Montelibretti: Germans dominate the dressage ring

Montelibretti, September 2016 – The second day dedicated to the dressage phase of the FEI European Eventing Championship for Young Riders and Juniors – Presented by Saudia hosted by the Military Equestrian Centre of Montelibretti has come to an end.

Germany had the lion’s share and retained the lead in both age groups. Their junior team lies first on a score of 113,80 followed by France (125,50) and by Great Britain (134,50). The hosting nations‘s squad is in sixth position.

The Germans have once more proved their dressage skills also individually with the first placing of Jerome Robine and Guccimo R (33,40) and the second place of Anais Neumann on Pumuckel E (38,50). French rider Romain Sans and Enzo Van’t Vennehof (39,50) complete the provisional podium.

The best of the Italians is Filippo Gregoroni who rode Drop of Junpiter (43,30) into 9th place.

As mentioned above the Germans (132, 50) also lead the provisional standings of the young rider team competition with France (136,30) again in second and Great Britain once more in third (137,10).

The Italians narrowly missed out on a top 3 placing and lie in 4th on a score of 141,50.

With their polished performance William Furlong and Livingstone, reigning European champions, has taken the individual lead from the German Marie- Sophie Arnold (42,40) on Remember Me. The Italians have reason to celebrate thanks to Giulio Guglielmi’s third place on Mister Brightside (42,50) and also have Pietro Majolino riding Fernhill First Impression (45,80) in 9th place.

Today is cross country day. For the juniors the course will consist of 3980 metres and 25 jumps (optimum time of 7″40) while the young riders will have to tackle 29 obstacles spread over a distance of 4560 metres (optimum time of  8″18). A new generation of safety devices, commonly called ‘frangible pins‘, have been integrated in some of the jumps. These features allow the rails to drop on impact if a considerable vertical pressure is applied.

Federico Roman has praised Giuseppe Della Chiesa’s course and has described it as ‘very balanced’ as difficulties are evenly spread out. “The terrain is mainly flat – comments Federico Roman – and therefore the course won’t be physically challenging but it is technically demanding. Making the time won’t be automatic though. To achieve it riders will have to keep a flowing rythm throughout the whole course and over the combinations”.

24th September 2016