{"id":54888,"date":"2020-07-07T18:59:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T08:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=54888"},"modified":"2020-07-07T18:59:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T08:59:01","slug":"weg-2010-the-showjumping-final-celebrating-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2020\/07\/weg-2010-the-showjumping-final-celebrating-the-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"WEG 2010, the Showjumping Final, celebrating the Stars…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story Christopher Hector, pictures Roslyn Neave<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The marathon series of events that is the WEG Individual Showjumping are drawing to a finale. The top 30 individuals ride two rounds to determine the four who go into the horse-swap shoot-out that is the final act. Remember the great combinations who took part…<\/h1>\n

In the first round the course is tough, really tough, and the first few combinations are making heavy weather of it. There are rails flying, stops, even an elimination before the beautiful grey stallion, Mylord Carthago ridden by the very chic, P\u00e9n\u00e9lope Leprevost, has just one rail, but shows that the track is jumpable.<\/p>\n

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So French, so chic, P\u00e9n\u00e9lope and Mylord Carthago<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

McLain Ward\u2019s Sapphire is never going to win a beauty contest, she has a dumpy mare body and a gelding\u2019s head, but she is a jumping machine. The first clear and the American crowd are full on.<\/p>\n

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No glamour gal, just a jumping machine \u2013 Sapphire and Ward McLain<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Vivant has a foot in the water, but jumps the rest in superb style. Chris tells me later that he has decided to stay in Europe in the run up to the London Games. While is great news for the rider and the horse, and our team chances in two years time, but sad for the Australian jumping circuit to lose an international yardstick.<\/p>\n

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Kalid Al Eid and Presley Boy, two of the favourites for the individual title come to grief with two rails, but his team mate, Abdullah Al Sharbatly has a brilliant clear on the Dutch bred mare, Seldana di Campalto to rocket up the standings to finish in eventual fourth place.\u00a0 The mare hasn\u2019t had a rail in five rounds at this show.\u2026<\/p>\n

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The rookie of the final \u2013 Abdullah Al Sharbatly and the mare, Seldana di Campalto<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Twenty eight year old Al Sharbatly, is the rookie of the four, and confesses that he is a bit surprised to find himself in the final.\u2028 \u201cI bought this horse for the next Olympics, my target here was just to qualify for 2012. But of course nobody comes to a World championship not wanting to win and we will see what happens tomorrow. I have a lot of respect for these three top riders and I think tomorrow will be a great competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next comes the Canadian star…<\/p>\n

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Hickstead \u2013 a power machine\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Eric Lamaze\u2019s Hickstead is an extraordinary athlete, and the rider is pure genius. Clear and with another clear in the second round, they end up at the top of the list, and Eric says he is looking forward to riding Rodrigo\u2019s HH Rebozo, in the shoot-out.<\/p>\n

Next Vigo d\u2019Arsouilles<\/p>\n

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Vigo d\u2019Arsouilles is flat chat to the water, gets it, and gets back for the next, Philippe le Jeune is a master, they make the double look sweet. Clear again in the second round and they are in second place, and he\u2019ll get to swap horses tomorrow<\/p>\n

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Vigo and Philippe, what a team\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Rodrigo has only been riding Rebozo since last February, but they have that special quality. The big (not capacity) crowd is hushed as they sail over the bogey second fence of the treble. Clear, and he returns the compliment, he is looking forward to sitting on Hickstead, \u201cHe looks fun,\u201d says Rodrigo.<\/p>\n

The second round is much softer and a bit of a non-event, although I guess it isn\u2019t for Sweden\u2019s Rolf-G\u00f6ran Bengtsson who has a rail and surrenders his place in the individual ride off to Abdullah Al Sharbatly.<\/p>\n

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As usual, George Morris is well-worth listening to, and kind enough to give me his time:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first round was a bigger course, yet again very technical. Of course being a natural jump advocate, I like the Liverpools and Waters, any direction towards natural obstacles. They couldn\u2019t have a Water and a Liverpool in the first round of the Nations Cup because they had to take it out for the night class. Hong Kong had Water and Liverpools at night. I personally believe that if a horse is bold and taught to go forward, in that great lighting, I don\u2019t agree that the Water and Liverpool has to be taken out at night, but I\u2019m old fashioned. It\u2019s not a current popular thing because \u00a0you have some high profile rider whose horse doesn\u2019t like water at night \u2013 I can\u2019t battle that battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the course last night it was very difficult with a Liverpool and those coloured rails and then another Liverpool, oxer, oxer, tight to that last vertical. Even if you had jumped the rest of the course, you still had to jump that. That was a very classic Bert de Nemethy question: Liverpool, Liverpool, combination. Bert emphasized not only very careful fences, but also brave, brave horses that are in front of the leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was the second round a little too soft?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think he did that on purpose, you are down to the last thirty, you are not looking to kill the ones that have been good all week. He built it big, less technical, a little shorter and I think he was hoping to hold the ones at the top, which is very intelligent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who will come out on top in the jump-off?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Eric Lamaze<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Rodrigo Pessoa<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have Eric Lamaze and Rodrigo Pessoa, Western Hemisphere, great advocates of the forward seat riding. Philippe Le Jeune, the Belgian is a great friend of mine, I taught him years ago. He is also a very light rider for that country, very much like Eric and Rodrigo actually, he always rode terrific.<\/p>\n

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Abdullah Al Sharbathy and Seldana\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not that familiar with the boy from Saudi Arabia because they were not at the Super League. I did particularly like his horse. The powers that be around the Barn, say he is a very effective rider. It will be very interesting because you have two Thoroughbredy horses with very light riders and you have two very big horses with more European, slightly more behind the movement, riders. It will be very interesting\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story Christopher Hector, pictures Roslyn Neave The marathon series of events that is the WEG Individual Showjumping are drawing to a finale. The top 30 individuals ride two rounds to determine the four who go into the horse-swap shoot-out that is the final act. Remember the great combinations who took part… In the first round […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":54929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,6],"tags":[67,625,2056],"class_list":["post-54888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-show-jumping","tag-showjumping","tag-stallions","tag-weg-2010"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54888"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54930,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54888\/revisions\/54930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}