Biggest equestrian stars battle it out in FEI World Cup in Lyon

Photo: FEI/ Christophe Tanire

Lyon has hosted the FEI World Cup in dressage, jumping and driving, with Isabell Werth, Martin Fuchs and Jérôme Voutaz taking the title in their respective sports.

Dressage World Cup

Isabell kicked off her FEI Dressage World Cup campaign with a convincing win at the second leg of the Western European League riding Emilio.

The six-time Olympic gold medallist left the competition in the dust, with a massive score of 84.41%, which included two technical scores over 80% and one artistic mark of 93%.

Sweden’s Patrik Kittel was second (Delatio) on 80.98%, with Antonia Ramel (Brother de Jeu) in third with a score of 80.06%

Britain’s Hayley Watson-Greaves was fifth with Rubin’s Night on 77.35%.

Jumping World Cup

In the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Martin Fuchs produced a spectacular victory with Clooney. It was an edge-of-the-seat jump-off, with riders chasing Italy’s Lorenzo de Luca’s (Ensor de Litrange) fast time of 37.78sec.

Martin was second-last into the ring and had his foot to the floor all the way, to break the beam in 37.25sec. Last to go was Steve Guerdat and his brilliant mare Bianca, but even they couldn’t beat Martin’s fast time. They had to settle for third place on 37.89sec, ahead of Lorenzo who moved into the runner-up spot.

Driving World Cup

Amateur Swiss driver Jérôme Voutaz took on the best in the field to win the inaugural FEI Driving World Cup.

In second place was World Equestrian Games (WEG) silver medallist Koos de Ronde, who finished ahead of his WEG Dutch team-mate Bram Chardon.

Jérôme’s day job is as a mechanic, and he admitted he never thought he would finish in first place

“Usually, on a typical day, I get behind my carriage at 6pm after finishing work,” he said. “The result proves that if you persevere you can succeed.”

You can watch these three events on Horse and Country:

FEI World Cup Dressage: Lyon premieres on 7 November at 9pm

FEI World Cup Jumping: Lyon premieres on 8 November at 8pm

FEI World Cup Driving: Lyon premieres on 9 November at 7pm

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