Tim and Jonelle Price have won three 4* events between them in 2018
They’re going to be dancing and prancing, jogging and spinning, jumping, galloping and giving it everything they’ve got when the horses and athletes in the first four disciplines take centre stage at the much-anticipated FEI World Equestrian Games™ Tryon 2018 in North Carolina, USA next week.
A total of 349 athletes from 54 countries will be chasing down the first-week medals in Dressage, Endurance, Eventing and Reining, and it’s going to be fast and furious from the outset.
The definite entry list for the first week is now complete and, when it comes to Eventing, which begins on Thursday 13 September, all eyes will be on the New Zealand husband-and-wife duo of Tim and Jonelle Price. The pair of them are on fire right now, with Jonelle bagging the big prize at Badminton in May and the CCI4* at Luhmuhlen while Tim topped the line-up at Burghley last weekend. At Tryon Jonelle will be saddling up her brilliant Badminton winner, Classic Moet.
Remarkably the Kiwi team will also include both Blyth Tait who claimed double-gold at the first WEG in Stockholm 1990 and his team-mate, the legendary Mark Todd, who was already a double-Olympic champion. The New Zealand record at the WEG is highly impressive, Vaughn Jefferis taking all the individual glory in 1994 and Tait pipping Todd for the individual honours in 1998 when they again topped the team table.
The phenomenal Michael Jung gave Germany its first taste of individual success in 2010 and was just pipped by team-mate Sandra Auffarth last time around in France. Auffarth comes back to defend her title and even in Jung’s absence the German side looks more than formidable as 83 riders from 23 countries set off in their quest for that coveted top step of the Eventing medal podium.
Tryon 2018 is the eighth edition of the eight-discipline Games which are held on a four-year cycle and which previously visited Stockholm (SWE) in 1990, The Hague (NED) in 1994, Rome (ITA) in 1998, Jerez (ESP) in 2002, Aachen (GER) in 1996, Kentucky (USA) in 2010 and Normandy (FRA) in 2014.
