European Championship 2015 - Samorin, Slovakia

European Championship 2015

samorin

• All those who had the chance to attend this event are definitely lucky ones!

• Highly motivated organizers, friendly and helpful media representatives and a wonderful venue.

• An indoor arena big enough to accomodate several soccer fields and outdoor training sites you could only dream of.

• Everything undoubtedly suggests that the owner who had it built put a lot of horse experience into it.

the perfect venue Article by Heidi Bernsdorff Photos by Sport EVO press and Elements Resort/Miro Nota

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he opening ceremony was superb!

It began with the welcoming speeches of the relatively new FEI Endurance Director from Portugal, Mr. Manuel Bandeira de Mello, the Director of the HIPPO ARENA and other representatives from the Slovakian Federation. A wonderful show followed, big applause when the riders from 17 countries marched into the arena, 66 competitors fighting for medals in the coming days with their loyal partners, the horses of course.

A wonderful modern laser show and a horse whisperer with two outstanding horses and two wonderfully obedient border collies enchanted the entire audience. Suddenly the horse whisperer who sat on the belly of the grey horse that was lying on his back, put his head between the horse’s front legs and kissed his muzzle.

What an amazing show!

The pre-ride veterinary inspection was held on Friday (11 September),

the only horse that did not qualify was Lamia of Lucia Skabova from the Czech Republic.

A lot of highly qualified vets were present at the event, actually more than usual, due to real necessity, considering that they had to work in two different vet gates.

All the horses were considered fit for the ride of the following day.

The weather was good when the riders left at 6 o’clock in the morning although it was still rather dark.

The first 40 km loop developed along the bank of the majestic Danube river offering flat terrain for the horses’ hooves. At the end of the first loop, the second vet gate awaited the horses. Great space for the cooling down of the horses, nice and wellmarked trot up area.

The second loop, the orange one, went up the close-by mountains till almost 600 meters, the average speed went down from 22.7 to 17.6 km/h due to the difficulty of the loop.

samorin

Final Results Competition 1 CH-EU-E**** 160 km

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he winner, Jaume Punti Dachs, who ran at an average speed of 22.73 in the first loop, could run at 17.66 kms/h in the second loop, 21.8 kms/h in the third loop, 25.39 km/h in the fourth loop and rode the final short 20 km loop at 32.42 kms/h‌amazing!

Among the 66 horses that were present at the starting line in the morning, 29 did not complete the race and 11 were not valued fit to continue at vet gate n. 3, just after the difficult loop in the mountains.

The youngest rider of this European Champion was Costanza Laliscia from Italy. Unfortunately Italy didn’t reconfirm the bronze medal achieved in Most two years ago but conquered an equally important fourth place.

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Jaume Punti Dachs

Contact:

www.bootsforhorses.com info@bootsforhorses.es +34 649886681 • +34 629837346 Spain

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t the end of the race, when asked whom he wanted to dedicate his victory, Mr. Joume promptly replied: I definitely dedicate my second consecutive victory of an European Championship to H.H. Sh. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to Mr. Saeed Humaid Al Tayer and to my family that always stands by me...

Silver medal Marijke Visser with Laiza de Jalima

Photo by Annina Huovinen

samorin

Final Results Team Competition 1 CH-EU-E**** 160 km

Bronze Medal Jean Philippe Frances

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Alex Luque Moral with Calandria PH and Maria Alvarez Ponton with Selif de la Nie

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Nina Lissarague with Keeshan d’Aillas

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Mario Hoffmann with Sonic de Vilaformiu

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Individual Podium

Best condition: Calandria PH

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Team Podium: 1st, 2nd and 3rd team

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Slovak team

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