Home win for France in Fontainebleau

France has won the first leg of the FEI Nations Cup Eventing 2015 series on home turf in Fontainebleau (23 March).

Development competition

The French team, who also won the event last year, finished nearly 30 penalties ahead of Australia in second place.

Britain was just 0.3 penalties behind the Aussies to come third. Izzy Taylor was the highest placed Brit in sixth place riding KBIS Briarlands Matilda (51.6pen).

As in previous years team manager Phillip Surl is using the series as “development competition” for up-and-coming riders. While Izzy is a regular Nations Cup rider, it was Flora Harris and Nick Gauntlett’s first time on the team.

Flora came 15th riding Amazing (62.3pen) and Nick was 16th on Crown Talisma (65.8pen)

Defending champions

The German defending champions didn’t have a team competing, but their leading rider Michael Jung led from the off to win the individual competition on La Biosthetique Sam.

The next leg of the Nations Cup is at Ballindenisk in County Cork, Ireland (24-26 April), which was won last year by the British team.