As every athlete knows it can take a long time to find the right horse, and for Para athletes it can be even more of a challenge. But there are plenty of suitable candidates out there if you look in the right place, and sometimes they come along in the most unexpected ways….

When Ireland’s Michael Murphy was setting off for CPEDI at München-Riem, Germany last month he had just one target in mind, posting a qualifying score for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games with a mark of 62% or above. So when he won the Grade 1 Team Test with 73.393%, topped the Individual with 76.488% and was runner-up in the Kur to Music with 78.4% it was much more than mission accomplished. He looks well set to achieve his lifetime dream of Paralympic participation in Tokyo in a few months time.

“I’ve never had scores like those before!” says the 24-year-old British-based rider. His success was the result of hard work, a great support team that includes his mother, Sue, and his trainer Elder Klatzko and of course his fabulous new horse - the aptly named Cleverboy whose stable-name is Charlie.

“He’s brilliant for Para, he’s so kind and so willing and he just wants to please”, Murphy points out.

The 14-year-old KWPN gelding competed up to Grand Prix level with British rider Bronte Watson who always wanted Charlie to continue in sport when his main career came to an end. Watson already had a plan in mind when she took him to the CDI3* at Keysoe (GBR) last October where the Irish athlete tried him and the result was a perfect match. 

“Charlie loves going places and being involved in things, you can do anything with him, he is the safest horse!”, Watson says. “I used to loan him to other people for prize-givings because he just loves the attention, and going to Michael is everything I could have wished for him because all this horse has ever wanted is to feel special and I know he’ll be very happy!”

Quality

The quality of horses competing in Para Dressage today is top-notch, and another rider who enjoyed a great run at München-Riem was 36-year-old Rodolpho Riskalla from Brazil who finished third in the Grade IV Team Test and second in the Individual before winning the Kur with the fabulous Don Frederic 3. Just two weeks earlier the pair won Individual Grade IV in Mannheim (GER). 

Riskalla knows he is very fortunate to have the support of top owners. Back in 2017 he had no horse to step in for Warenne who took him to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games on his home soil, less than a year after losing both feet, all the fingers on his right hand and some from the left due to the effects of a devastating bout of bacterial meningitis.

But a chance meeting with Olympian, Germany’s Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff, led to the generous offer of Don Henrico, a grandson of Donnerhall, with whom he collected two silver medals at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2018 in Tryon, USA.

Then Don Frederic arrived at Ann-Kathrin’s Gestut Schafhof early in 2019. Riskalla’s sister, Victoria, was working there at the time and reckoned the new arrival would suit her brother admirably, and that summer Rodolpho was invited to try the horse who was subsequently purchased for him by Brazilian friends and sponsors, Tania Loeb Wald and her husband Arnaldo. 

“I’m hoping Don Frederic will be the one to take me to Tokyo!”, Riskalla says.

He is not the first Para-Dressage athlete that Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff has supported. She is delighted to be involved but says she needs a personal attachment to the individual concerned, “and in the case of Rodolpho he is such a remarkable personality that it’s a pleasure to help him! 

“I have a lot of respect for the strength and the power these sports people have in their situation, and I am very thankful that I can help. These Para riders are role models”, says the lady who won Dressage team gold for Germany at the Olympic Games in Seoul (KOR) in 1988.

Gold

Great Britain’s Natasha Baker already has five Paralympic gold medals in her trophy cabinet and is hoping to add some more this summer. However this time around the 31-year-old rider won’t be relying on Cabral, the former event horse who changed his career-path to become a true legend when carrying her to double-gold in London in 2012 and triple gold at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. 

Cabral, better known as JP, passed away in 2017 and the search for his replacement hasn’t been easy. But with her new ride, Keystone Dawn Chorus, Baker is right back in the game and battling for a spot in the British team for Tokyo. 

The 10-year-old mare is jointly owned by Christian Landolt and the skin-care company Childs Farm, and the relationship between Landolt and Baker is a close one….”Christian is like my big brother!”, says the Paralympic star. 

They first met when she was on the hunt for a horse at just the right time, because Landolt realised that Cabral wasn’t brave enough to continue Eventing and wanted to find a new outlet for him. “He wasn’t going to be a Jumper or a Dressage horse either, so I wondered if he would do Para? I really wanted him to go to a home where he could do something right”, says the man who competes in Eventing and Advanced level Dressage and is also a national Dressage, FEI Eventing and Para Dressage judge.  

As history would reveal, Cabral found the perfect home. “With Tash it all fell into place”, Landolt says.

Calibre

Baker competes in Grade lll, and says the calibre of Para Dressage horses has rapidly improved since the London Games. “The perception of the kind of horses we should compete has changed, and many of us now have top sport horses”, she says.

Her new ride Keystone Dawn Chorus is better known as Lottie. “She is so powerful and I’m so lucky with her, she’s the first horse I’ve taken to an open field for a big canter and it was such a wonderful feeling that I cried my eyes out afterwards!”, Baker says.

Finding the right horse is no easy task however. “They are like the smallest needle in the biggest haystack! Sometimes us riders fall in love with a horse but it may not be right for us, so somebody has to have the courage to say no, it’s not suitable. They must be safe, and they must be sensible”, she points out.

Christian Landolt believes there are many more Para horses out there just waiting to be found if owners were just a bit more flexible about the expectations they have for them. 

“When we have a horse we shouldn’t be greedy and try to sell them for the most money we can get, we need to listen to them and try to find a job they will excel at. And it doesn’t matter what that job is - whether it’s a happy hacker or Grand Prix or Para - as long as they, and their rider, enjoy it then that’s all we should be trying to achieve”, he says.

Perfect path

One owner who has found the perfect path for her horse is Swedish athlete Johanna Forssell. The 25-year-old Dressage rider who was seriously injured in a car crash in January 2019 is keen to get back in the competition ring with her lovely mare, Feldnoble, but has decided to pass over the ride to Para-athlete Felicia Grimmenhag while continuing her recovery. It was a very generous offer that 27-year-old Grimmenhag could hardly resist.

Forssell is set to become a Para rider herself, but feels that her 12-year-old horse is too much for her just yet. So, knowing that Grimmenhag was looking for a replacement ride following the retirement of Tarot E, who carried her to the European Championships in both Gothenburg in 2017 and Rotterdam in 2019, contacted her on social media. Grimmenhag could hardly believe her luck, and a hastily-organised test ride proved that the new pairing just might work well.

Feldnoble competed in the 4-year-old category at the Danish Young Horse Championships in 2016 with Patricia Florin and is still on a learning curve, so Forssell sees the new arrangement as ideal because Grimmenhag will provide the nine-year-old with plenty of useful experience. Both parties will benefit, and the horse will mature in good hands.

Decision

It wasn’t an easy decision to make because the much-loved horse has been in Forssell’s stable for the last five years. But the slight chance that the new pairing might make the cut for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics gives an extra edge of excitement to it all.

And Forssell also has her dream.

“When I heard that Felicia was looking for a new horse there was no question about it. I'd been in contact with her previously about me getting back up on the horse and where to begin. Para-riding was a completely new world for me, and Felicia has been such a great support. Since she has so much more experience than me I felt like this was the perfect opportunity for all of us.

“Of course it's hard to be away from my dear Feldnoble, but I also know she is well taken care of by Felicia. We are in constant contact and I follow along on both their journeys.

“In the meantime I'm training every day, getting stronger so that I can compete again. My goal is to compete at the highest level of Para Dressage, and hopefully Feldnoble will be with me when that time comes!”

Team Jumping lived up to it’s reputation for edge-of-the-seat excitement when Switzerland won through in a thriller at the second leg of the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ 2021 Division 1 series at La Baule in France today.

The Swiss were returning to the scene of their triumph at the last event to be staged in the French seaside town in 2019, and it fell to Beat Mandli to clinch it for them with one final run. The double-Olympian and 2007 FEI Jumping World Cup™ champion didn’t flinch, producing a copybook tour of Frederic Cottier’s course that proved plenty challenging during a brilliant day of sport.

His side finished on a four-fault tally to pip the exciting second-placed Italian team who posted a total of seven, while Belgium lined up in third on a total of eight, just one fault ahead of Great Britain with nine. 

The 2019 Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ champions from Ireland were sharing pole position with the Swiss on a zero score at the halfway stage but had to settle for fifth place with 12 faults in the final analysis while Mexico, The Netherlands, Brazil, France and Sweden lined up behind them.

Clean sheet

There was no let-up on Cottier’s unforgiving track, but 15 horse-and-rider partnerships managed to keep a clean sheet first time out and when the Irish and Swiss produced six of those between them they jointly led the way into the second round. 

Great Britain and Italy were stalking them closely with just single time faults on the board, but while the British lost their grip when adding eight more second time out the Italians challenged to the very end. Out of the 10 nations that competed today, Italy is the only one not qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, yet they finished ahead of all but one of their rival countries so this was an afternoon for Chef d’Equipe Duccio Bartalucci and his side to relish.

Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum, little went right for Sweden today. They produced a fabulous victory in the first leg of the new season at St Gallen, Switzerland last Sunday where the hosts finished third. But Henrik Ankarcrona fielded a different team this afternoon, and when pathfinders Angelica Augustsson Zanotelli had a second-round fall following which her horse, Kalinka van de Nachtegaele jumped out of the arena, they ended up with a big score of 31 faults.

Raised

As the last-line riders took their turn it seemed the Belgians might finish with just four on the board to stay well in contention until a mistake from Niels Brynseels’ Jenson van’t Meulenhof raised that to eight. Over in the Italian camp, Ricardo Pisani and Chaclot produced one of the five double-clears of the day before Fabio Brotto and Vanita delle Roane collected five faults. But Filippo Bologni and Quilazio, who left two on the floor first time out, really rose to the occasion this time out when picking up just a single time fault. So if Luca Marziani and Lightning could be fault-free again they would be the clear winners on just two time faults because the Irish were out of it and the Swiss couldn’t do better than four in the closing stages. 

But Lightning struck both the tricky white planks at fence 10 and the first element of the final double, so they would have to settle for runner-up position.

Second-last to go, Mandli had all the weight on his shoulders as he set off for Switzerland. Newcomer, Eilian Baumann, had followed his opening clear with Campari Z with a mistake at the dreaded final double while Steve Guerdat’s Albfuehren’s Maddox faulted at both elements of the same fence. 

Martin Fuchs and Conner 70 produced a second spectacular clear however, so if Mandli could leave all the poles in place they would deny their Italian rivals. And he did it with such ease with his lovely 13-year-old mare.

Big day

It was a big day for Michel Sorg, because this was his first win since taking over the role of Swiss Chef d’Equipe.

“I first came to La Baule as a spectator many years ago and for me it’s a dream to come here for the first time as Chef d’Equipe and get my first win with my team!”, he said.

“Beat had a lot of pressure because he had to be clear and he hadn’t jumped the first round but he was fantastic! He was already very good in St Gallen last week where he was double-clear with Dsarie in the Grand Prix and had just a fence down in each round in the Nations Cup.

“For Martin it was the first time Conner jumped such a big course. He was double-clear with Leone last weekend so he’s in great form. Elian had never ridden in a Nations Cup 5-Star, so to get a clear and four faults is amazing too, and for Steve’s Maddox it was also a first top Nations Cup and with a clear and eight faults so I’m happy, because all riders could bring something to the team today”, he said.

His decision to include the relatively unexposed Baumann was made because the 32-year-old rider “has achieved many great things in Grand Prix at national level and last week in St Gallen he jumped double-clear in the Grand Prix and finished in sixth place. He’s a fantastic rider and partner for the other riders, and his horse is fantastic also. I was very happy he was with us today and I know this has been very special for him. I’m proud of every one of them!”, Sorg concluded.

The FEI Tribunal has published the full reasoned decision in the 10-year suspension of US Jumping athlete Andrew Kocher for the use of electric spurs. The decision is based on violation of the FEI General Regulations Articles 142 and 164.12 including horse abuse, breach of the FEI Code of Conduct on the welfare of the horse, competition manipulation and incorrect behaviour.

The full reasoned decision follows publication of the operative decision by the FEI on 22 April and provides a summary of the relevant facts, allegations and arguments based on the Parties’ written submissions, pleadings and oral testimony submitted throughout the proceedings and at the oral hearing held on 14, 15 and 16 April 2021.

In addition to the 10-year period of ineligibility and disqualification of all results obtained at events for which the FEI Tribunal was provided with photographic evidence establishing the use of electric spurs, the athlete was also fined CHF 10,000 and ordered to pay costs of CHF 7,500.

Following receipt of the full reasoned decision on 10 June 2021, the Parties have 21 days to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The FEI Tribunal has published its Final Decision in the case against Canadian Jumping athlete Nicole Walker. A sample taken from the athlete on 7 August, the day of the team final at the Pan-American Games 2019 in Lima (PER), tested positive for the cocaine metabolite Benzoylecgonine, a prohibited substance under the WADA Prohibited Substance List.

In its Final Decision, the FEI Tribunal noted that the FEI accepted that, on a balance of probability, the Athlete bore no significant fault or negligence for the anti-doping rule violation after drinking coca leaf tea on the day of the team final.

In a settlement reached between the athlete and the FEI, which has now been approved by the FEI Tribunal, a one-year period of ineligibility was agreed, commencing on 26 September 2019 and ending on 26 September 2020. A provisional suspension imposed by the FEI on 8 November 2019 was lifted on 26 September 2020 on appeal to the FEI Tribunal. As the athlete did not compete between the Pan-American Games 2019 and the start of the provisional suspension, the full period of ineligibility has now been served.

The athlete has been ordered to pay a fine of CHF 1,500. Each of the Parties must bear their own legal costs.

In addition, the athlete has to complete an anti-doping education course within the next 12 months and provide certification to both the FEI and Equestrian Canada on completion of the course.

In its decision of 11 December 2019, the Panam Sports Disciplinary Commission had disqualified the individual results obtained by Nicole Walker on 7 and 9 August 2019, and her results from 6 and 7 August 2019 were replaced with those of the fourth Canadian team member for the team final, meaning that Argentina earned a team quota place for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The athlete and her National Federation, Equestrian Canada, appealed the disqualification to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but in an operative award published on 12 January 2021, the CAS dismissed that appeal. The CAS published its full reasoned arbitral award in April of this year, allowing the FEI Tribunal to decide on the merits of the case.

Under the terms of Article 10.2.2 of the Panam Sports Anti-Doping Rules, responsibility for results management in terms of sanctions beyond the event itself is referred to the applicable International Federation, meaning that any period of ineligibility had to be imposed by the FEI.

Full details of the FEI Tribunal Final Decision are available here.

As the FEI celebrates its centenary, one man’s name stands out when it comes to the development of equestrian sport over the last 100 Years - journalist, historian, art collector and creator of the FEI World Cup™ Jumping series Mr. Max Ammann…..

There are people who talk, and people who do, and Switzerland’s Max Ammann is very definitely one of the latter. Over a 30-year period from 1978 to 2008 he drove equestrian sport out of a culture of conservative complacency and into an era of energy and progress that has brought us to where we are today.

He didn’t do it alone. He had the support of the three FEI Presidents of his era, and in particular the late Prince Philip who championed many of his innovative ideas. 

And the story began in the fishing, farming and wine growing lakeside village of Ermatingen in Switzerland where his father kept horses on the family farm.

Two businesses

“For over 100 years our family had two businesses. One was local transport and the other was buying fruit and vegetables from farmers and delivering to big shops in Zurich and St Gallen. So we had five horses, and in 1945 my father decided to compete with them. At that time we had Driving competitions on a local and national level, and he competed from 1946 until 1955. He was quite successful and I was his groom”, Max says.

That led to father and son travelling to many big horse shows over the following years, and when Max moved to New York in 1964 as Foreign Correspondent for Swiss, German and Austrian newspapers he decided to drop in on the National Horse Show which, at the time, was staged in Madison Square Garden. “I met a lot of people including Bill Steinkraus, Frank Chapot, Kathy Kusner and Bert de Nemethy. So I started writing about horses and horse shows for (Swiss magazines) Cavallo and Reiter Revue and (American publication) Chronicle of the Horse,” he explains.

He returned to Europe for the FEI World Championships in Jumping at La Baule (FRA) in 1970 and the Olympic Games in Munich (GER) in 1972, and then in 1973 relocated to Switzerland once again when taking up the job of Chief Editor at Luzerner Tagblatt, the daily newspaper in Lucerne. 

Agreement

“I had an agreement that I would go to 10 or 15 horse shows every year, so I started with the CSIOs which were the dominant events at the time and then began going to indoor shows which were practically unknown. I was the only foreign journalist at s’Hertogenbosch (NED), Amsterdam (NED), Berlin (GER) or Dortmund (GER), but I wrote about the competitions and I could feel that there was something happening in the sport”, Max says.

What he was feeling was the change of mood brought about by the success of those World Championships in La Baule. The 1960s had been very difficult. 

“Most international events in showjumping were held outside Europe at the time. The ’64 Olympics were in Tokyo (JPN), in ’68 they were in Mexico and in ’66 the World Championships in Jumping were in Argentina. Also that year the big Swamp Fever (Equine Infectious Anaemia) crisis happened, and as a result no continental Europeans competed at the Eventing World Championships in Burghley (GBR) and no Irish or British competed at the European Jumping Championships in Lucerne (SUI).”

Change for the better

But there was a major change for the better in the 1970s in a number of different ways. Jumping grew in popularity after the thrilling World Championships at La Baule in 1970 and the size and scale of the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, which will forever be remembered for the devastating terrorist attack, but were also the largest yet, setting records in all categories, with 195 events and 7,134 athletes from 121 National Olympic Committees.

That led to a coming-together of journalists and riders alike, and during the FEI World Championships at Hickstead (GBR) in 1974 the International Alliance of Equestrian Journalists was formed.

The riders then decided they wanted the same kind of representative body, and at a meeting in Geneva in 1977 they established the International Jumping Riders Club of which Max was Secretary for a few years.

With the sport clearly moving in a more positive direction, TV broadcasters became increasingly interested in it. “When we were in Aachen or Hickstead we went to dinner together each evening and of course we talked a lot. We discussed the binding together of shows to create more interest, and that’s how the World Cup idea was born”, Max says.

Indoor shows became the main focus, and originally the plan was to create a Formula 1 motor-racing-style series - “in other words one worldwide tour”. However Bill Steinkraus felt it was too complicated, in part due to the cost and stress of transporting horses all round the world. So the League system, that still remains to this day, was considered.

Presented

In 1978 Max presented the idea to then FEI Secretary General Fritz Widmer who advised him to take it to a Jumping Committee meeting in Brussels, Belgium where the FEI had its headquarters at the time. They liked it and made a favourable report to FEI President, the late Prince Philip, who invited Max to Windsor to discuss it.

“I had already written the rules and he liked it very much and said two things - ‘first if we do it then you have to run it!’ and ‘now I’m going to translate it from American English into proper English!’, Max says.

Then there was the question of who should pay for it. Max spoke with individuals from the Mark McCormack group, founder of IMG group which managed top sports figures and celebrities but they weren’t interested, instead offering to sign up the world’s top riders. When that didn’t materialise Max turned to an old friend, former Olympic rider Anders Gernandt who was now a commentator on Swedish TV. And that was the turning point in the story.

“He put me together with the President of Volvo, Pehr Gyllenhammar, who invited me to dinner with a group including his friend Ulf Bergqvist, a Director of a bank and the Director of the Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg. They listened to my presentation and I said I’d need 480,000 Swiss Francs which at the time was quite some money! After dinner we sat down and had some Cognac, and Gyllenhammar put out his hand and said ‘it’s a deal!’ So now I had the agreement of Prince Philip and the President of Volvo and that was sufficient”, Max says.

Concept

So what was it about the concept of the Jumping World Cup that they found so appealing? 

“I think it just had to come. I’m not a gambler, I only take calculated risks and I was absolutely sure it would succeed because there were precedents in skiing and football and other sports. And in the meantime I had talked to many horse shows in New York, Washington, to Gene Mische in Florida, to people in Toronto, Berlin, Dortmund and Vienna and they were all interested”.

And where did Max get the confidence and skills to put it all together?

“I come from a  little village on Lake Constance, and my father had a business so the logical thing when I left Secondary School was to make an apprenticeship in business. So I worked with an international transport company and travelled all around Europe for five years learning the job. Then I worked in shipping companies in Hamburg and Basel, so I had a business education before I switched to journalism in the early 60s. I knew how to make an offer, how to write letters, how to calculate, how to read figures in an annual report and I spoke English, French and German and all of that helped”, he explains.

In an obituary after the death of Prince Philip, Max wrote that when HRH was elected FEI President in 1964 words like sponsorship, communications, doping control, marketing and public relations were unknown at the FEI. “It was Prince Philip who brought the FEI forward, he was a visionary but also a very practical man”, he says.

FEI

Max left his job at Luzerner Tagblatt and, with a contract created by the Prince, worked from FEI HQ when it moved from Brussels to Berne. And as the years rolled on he was involved in the early stages of the creation of the Dressage and Driving World Cups which were based on similar lines.

“The Dressage people became jealous of the Jumpers because they were getting a lot more media attention and there was a lot of discussion about how the Dressage World Cup should be, including some wild ideas. Prince Philip was annoyed by some of the proposals made at a Board meeting so he told the Dressage Committee to sit with me to sort it out and I told them ‘Gentlemen, I don’t know anything about Dressage or how to develop it, but I can help promote it and sell it! And a member of the Dressage Committee saved it when suggesting we have a Grand Prix with the best going into the Kur which is the World Cup competition. So through the Grand Prix you preserve the tradition of Dressage and with the Kur you have what people like to see!” 

The next discipline that wanted a World Cup was Eventing. “At the Olympics in Seoul in ’88 the Americans wanted it and Roger Haller came to me asking for help to make it happen. Princess Anne was then President and I discussed it with her, but she rightly thought it would be too difficult because Eventing horses don’t compete every week so nothing came of it”, Max says. However the FEI Driving World Cup would become a reality. 

Seminar

At the FEI Driving World Championships in Hungary in 1999 Max heard the Driving Committee discussing the details of a seminar the following day. “I said to them what you are talking about is of no importance for the future of the sport, you need to discuss finance, how to create interest and how to get journalists to cover the sport!”

The following morning he got a call from Committee President Jack Pemberton asking him to address the seminar, and it went so well he was invited to create an ad hoc Committee of which he would be Chairman. Instead of inviting insiders however, Max opted to bring in non-specialists including the marketing manager of the Winter Olympics and, after two meetings, they put a proposal to a seminar in Wolfsburg in 2000. Not everyone was initially impressed by the new formula, but a week later the organisers at Aachen expressed an interest as did the drivers for a Driving World Cup. The series would begin in earnest soon after.

In the lead-in however, and much to Max’s amusement, a test-run in Gothenburg didn’t meet with everyone’s approval. “I invited all the World Champions of the previous 20 years and they were allowed to train from 11pm to midnight before their event. It was their first experience at a big indoor show so they drove like maniacs for an hour! Olaf Petersen was course building for the Jumping World Cup and he came racing into my office the following morning and shouted ‘it looks like a battlefield out there, don’t let those mad Drivers in my arena again!”, Max relates with a laugh.

The FEI Driving World Cup™ survived however and went on to become another major success.

Overview

Max’s involvement in equestrianism has given him a great overview. He’s passionate about recording the history of the sport and the two books he wrote for the FEI - “Equestrian Sport in the Olympic Games” and “The History of the FEI Championships” - have become a valued resource. 

Looking back on that history he recalls that not everyone played by the rules down the years. He talks about the Nations Cups staged in Harrisburg, Washington, New York and Toronto where they ran the classes with just three team-members instead of four “because they felt four riders with one drop-score was too complicated”. And they broke the rules even further when permitting women onto those teams. “In the summer of 1950 they had trials for New York and Toronto, and the three riders who qualified were Arthur McCashin, Norma Matthews and Carol Durant even though, officially, women were not allowed to compete in Nations Cups at the time - but I think the FEI were half-asleep in Brussels!”, Max says with a chuckle.

Talking about his relationship with the three Presidents of his era he describes Prince Philip as “the best the FEI ever had, an absolute leader and a thinker”. Max learned that HRH didn’t always mean what he said however. 

“He had his specialities when you talked with him. When he said “I see” he didn’t see at all, so you had to explain more. And when he said “I don’t understand” you knew he understood perfectly well, but didn’t like what you just said!”

Men’s Club

Max constantly describes the FEI as “a Men’s Club” during those years, and says when Prince Philip’s daughter, Princess Anne, took over the Presidential role she did a great job but had a much tougher time than her father, simply because she was a woman. 

HRH the Infanta Doña Pilar de Borbon was also a good President. “She had a less competitive background than Anne who was an Olympian and a European champion and was from a horse family. But Doña Pilar loved horses and worked very hard at the FEI”, Max says.

Back on the subject of three-rider Nations Cup Jumping teams, Max says he’s a big advocate of the formula which will be used at this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. “Because we have to make our sport understood by the ordinary people, not just the specialists”, he says earnestly. “I sat for 30 years in press stands at Aachen and Rome and even there you have to watch and make calculations and that shouldn’t be necessary”.

Reasoning

“I understand the reasoning of riders and Chefs because of course it’s nice to give young riders their first experience and share the responsibility more. But you could do that by having three riders in Superleague teams and allow the lower developing level teams to have four”, he says.

And what if the three-rider format produces strange results? “Well that’s sport, and sport doesn’t produce justice, it produces winners!”, he insists.

Max retired from the FEI in 2008 but he never sits still. Editor of L’Annee Hippique for 30 years during which time he also produced “about 30” Media Guides and two books on the World Cup, he has continued writing and recently published an extensive history of the Swiss Equestrian Federation. As an art collector and art lover he was involved in the work of the Foundation for Naive and Outsider Art in St Gallen which supports lesser-known artists who are “not in the mainstream”.   

Speaking about the philosophy behind his successful career, Max says it was built on engaging everyone in conversations, and on his belief that “you shouldn’t hide and you shouldn’t lie! When you make decisions you have to stand over them and be prepared to explain why you made them”.

Max Ammann made a lot of good ones, and equestrian sport today owes him a great debt of gratitude.

Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ 2021

Sweden pipped Germany in a third-round showdown against the clock to win the opening leg of the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ 2021 Division 1 series at St Gallen in Switzerland today.

On a dramatic day of top sport in the Grundenmoos Arena where the tradition of wet weather conditions once again played its part, it came down to a face-off between Sweden’s Rolf-Goran Bengtsson and Germany’s Christian Kukuk. And super-cool Bengtsson sealed it with a brilliant run on his 12-year-old stallion Ermindo W.

From a starting field of 10 nations, only nine returned for the second round when the British opted to withdraw. And on a tough afternoon, when many of the teams finished with big scores, the closing stages turned into a cliff-hanger.

Testing track

Swiss course designers Gerard Lachat and Reto Ruflin set them a testing track on which nothing could be taken for granted. Looping turns and dog-leg distances had to be accurately ridden, and the triple combination at fence four claimed plenty of victims. The bending line from the vertical at seven to the triple-bar at eight and the following water-tray oxer at nine also saw plenty of action, while the penultimate double at fence 11 was also highly influential, with the flimsy white plank on top of the vertical second element falling time and again.

Team Egypt sprang a surprise when tying for the lead with Germany going into the second round with just five faults on the board, while the Swiss were in third carrying eight and the Swedes were close behind with nine at the halfway point. 

Brazil, Britain, Israel, The Netherlands, Mexico and Italy were lying in that order as round two began, but the serious business of the day was played out between the leading four countries, and it went right down to the wire.

Out of contention

The Egyptians slipped out of contention when adding 20 faults despite very smart performances from Mohamed Talaat and his lovely stallion Darshan and just four in the second round for Friday’s Longines Grand Prix winner Nayel Nassar who brought out Darry Lou today, the gelding originally competed by American star Beezie Madden.

The unrelenting rain led to several breaks in the competition to attend to the grass footing in the arena, but the horses coped well and the tension increased as Germany, Switzerland and Sweden continued to slog it out. 

Christian Kukuk and Mumbai matched their first-round score of eight but German hopes were bolstered by a brilliant clear from Maurice Tebbel and Don Diarado. However the troublesome water-tray oxer at nine hit for the floor for Andre Thieme and DSP Chakaria and when Philipp Weishaupt’s Asathir clipped the second element of the penultimate double then Germany had to add eight more to their scoreline for a total of 13.

That left them on level pegging with the Swedes who added just four, thanks to superb double-clears from both pathfinder Douglas Lindelow and Casquo Blue and anchor rider Malin Baryard-Johnsson with the feisty mare H&M Indiana. Both Evelina Tovek and Winnetou de la Hamente Z and Bengtsson and Ermindo had a pole down, but just one of those four-fault results had to be added when taking the best three scores into account.

Delight

Meanwhile the Swiss crowd, small in numbers due to pandemic restrictions but full of voice for their home runners, screamed with delight when their hero and individual European champion Martin Fuchs returned a double-clear with his exciting gelding Leone Jei. 

Luck played its part however, the fabulous grey clearing the open water at fence five with another spectacular leap but creating heart-stopping moments along the way  when hitting the back bar of the water-tray oxer at nine very hard, and also tapping the top of the plank at the second-last which had fallen so easily for many others.

When compatriot, Steve Guerdat, retired Venard de Cerisy after having two down, then the four faults collected by both Bryan Balsiger and Twentytwo des Biches and Beat Mandli with Dsarie had to be counted bringing their scoreline to 16. Assured of third place, the home team would now sit back and watch Germany and Sweden decide the final result. 

Jump-Off

First into the third-round jump-off, Bengtsson didn’t flinch, setting off with a determined run that saw him take a risky right-hand turn to the vertical second-last and clearing the final Longines oxer in a fast 43.50 seconds. It was vintage stuff from the man whose career highlights include the individual European title in 2011, team and individual silver at separate Olympic Games and fourth individually at the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games™ with brilliant horses like Ninja la Silla and Casall ASK. And the 12-year-old stallion Ermindo W certainly gave his all today.

Germany’s Kukuk also set off with fire in his belly, but when Mumbai hit the third fence then he took his foot off the gas to complete the course with an additional time fault. Second place would have to be good enough for his country on this highly competitive afternoon.

The right man

Talking about the choice of Bengtsson for the jump-off, team-mate Douglas Lindelow said he was the right man for the job. “Rolf is very experienced and always very calm, and he performed splendidly and put plenty of pressure on Christian”, he said. 

Swedish Chef d’Equipe, Henrik Ankarcrona, was thrilled with his team. “We have never won the Nations Cup here and my riders were fantastic today. The Organising Committee did a great job for the second round, taking the time to have a longer break to take care of the footing and it turned out very well” he said. 

Meanwhile the hosts were also very happy. 

“My horse is still inexperienced at that level but he showed all his potential today. Sometimes it is not easy to handle his temperament, but today we managed it”, said Martin Fuchs. He is planning to take Leone Jei to the FEI European Championships in Riesenbeck, Germany later this year. “I rode him here two years ago in the young horses classes at St Gallen, so it’s special to come back and jump a double-clear in the Nations Cup with him today!”, Fuchs added.

And it was a special day for Swiss team manager Michel Sorg too. “This was my first time as Chef d Equipe at a 5* show, and being at home made it even more special.

“We are so grateful that the sport could take place, and with some public it was even nicer and we are happy with our results this week. Next week we are going to La Baule and we will have Martin, Steve, Beat and Elian Bauman as Elian was so good here in the Grand Prix”, he said.

However they’ll have to face the Swedes again at the French fixture. And on current form, they’ll prove tough nuts to crack.

Result

Olympic bronze medallist Daniel Deusser (GER) is back in the number one spot in the Longines Rankings for the third time. He takes over at the top with a total of 3,385 points.

Deusser, a member of the German squad that took team bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, was lying second at the end of the previous rankings period just 25 points behind 2012 Olympic champion, Steve Guerdat (SUI), who has held the position since February 2020 is now down to second spot.

Deusser is no stranger to being world number one. In 2017 he took over pole position from fellow-countryman Christian Ahlmann who had enjoyed a lengthy period at the top and in 2015, Deusser broke the 16-month reign of Scott Brash (GBR).

Based in Belgium, Deusser was part of the silver medal winning team at the Longines FEI European Championships 2019 in Rotterdam (NED), just pipped at the last fence by Belgium. He was also part of the silver medal winning teams at the European Championships in 2013 and 2015.

With his loyal stallion Cornet d’Amour, Deusser won the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final in Lyon (FRA) in 2014 and finished third in Gothenburg (SWE) in 2016.

As the equestrian calendar starts opening up again, the new rankings reflect some strong points-earning performances, with Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs staying in third position on 3,101, Ben Maher (GBR) up into fourth on 3,008 ahead of Kent Farrington (USA) and Scott Brash (GBR). Sweden’s Peder Fredricson has dropped from fourth to seventh, ahead of Ireland’s Darragh Kenny. McLain Ward (USA) and Marlon Modolo Zanotelli (BRA) make up the top 10 with just three points between them.

The full Longines Rankings list is published here.

With the equestrian sports calendar suddenly bursting into action again after the many complications imposed by the pandemic over the last year, this week all eyes are on St Gallen in Switzerland where the much-anticipated Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ 2021 series gets underway.

And there is great news for the show organisers, as it has been officially confirmed that a limited public audience will be permitted to the showgrounds at the Gründenmoos. 

This will be a season like no other, with just four of the seven legs of the Europe Division 1 series going ahead following the cancellation of the rounds at both Falsterbo (SWE) and Hickstead (GBR) in July and Dublin (IRL) in August, and some of the parameters have been changed. 

Updated

The Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ Covid-19 By-Laws have been updated to allow for invitations to be re-allocated so that every Division 1 country can compete in the same number of events. The updated allocation list is published here.

Therefore this season, Division 1 nations will compete in three events each instead of four, and teams will consist of four athletes instead of five with a maximum of 10 teams at each leg.

The new system offers more countries the opportunity to compete before the Tokyo Olympic Games which begin in July, and Chefs d’Equipe and selectors will be watching every horse and every rider very closely. 

Quality

The quality of the 10-nation line-up for St Gallen confirms that fact, and it’s likely to be a mighty clash when the Europe Division 1 sides of Germany, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden and the hosts from Switzerland take on the non-Division 1 teams from Brazil, Egypt, Israel and Mexico next Sunday afternoon.

With the exception of Italy, all of these countries will face each other again in Tokyo in the first week of August, and every outing in the lead-up to final Olympic selection will be a crucial one. There’s also the psychological advantage of having beaten your rivals for Olympic glory in the lead-up to the Games. And there’s a lot of confidence to be gained by a good result at each leg of this summer’s series which will move on to La Baule (FRA) on Friday 11 June, then to Sopot (POL) on Sunday 20 June and finally Rotterdam (NED) on 2 July.

No chances

The Swiss are taking no chances on home ground as Chef d’Equipe Michel Sorg sends out the No. 1 and No. 3 riders in the Longines world rankings, Steve Guerdat and Martin Fuchs, along with Bryan Balsiger and Beat Mandli. And there’s a mass of experience in both Henrik Ankarcrona’s Swedish side of Malin Baryard-Johnsson, Rolf-Goran Bengtsson, Douglas Lindelow and Evelina Tovek and in Rob Ehrens’ Dutch foursome of Bart Bles, Jeroen Dubbeldam, Kevin Jochems and Jur Vrieling.  

The British have been rebuilding steadily, and Di Lampard has chosen Scott Brash, Harry Charles, William Funnell and Holly Smith to fly the flag, while Germany’s Otto Becker sends Christian Kukuk, Maurice Tebbel, Andre Thieme and Philipp Weishaupt and they will definitely have to be taken seriously.

However the best teams in the world know that there is nothing predictable about Nations Cup Jumping, that’s the charm of it as it makes compelling viewing and stirs national pride.

Qualification

The 2021 series will not count toward qualification for the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ Final which once again returns to the Real Club de Polo in Barcelona (ESP) from 30 September to 3 October. Instead, all ten Division 1 teams - Belgium, France, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden - will be eligible to compete for the prestigious title that last went to Team Ireland in 2019.

And this year’s Final will also decide which nation is relegated to the EEF Series in 2022. Previously that was the fate of the country that finished bottom of the Division 1 standings at the end of the season, but this time around it will be the tenth-placed team in Barcelona, so the Final will have an even sharper edge to it.

It’s going to be quite different, but it’s also going to be very much the same as the best of the best go head-to-head over the four legs of fantastic sport and then chase down the ultimate prize, the title of Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ 2021 champions.

The action at St Gallen kicks off at 13.30 local time on Sunday 6 June, and if you can’t be there then you can follow every exciting moment on www.feitv.org

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The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) has kicked off year-long centenary celebrations today, calling for the equestrian community to show its commitment to “Shaping the future of equestrian sports together.”

A video highlighting the achievements, successes and milestones of the organisation and the sport has been produced to mark this special occasion. Iconic moving and stills images capture a historic century in the equestrian world and pays tribute to the incredible diversity that exists within the community. Olympic individual and team silver medallist and former European Jumping Champion Peder Fredericson (SWE) narrates a story that brings together members of the community in a truly authentic equestrian celebration.

The Covid-19 pandemic has meant the FEI has had to adapt its centenary plans which will now extend through to the end of May 2022. A dedicated 100 Years Hub has been created on FEI.org, featuring stories, interviews, online competitions and other fan engagement activities which will allow people to share their memories and experiences over the next 12 months. Fans around the world are encouraged to take part in the #FEI100Years digital celebrations.

“The FEI’s 100 year celebration is about bringing together each and every individual who connects with the horse at any level,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos said.

“We want this to be an inclusive celebration commemorating our collective journey over the past 100 years and looking ahead to shaping the future of equestrian sports together as a united community.

“Equestrian sport is rich in diversity and the one key factor that binds everyone together is our shared connection with and passion for the horse. For equestrian sport to continue to grow and flourish we need to make sure that together we cherish all members of our community and that everyone contributes to the key values at the heart of the sport.”

A key initiative in the drive for greater inclusivity in the community is a plan to formalise the international status of Grooms and formally acknowledge the vital role they play with structures that ensure their wellbeing while they safeguard the wellbeing of the horses in their care.  

Together with representatives from national associations and the global community, the FEI will address the global status of Grooms on 2 June during the online FEI Sports Forum. A dedicated session will explore concrete measures to raise the profile of Grooms internationally and discuss a more structured framework of cooperation between the FEI and the Grooms community.

The FEI was created in 1921 to oversee the Olympic disciplines of Jumping, Dressage and Eventing with just eight member signatories: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United States of America. Today, alongside the Olympic disciplines, the FEI also governs the non-Olympic disciplines of Driving, Endurance, Vaulting and Reining as well as the Para Equestrian disciplines of Dressage and Driving and has grown in membership to 136 affiliated National Federations.

The sport has experienced exponential growth globally over the last decade with more than 4,600 international events now run under FEI rules annually, across all disciplines. In 2009, there were 27,000 athletes registered to compete internationally and this number grew to 43,000 in 2019.

The FEI has been governed by 13 Presidents over its 100 year history, including three successive female Presidents. During the 27 years that The Princess Royal GCVO (GBR), HRH The Infanta Doña Pilar de Borbòn (ESP) and HRH Princess Haya Al Hussein (JOR) were at the helm, the FEI earned a reputation for being an International Federation that championed gender equality on the field of play as well as in the administration of the sport. The FEI’s longest serving President, the late Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh was due to celebrate his 100th birthday in the same year as the FEI.

In June 2020, the FEI welcomed its top tier classification in the Association for Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) governance review. The FEI was one of six International Federations that ASOIF said “stood out from the rest”, a testimony to the robust governance structures and best practices that the organisation has put in place over the years.

Longines FEI World Endurance Championship 2021

The defending champions from Spain claimed team gold once again at the Longines FEI Endurance World Championship 2021 at San Rossore in Pisa, Italy today where the UAE dominated the individual podium when clinching the top two places.

This was the first championship to run under the new FEI Endurance Rules, and history was made when Boni Viada de Vivero became the first Chilean rider to stand on a World Championship podium when scooping individual bronze, while Brazil also celebrated their first-ever medals when taking team silver ahead of France.

In a dramatic competition it seemed that the individual title looked set to also fall into Spanish hands when Omar Blanco Rodrigo and his brilliant grey, For Ferro, moved up from fifth to first after the second loop and stayed out in front until the closing stages. However the speed and supreme fitness of the UAE horses, Haleh who clinched gold for Salem Hamad Saeed Malhoof Al Kitbi, and Birmann Aya who slotted into silver medal spot for Mansour Saeed Mohd Al Faresi, saw them surge ahead in the final loop to finish neck-and-neck and hand-in-hand without a challenger in sight.

Heart rate 

Haleh’s heart rate never went above 50 beats per minute and at the very end of the 160km test registered just 47. At the final vet-check the 10-year-old Australian-bred gelding looked completely unfazed as he nibbled some grass while the French-bred Birmann Aya, who has a tremendous record for speedy finishes, was also chilled with a heart-rate of 54.

Chile’s Viada de Vivero produced the most mature of rides, and the 27-year-old got a great reception from the Italian supporters as he is based in Italy. Lying 19th after the first loop he improved to 17th, 16th, 10th and then fifth before clinching third and bronze with the nine-year-old As Embrujo.

Al Kitbi was never far off the lead however, finishing the first two phases in third place, moving into second after loop three and staying there until the final push over the 20km sixth-phase course. In contrast Al Faresi, who is also 25 years old, was lying 13th after the first loop but improved to third by loop four and in the end only one-hundredth of a second separated him from his gold-medal-winning compatriot.

Team

But the individual gold and silver medallists were the only two of the five-man UAE team to complete. A total of 12 countries contested the team title but just three finished, and it was a major battle for the medal placings. The strong side from Bahrain were big favourites, but HH Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa retired and his four running mates were all eliminated. The gold and silver medallists from Spain and Brazil each finished with just the essential three team-members while the bronze medallists from France completed with an impressive four.

And although the Spanish appeared to be running away with it at the outset, they were under intense pressure when their two main contenders were eliminated for metabolic issues for their horses. Jaume Punti Dachs and Alex Luque Moral claimed individual gold and silver along with team gold at the last World Championships in Samorin, Slovakia five years ago, but Luque Moral’s Eryvan was vetted-out after Phase 4 and the Punti Dachs’ JM Bucefala experienced the same fate after Phase 5 today. 

So Blanco Rodrigo could take no chances with For Ferro over the last 20km, he must finish safely if his team was to stay in with a chance, and when he clinched individual sixth spot and Angel Soy Coll, another member of the victorious 2016 team, finished fourth with Warrens Hill Chayze that bolstered the Spanish effort. 

Desperately close

It was desperately close however, because the third score posted by 2008 and 2010 individual gold medallist Maria Alvarez Ponton was critical and there was huge tension while her horse, Mandany, was closely examined at the final vet-check. But a big roar went up when he was passed, leaving her in individual 15th place and finalising the total team time of 23:10:34 which left Spain in gold but just 3:01 ahead of Brazil in silver while the French posted 23:43:01 for the bronze.

The Brazilians lost Rodrigo Moreira Barreto at the first vet-gate but Philippe de Azevedo Morgulis (Saiph SBV), Andre Vidiz (Chambord Endurance) and Renato Salvador (Uzes Trio) stood firm to finish eighth, ninth and tenth respectively, thereby giving the victorious Spanish a real run for their money.

The French, who claimed team silver at the last four World Championships, lost Charles Cappeau and Camil des Ormeaux after the fourth loop, but Nicolas Ballarin (Anir de la Teuliere), Gaele Ollivier Jacob (Pot Made), Margot Thomas (Kalon Milin Avel) and Roman Lafaure (Akim Cabirat) all completed to ensure their place on the podium.

Dream result

For the new individual champion Al Kitbi it was a dream result. “I’m in this sport now 11 years and this is my first World Championship and I’m so proud of it!”, he said. The final loop was particularly tough. “Until the last five kilometres the rest were pushing and making it hard for us, and in the final vet-check I was so nervous I thought my heart might burst!”

For Chile’s Boni Viada de Vivero today was a day he will always remember. “I can hardly believe it! I knew I had a good horse but to have one that’s in the top-three in the world - now that is just incredible!”, he said.

Results here