It doesn’t come much better than hearing that the world’s Number One dressage rider will be heading the line-up for Great Britain ’s top Christmas sports show, Olympia, The London International Horse Show (13-19 December, 2005).
This will be a spectacle not seen in the United Kingdom for over a decade.
The elegant discipline of dressage dominates the first two days of the show and Dutch Dressage goddess Anky van Grunsven, World No.1 and her Hanoverian gelding Salinero, the horse on which she won the individual Gold in Athens, as well as the World Cup Final and the European Championships this year, head the line-up.
The dressage entry list which is kept to 22 starters also includes former Olympic Champion Isabell Werth (GER) with her horses Satchmo (by Sao Paulo) and Warum Nicht FRH (by Weltmeyer).
The British camp is represented by the nation's top riders. Two of the four team members that competed at the 2005 European Dressage Championships in Hagen, Germany, last summer, will make their entree at Olympia.
Wayne Channon and his 12-year old KWPN stallion Lorenzo CH (by Ferro x Wolfgang) will get the opportunity to qualify to ride his Slings & Kerkhof's kur to music "Il Passeggiato" which he recently showcased at the 2005 Global Dressage Forum.
British team mate Emma Hindle will make her World Cup show debut aboard her number one Grand Prix horse Lancet, a Hanoverian licensed stallion by Wenzel x Shogun xx. With her second Grand Prix horse Wie Weltmeyer, Hindle won the World Cup Qualifier in Berlin in 2003.
Other British household names to compete at Olympia are British National Champion Laura Bechtolsheimer, Richard Davison (GBR) and Emile Faurie (GBR). British based Kyra Kyrkland (FIN) will also put on her white breeches to show her 10-year old Swedish warmblood gelding Max (by Master).
All are in town to win the FEI World Cup Dressage Qualifier – the only one to be held in the UK and which is supported by The Berkeley Group and Horse & Hound.
Photos copyrighted: Astrid Appels/Eurodressage.com
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