The European Eventing Championships get underway this weekend in the Swedish city of Malmo and with Britain’s dressage riders and show jumpers collecting a number of medals at their own European Championships the pressure is on the British eventers to add to that tally – preferable gold.
The British team certainly have a good chance of a medal with years of experience making up their team members. William Fox-Pitt rides Chilli Morning, the stallion with whom he rode to victory at Bramham CCI3* back in June and the pair looked in great shape at Gatcombe a few weeks ago where they won the Advanced section on a score of 32.8.
Tina Cook and Miners Frolic, second from left, were member of the Silver medal winning team at London
Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI
Tina Cook will be riding her London Olympic partner, Miners Frolic. This pair have represented their country on numerous occassions and have got more experience than most riders can only dream about.
Pippa Funnell is riding Mirage d’Elle, who has had several years at top level eventing but is still waiting for his ‘big’ win. The last time Pippa appeared in a European team was back in 2005 when she was placed 9th individually on Ensign.
The 13 year old gelding, Simon Porloe, will have his first chance to appear as part of a British team with his rider Lucy Wiegersma, who has represented Britain on many occasions while Izzy Taylor and KBIS Briarlands Matilda were part of the British team at Aachen earlier this year. The final member of the British Squad is Tom McEwen. This will be the first time Tom, who is riding Diesel, has been part of a senior squad, having won gold medals at junior and young rider level in 2007, 2010 and 2011.
Tim’s local pub are proud to support their local rider
Our own blogger, Althea Bleekman, is excited to be riding Ziomf for The Netherlands and will be in determined fashion having suffered a run out at the recent WEG test event on her other horse Anmarsh. We can’t wait to hear all the Malmo news in her next blog.
Take a look at the Malmo promotional video to see what's in store
Talking about determination, which kind of goes with competitiveness … it seems as if the European competition has already started with several riders tweeting as they travelled to Sweeden including the following.
Tweet from Alex Van Tuyll (who is grooming for Tom McEwan):
‘team orange (Althea Bleekman) cheating by overtaking in restriction area, we’re law abiding’
Reply from Althea Bleekman:
‘I can’t help it if my lorry is faster!’
For information about some of the other teams who will be at the European Championships click here
