Gothenburg Horse Show Day 4
IN A VERY TECHNICAL AND BIG COURSE, VETERAN NAMES SUCH AS MEREDITH MICHAELS-BEERBAUM, LUCIANA DINIZ AND MCLAIN WARD COULD NOT GIVE THE GOTHENBURG HORSE SHOW CROWD ANY CLEAR ROUNDS WITH SOME CRASHING INTO THE FENCES AND OTHERS RETIRING.
The course designer Uliano Vezzani designed a very big course with very tricky distances at the turns as the strides were occasionally short or too long, and at other times in halves where the toughest line was the distance to fences 12 A & B and needed four long strides (see course design here: http://tinyurl.com/czgy5m5).
Following nine starts with no clears was Nayel Nassar and his very careful Lordan. We had gone to the stables earlier to chit chat with Linda Algeborg, Nassar’s long-time groom, about the stallion and she stated, “his energy levels are a little low but once he gets into the arena he will have a bundle of it; I really think he will do well today.”
Nassar and Lordan once again in a repeat of Friday’s international competition, trotted into the arena with calculated calm. They jumped a flawless clear round and were the first to do so and qualify for the jump-off - and were the good luck charm for the riders who followed as only then, the crowd started to see some clears.
The German gun Marcus Ehning and Plot Blue jumped clear, Ludger Beerbaum and Chaman as well, so did the crowd’s favourite Rolf-Goran Bengtsson and Casall La Silla, Christian Ahlmann and Taloubet Z, Sheikh Ali Al Thani and Eurocommerce California but with one time penalty, Rich Fellers and Flexible, and finally Lucy Davis and Barron, to give the Swedish crowd only 7 clears out of 37 starts.
Nassar had the disadvantage of going first into the jump-off and was up against top riders; nevertheless, he still jumped clear in 34.82 seconds. Ehning was super fast, he cleared in 32.02 seconds. But wait, Beerbaum was even faster - he cleared in 30.97 seconds. The Swedes were expecting plenty from Bengtsson, he cleared in 32.12 seconds and didn’t beat the two Germans. Fellers was a tad slower than Bengtsson and cleared in 32.13 seconds.
Nassar later commented, "I was literally 'jumping-off' against the 'WORLD' when I stop to remember that it was the top three Germans, the top American, and the top Swede I was going against!"
With a full house at the Gothenburg Horse Show and Beerbaum winning the Gothenburg Trophy, all spectators were entertained with an exciting class during day 4 of the competitions, watch Nassar’s two clear rounds here: http://tinyurl.com/c8jod6t and see full results here: http://tinyurl.com/csza434.
Tomorrow’s competitions kick off at 9:30 am with a Table A 1m45 against the clock international jumping competition, followed by the final of the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping at 2 pm, see start list here: http://tinyurl.com/d8dlr5o).
--Ends--
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