USA clinch penultimate leg of Nations Cup

The USA has won the penultimate leg of the Furusiyya Nations Cup at the Longine Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead.

Crucial for the Brits

It was a crucial competition for the British team who were riding for much-needed points, but the support of the home crowd wasn’t quite enough to lift them over the fences and they finished in joint sixth place out of eight teams.

The team didn’t get off to a great start, with Guy Williams having two down onboard Zaire and Robert Whitaker – who’s been on great form lately – knocking up 12 faults with Catwalk. Jessie Drea rode a stormer, but had an unlucky four faults, when Touchable didn’t quite make the height over the second to last. It was all down to Ben Maher to claw things back, but following a wobble at the water, Wings Sublieme put a foot in for four faults.

With Robert the drop score, this meant the Brits were in seventh place going into the second round with a total of 16 faults.

The USA had a great first round, carrying zero points over, putting them at the top of the leaderboard going into round two. Just behind them was Ireland and Belgium, both on four faults.

Round two

The second round went to the wire, with the USA leading the way after Mclain Ward jumped a double clear with Rothchild. “He’s a little bit unconventional but he keeps jumping clear round after clear round,” said Mclain.

Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands were also jostling for first place with eight faults each. Last to go for the Netherlands was Jur Vrieling who rode an amazing clear, while Marcus Ehning and his stunning 17-year-old Plot Blue also pulled a clear out the bag to keep Germany in contention. Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet had one down, which put them on a total of 12 and equal with Ireland.

This meant Beezie Madden had to go clear to win it for the USA – four faults would have led to a jump-off between the eight faulters and any more would put the team out of the running. Beesie, who is back after surgery to a broken collar bone, kept her cool to produce yet another stunning clear and ensure her team’s victory.

“I knew I needed to go clear, but there’s always pressure when you’re riding on a Nations Cup,” said Beezie. “I was just very excited to compete here as I had surgery on 20 May after breaking my collar bone when competing.”

“My main goal has been to make it on the team for WEG (World Equestrian Games). I had to work out when to come back, which would give me much time as possible to recover but also give me time to prepare for WEG.”

Where they now lie

The final points on the leaderboard put the USA in first place (four), Germany and the Netherlands in joint second (eight), while Belgium and Ireland were joint fourth (12).

Britain never did really find their form and had yet another disappointing second round, despite improving on their first performance. Guy had just four faults, Robert had eight, Jessie knocked the same fence as the first round to finish on four, while Ben also had one down. This put the team in joint sixth place on 28 points with France. Sweden was eighth on 38.

Following this result Britain is still lurking near the bottom of the Furusiyya Nations Cup leaderboard in ninth place. This means the final leg at Dublin next weekend (6-10 August) will decide whether team GB makes it through to the final in Barcelona in October, or whether they are relegated to the second division.

Plans for Dublin

Rob Hoesktra told H&C that while Jessie was “class” the other riders were “disappointing”. He is sending his crack team to Dublin, comprising Scott Brash (Hello Santos), Ben Maher (Cella), Joe Clee (Utamaro d’Ecaussines) and Spencer Roe (Wonder Why).

“The guys we are taking know what they need to do,” said Rob. “We have to win to avoid going down into the second division. The final in Barcelona isn’t really a concern for us, as I think it would be one too many competitions for the squad.”