Brits win Swiss leg of FEI Nations Cup

Britain has won the fourth leg of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Europe Division 1 at St Gallen, Switzerland (30 May).

Bold track

The big, bold track saw 21 of the 32 starters collect time faults, but that was all the British team carried over into the second round. Robert Whitaker and Catwalk IV, who are currently on great form, jumped clear – as did Guy Williams with Zaire.

Spencer Roe, who was competing in his first Nations Cup onboard Wonder Why, had just one time penalty. This meant Daniel Neilson’s 12 faults with Varo M was the drop score.

Strong position

This put the Brits in the lead going into the second round, with the home team hot on their heels with two time faults. Daniel managed to pull a clear out of the bag second time out, which put the team in an even stronger position. This was consolidated by Spencer who again finished on one time fault, followed by Robert who jumped a double clear.

Guy went on to have nine faults, but it was all academic. Britain won with a final score of three faults, despite fielding a relatively untried team.

Spain was second with four faults, Sweden came third (10) and Switzerland was fourth (14).

Something special

Just 21 years old, Spencer is a new face on the senior circuit – although he jumped on the Europe Division 2 teams at Lisbon and Arezzo last year. He already has a wealth of experience, having ridden for Andrew Saywell and then William Funnell. He now runs his own yard in Lincolnshire.

“It was my first senior Nations Cup and to be part of this team, with riders like Rob and Guy and to share the experience with them, and learn from them, was something special!” he said.

Britain wasn’t competing for points in St Gallen, and are now at the bottom of the leaderboard in tenth place, going into the fourth leg in Rotterdam (20 June).They will be competing for points at the final three rounds in Falsterbo, Sweden (11 July), Hickstead (1 August) and Dublin (8 August).

Division 2

Meanwhile, in the third leg of Europe Division 2 series in Lisbon, Britain came seventh out of eight teams. As the UK isn’t competing for points in this league, team manager Rob Hoekstra is using the competition as an opportunity to give less experienced riders the chance to compete at Nations Cup level.

The team, comprising Jemma Kirk (Quincy), Emma O’Dwyer (HHS Nektarina B), Chloe Aston (Kolibri Classic) and Harriet Nuttall (A Touch Imperious) were out front with four faults after the first round, alongside Portugal and Morocco. However, after adding 29 faults to their score in round two, they dropped down the leaderboard.

France won with eight faults, while the home team came joint second with Brazil on 12.