BLENHEIM PALACE INTERNATIONAL HORSE TRIALS TODAY!

Paul Hart and Heartbreak Hill
(Photo : Vuma Horse Feeds)

Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials
7 - 11 September 2011

Vuma Champions Paul Hart and Heartbreak Hill (Harry) are competing at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials, starting today!

They passed the trot up, yesterday evening, with flying colours and the Vuma team wishes them all the best for the weekend ahead.

This event forms part of their prep for London Olympics 2012 and we know that they will fly our South African flag high and make us Proud!

Harry is in superb form and Paul is very excited about the next few days.

Click here to view the
Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials schedule.

PAUL HART AND HARRY QUALIFY FOR 2012 OLYMPICS

Paul Hart and Heartbreak Hill
(Photo : Vuma Horsefeed)

Barroca D'alva
Portugal

Vuma Champions Heartbreak Hill and Paul Hart, achieved their goal of qualifying for the 2012 Olympics, this past weekend! Competing in the three star event at Barroca D'alva in Portugal.

The daunting Cross country course was 3626 metres long with a total of 24 jumps. Paul was very positive, Harry went superbly and they were clear in their jumping. Unfortunately, a small error incurred them a few time faults.

Only 30 of the original 48 entries made it through to the show-jumping on Sunday. Unfortunately, Paul and Harry had two poles down but have qualified for the Olympics and earned valuable points for their international ranking.

The Vuma Team wish Paul and Harry every success in their European quest and we will be watching every step as they fly the South African flag!

You can follow their progress on Facebook :

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Hart-Weg2010/259214698928

PACKING FOR WEG 2010 KENTUCKY?

The Thoroughbred Park Sculpture Collection by Gwen Reardon
(Photo : Gwen Reardon)

ALTECH FEI WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES

If you are not packing for Kentucky, what are you doing?

With the world's biggest yearling sale, Keeneland September Sale, underway for just over a week and the World Equestrian Games starting as the sales end, it would seem that if you are not in Kentucky or packing your bags to leave, then you must be missing something!

Reports from the sales are that trade continued to be robust during Monday's session, which was headlined by the $450,000 paid for a colt by Tapit.

As the sales wind down to end on Sunday 26th September, the World Equestrian Games kick off on Friday the 25th September at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. There will be an influx of people from all over the world, not least of which will be a contingent of South African's to support our riders as the show the rest of the world what South Africa is capable of.

Most exciting is that our eventers are competing on South African horses, internationally, for the first time. News from the team is that the horses arrived safely in Cincinnati and travelled like old campaigners. They will be trucked across to Lexington today to take up their temporary residence in the Kentucky Equestrian Park.

The flight from Europe formed just one of the 10 charter flights transporting the almost 450 horses, departing from Belgium's Liege airport between 16-29 September, to the United States.

The eventers, Paul Hart, Douglas Welsh, Heidi Wood, Martyn Swanepoel and Graham Winn start competing on Friday 30th September in their dressage classes, with the Cross Country on Saturday 2nd October and culminating on Sunday 3rd October with their show jumping. The closing ceremony will be held on Sunday 10th October.

The first of the SA riders to compete will be Shane Borland in the Reining classes on the first day of the games, followed the next day by the Endurance team, including Dominique van Zyl.

Click here for the full 2010 Altech FEI World Equestrian Games event schedules.

We look forward to great results from all of our South African teams and wish them the very best of everything from the Vuma team.

Click here for the full SA equestrian Team.

VUMA CHAMPIONS PRIMED FOR WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES

Paul Hart and Heartbreak Hill
(Photo : Vuma Horefeeds)

WEG 2010 : It's Nearly here!

There are a mere 57 days until the start of the Altech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010, in Lexington, Kentucky.

For Vuma Champions Paul Hart and Heartbreak Hill, what seemed like a far off dream has suddenly become an immediate reality, writes Suzanne Boswell of SCB PR & Communications.

Harry is doing well and is fit and ready to compete in their last preparation event which is Martinvast (Normandy) from the 19th to the 22nd of August.

Paul is busy with all his preparations as he leaves for France next week Thursday to train and prepare and will only be returning to South Africa post WEG. He is feeling very optimistic about the event. All preparations are going well.

"It all seems to have come so fast - it seems like the horses were in quarantine the other day and now there are only 57 days left.  In some ways I don't want this to end as it has been such an amazing experience and I have been overwhelmed by everybody's kindness and generosity. I am sure that Harry and I will do you all proud"

I would also like to say a big thank you to all my sponsors big and small as it is through your commitment that this dream has become a reality." concludes Paul.

Suzanne will keep us abreast of things as they happen and from the Vuma team we wish all the South African riders and supporters a superb Kentucky experience – Hambani Kahle!

You can also follow Paul's progress on Facebook.

Paul Hart WEG2010

SA EVENTING NEWS FROM FRANCE

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.