2017’s thrills and spills in equestrian sports

In August, British Eventing fans were thrilled by their team’s victory at the 2017 FEI European Championships in Strzegom, a small town in the southwest of Poland. Under coach Christopher Bartle, the group made up of Kristina Cook (Billy the Red), Nicola Wilson (Bulana), Rosalind Canter (Allstar B) and Oliver Townend (Cooley SRS, withdrawn) confirmed the country’s status as a powerhouse in the sport. And the Brits were untouched by a subsequent revision of the medals table, which saw Germany lose its silver after a positive drug test involving Julia Krajewski’s horse Samourai du Thot. In the end, Sweden moved up to Team silver, and the Italians climbed onto the podium in third.

Just after the Eventers faced off in Strzegom, the Irish Show Jumping team triumphed at another European Championships, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Sixteen years after the country’s previous title, this year’s squad of Shane Sweetnam, Denis Lynch, Bertram Allen and Cian O’Connor — led by coach and former champion rider Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil — displayed nerves of steel at Ullevi Stadium. After Allen fell and was kept out of further competition, his teammates all rode clear en route to the continental title.

Since then, there has been controversy in both countries related to the event — in Ireland’s case, a dispute about the future status of Pessoa as national coach. And in Great Britain, regarding the nation’s decision not to send a full team to Sweden, due in part to a lack of top riders available.

One of the world-class riders who did not compete in Sweden was Scotland native Scott Brash, who nevertheless won a turbo-charged jump-off at the new Longines Global Champions Tour stop in the British capital earlier this past summer. Brash, on a blisteringly fast Hello Forever, just edged out 2012 Olympic champion teammate Ben Maher and MTF Madame X on the beautiful grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea beside the River Thames. Their compatriot, the experienced John Whitaker, was thrown from his horse on the same Grand Prix course, but ended up getting the all-clear from doctors.

Brash — as well as the Netherlands’ Harrie Smolders, who himself went on to have a great year, including winning the overall LGCT title — did not take part in April’s 2017 Longines FEI World Cup Show Jumping Final in Omaha, Nebraska, where he would have faced a high-flying McLain Ward. Ward and his 11-year-old mare HH Azur captured the title with an imperious performance at the city’s CenturyLink Center on the American’s 17th attempt. “In our sport there are three major events — the Olympic Games, World Champions and the World Cup Final — that we all very much want to win in our career,” the two-time Olympic Gold medallist and current World No.2 said after his victory. “It’s a big deal.”

In Dressage, German superstar Isabell Werth continued to be a big deal herself in 2017, winning this year’s FEI Award for Best Athlete of the Year and claiming victory in the inaugural Saab Dressage Top 10 competition in Stockholm in December after winning the World Cup Final in Omaha in the spring. “2017 was just amazing, it was a really great year,” the much-decorated Olympian said after her FEI Award recognition. “It was all horses, I have to say!”

And alongside all these elite horses and riders in the spotlight, there are all the other developing and determined athletes of every age and competition level, like 10-year-old New Zealand Eventer Scout Lodder, who due to her age will have to wait a few years before being allowed to compete at the next level. “What I don’t like about eventing is pretty much nothing,” the clearly passionate young rider told the Papakura Courier newspaper after a recent win.