Compiegne Equestre

SOUTH AFRICAN RIDERS AT THE COMPIEGNE CCI*

Suzanne Boswell writes about our SA riders event in Compiegne :

What a successful weekend for our South African eventers at the CCI** at Compiegne, France. There were 101 starters with 80 riders and 12 countries being represented at this show, including the legendary Mark Todd!

After a very successful dressage phase our South African riders Paul Hart, Martyn Swanepoel, Graham Winn and Hayley Parker were well placed in the middle of the field. The best dressage score was a 33.2 from Jung from the Netherlands!

The entire team was wearing their SA flag hat covers and it was a very proud and poignant moment for SA eventing!! Paul and Heartbreak Hill were first to go into the country. They went clear for jumping but had some time faults as their team coach, Jean Philippe wanted a steady clear round.  Paul said Harry could have gone much faster but he was ecstatic about his round. Next to go was Martyn who had an unfortunate stop at No.4 and finished about a minute over the time. Graham was next in, Zorba went off at a cracking rate but had an unfortunate fall at number 3, both horse and rider are fine thankfully. Hayley had a run out at the skinny at 17 and also incurred time penalties.

On Sunday was the showjumping. The jumps were big and the oxers were very square which is something our course builders should take note of here. The course was quite spooky and there were hundreds and hundreds of spectators. Each of our riders took 3 poles. Jean Philippe was extremely pleased with our team performance. visit www.psvphoto.com to see pictures of all 3 phases.

The next event will be Saumur from the 20 to the 23rd of May.

Paul Hart
(Photo : Vuma Feeds)

WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES 2010

South Africa can be extremely proud of their riders. Team selection has taken place and the preparations have started to get the various teams and their horses overseas.

Vuma eventing Champions, Paul Hart and Heartbreak Hill have been selected for the South African eventing team, and together with fellow eventers Graham Winn, Douglas Welsh and Heidi Wood will make their way to France to prepare for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky which start on 25 September 2010.

Together with the rest of the team’s horses, Heartbreak Hill will go into quarantine in Cape Town in the first week of January and will leave in March for France. The team will be based in Fontainebleau with Jean-Philippe Camboulives, their coach and advisor. There they will be under his guidance and they will compete in various events in Europe to prepare them for the rigours of the WEG.

They will then head to Kentucky in September for the start of the World Equestrian Games to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. The Eventing dressage is scheduled to begin on 30 September, followed by the Cross Country on Saturday 2 October and the final show jumping phase on 3 October. 

The road ahead is exciting but it will be challenging, from ensuring that horses and riders are well prepared to ensuring that they have sufficient funding to fulfil this incredible opportunity.

The Vuma team salutes all the selected participants and wishes Team SA a very successful 2010 – the start of greater things to come.

Click above to visit the
World Equestrian Games Website