legendary John whitaker, who went into pole position at the halfway point. former world no. 1, Harrie smolders, survived a tricky moment at the first, before upping the ante to provide a new target to beat of 36.77. great Britain’s olympic champion, Ben maher, put in a valiant effort, but could not match the pace of smolders, finishing in eventual fifth. with three to go, great Britain’s Harry Charles, full of confidence following a win earlier in the week, took over the lead to the delight of the sell-out crowd, shaving 0.86 seconds off smolders’ time. the 22-year-old had a nail-biting wait for the final two, which included martin fuchs, but his round aboard the 11-year-old mare, stardust, proved unbeatable, giving Charles the victory exactly 20 years after his father won the same competition.

Leading rider was great Britain’s Harry Charles (61 points), with swiss rider martin fuchs a close second (60 points) and great Britain’s Ben maher in third (48 points).

Dressage By Patricia Salem; Images by Jon Stroud

Charlotte Dujardin of great Britain won Leg 4 of 8 in fei Dressage world Cup™ action at the London international Horse show on friday, earning a grand Prix freestyle personal best of 89.040 percent with the diminutive Dutch warmblood gio, aka “Pumpkin. ” Dujardin’s victory was tinged with sadness, as it was her final ride with the 10-year-old gelding, who has been sold to sarah Pidgley, whose daughterannabella will take over the ride.

Charlotte fry, also of great Britain, won second place at the event aboard another Dutch warmblood, Dark Legend. third place was awarded to fredericwandres, the sole representative of germany at London, who rode Duke of Britain frH and leads thewestern european League in overall qualifying points for the fei Dressage world Cup™ finals at Leipzig next april. it was a full house at exCel London, where the annual holiday show had been relocated during renovation of the traditional olympia venue. although it was a switch for the athletes and fans, the new host offered a larger warm-up ring and more spacious arena, still festively decorated, which was less intimidating for the horses. with points on offer for Leipzig and only four legs remaining after London, the competition was stiff. the constantly changing leaderboard was a testament to the high quality of artistry and athleticism brought to the show and provided an exceptional treat for the audience that was hungry for Dressage excitement. eight nations were represented, with 15 horse and rider combos, six of which came from great Britain to thrill the home crowd. at the end of the interim break, British rider Lara Butler and kristjan were in the lead, with a score of 76.305% from the five european judges.

Butler’s compatriot gareth Hughes was in second place with kk Dominant (75.845 percent), followed by alejandro asencio mendez of spain and focus (73.775 percent).

However, there were some Dressage powerhouses still to ride, and the second half of the program saw even higher marks from a slew of superb performances.

Haleywatson-greaves of great Britain opened the show after the intermission with a gorgeous ride that showed off the remarkable floating quality of rubins nite’s extended trot. watson-greaves, who took time off recently to become a new mother, has been missed on theworld Cup circuit. the pair’s score of 75.875% propelled them into second place for the moment and showed they ’re back with a vengeance to compete for a berth to germany. after a lovely program byagusti elias Lara of spain with altaneiro (71.725%), frederic wandres took over the lead with the Duke. His ride perfectly showcased the Hanoverian’s elegant walk and smooth transitions. wandres kept the 14-year-old gelding in a textbook uphill frame throughout, but would 80.260% percent be enough to hang onto the lead? nanna skodborg merrald of Denmark was sadly eliminated, after the judges noticed a tiny amount of blood around the mouth ofatterupgaards orthilia. this can occur with a nick from the bit or even when a horse bites its own tongue in concentration, but it meant merrald’s test wouldn’t be counted. so, it was up to Charlotte fry next to see if she could go home with the top honours. fry, whose late mother was also a Dressage competitor, rides for great Britain but trains on the mainland as a coowner of van olst Horses. with a team bronze at tokyo and a team silver at the Hagen european Championships under her belt, fry is now ranked number 20 in the world. fry ’s program with Dark Legend earned 87s for artistic scores and a total of 81.945%. their transition from the two tempi to the ones on a curve was simply stunning, and they took over the lead with only two riders yet to go.

Britain’s richard Davison gave it his all aboard Bubblingh, whom he handles with great calmness and consistency. But their marks of 76.910% weren’t enough to send the 66-year-old athlete to the podium. that left only Charlotte Dujardin and “Pumpkin, ” as the little chestnut is affectionately known around the stables. with London being their last hurrah together, the former olympic champion wanted to go out on a high note. it was mission accomplished for the pair, who gave an extraordinary performance, even better than their win the night before in the short grand Prix.with scores over 94 for artistic merit, the two picked up 89.040% from the judges, giving them the gold and a new but bittersweet personal best. said Dujardin’s mentor, Dressage legend Carl Hester, “He’s an amazing horse who gives his all. ” she makes her extremely difficult programs look easy, “and the horse responds so beautifully. ” Hester received his own accolades on friday night, in the form of a surprise Lifetime achievement award for his contributions to the discipline. “it doesn’t feel like i’ ve been in it that long, ” he said. “it’s just wonderful to receive an award like that. i’m very, very happy. ” as for Dujardin, she was elated with her swan song performance aboard gio. “i’ ve just finished the most incredible year, ” she commented of herteam and individual bronze medals at the olympics and individual bronze and team silver at Hagen. “He truly is the most amazing horse. what a legend. ” it was the ideal place to reach her peak achievement with gio. “there’s nothing like riding at home and having the home crowd cheering you on!” Dujardin added. the British riders had a banner night when all the scores were tallied. richard Davison ended in fourth place, followed by Butler, watson-greaves, and Hughes. mendez ended in eighth place, with great Britain’s Louise Bell (into the Blue) in ninth and tommie visser of the netherlands (genesis Begijnhoeve) rounding out the top 10.

Harry Charles and Stardust

Charlotte Fry and Dark Legend (photo by John Stroud)

Driving By Patricia Salem; Images by Jon Stroud

Boyd exell of australia notched another win on saturday December 18, 2021, as fei Driving world Cup™ action was an evening highlight at the London international Horse show.

His amazing victory at London was the defending champion’s third of the season,

Charlotte Dujardin and Gio (photo by John Stroud) and he leads the standings in points to head to the finals at Leipzig next spring. second place at leg 4 of 5 inworld Cup qualifying events was awarded to Dutch athlete koos De ronde, who has finished as a runner-up at London in years past and couldn’t quite top exell’s time.third place went to mareike Harm of germany, the sole female driver on the circuit, who had the only other double clear of the night, her best performance of the season. saturday ’s course designed by Jeroen Houterman of the netherlands was the same challenging one teams had been faced with all week leading up to the saturday finale, and there had been few clear rounds. requiring both speed and technical precision, it featured places for long galloping runs and sweeping turns, as well as a wooden bridge and two sets of tightly placed marathon boxes. seven drivers lined up for one last crack at the course on saturday night, representing six nations. only three made it through to the drive off to decide the winner. first up in the last round was mareike Harm, part of the silver medal-winning german team at the fei Driving european Championship for four in Hand at Budapest in september. Harm had a tremendous round, going clear in just 143.70 seconds, nearly a second faster than her previous round, putting pressure on the two teams to follow. it was clear to fans that her training with Boyd exell has upped her game and made her a true contender in the series. koos De ronde was keen to finally see a win at London. with his wife marie as his navigator, the Dutch driver pushed hard to top Harm’s time and lay down a real gauntlet for exell. But perhaps he went a bit too hard, as he saw the ball atop one obstacle hit the ground, which meant he had 4 penalty points to add to his fast time of 137.25 seconds. it all came down to exell, driving with his usual team of emma olsson as navigator and Hugh scott Barrett as backstepper. would he be able to find seconds somewhere on the course to pull off another win? it looked iffy at first, with exell’s time almost a second behind De ronde’s at the halfway point. But holding steady through the boxes and then opening the reins as he charged towards the finish did the trick. He crossed the beam in a blistering 134.38 seconds, beating his first round time by more than five seconds, with no penalty points, for the top honors. exell commented that he thought the sound was better in the new venue, and he