In November, Steve Guerdat took over as No. 1 on the Rolex Ranking, a climb up from third last month. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson, who had been No. 1 on the ranking for the last 10 months, has dropped down to fourth place. Nick Skelton remains as No. 2 while Christian Ahlmann climbed from fifth to third.
Although Bengtsson lost his position as No. 1, his groom for 13 years, Celia Rijntjes, made sure that Stall Bengtsson Kristoffersen had something to celebrate as she was named best groom at the FEI Awards on Nov. 8.
An agreement was finally reached between Rabobank and Stal Eurocommerce in regards to the Eurocommerce horses’ passports. An ongoing disagreement has raged about the horses’ passports due to the bankruptcy of Eurocommerce earlier this year. This has caused big problems for Gerco Schröder, who rode Eurocommerce London to individual silver at the 2012 London Olympic Games, Annelies Vorsselmans, Albert Vorn and Wout Jan van der Schans, who all ride horses owned by Eurocommerce. With an agreement in place the riders and horses have been able to compete again.
British rider Ben Maher was injured after being kicked in the head by a horse. Luckily Ben’s injuries weren’t serious, and he was competing again only four days after the accident.
Jubilée d’Ouilly has been successful with Irish rider Trevor Coyle over the past years, but due to an injury that is keeping Coyle away from competitions at the moment, he convinced the owners of Jubilée to let someone else compete the horse. Arrangements have therefore been made with U.S. rider Laura Kraut and her partner, British gold medalist Nick Skelton, and Kraut competed the mare already at the Gucci Masters in Paris.
The partnership between Janne Friederike Meyer and the Holsteiner Verband is over, at least for now. Janne has been riding some young stallions for the Holsteiner Verband, but her busy schedule makes it hard to develop young horses. The stallions Lenett and Cachas are now back with the Holsteiner Verband, while Clarimo has moved to Rolf-Göran Bengtsson’s stable in Breitenburg.
Vincent Voorn’s 15-year-old Audi’s Alpapillon-Armanie had to undergo colic surgery this month. It is the second time he’s been operated on for colic—the first was in 2009.
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In November it was announced that Horse Sport Ireland would be looking for a new team manager for Ireland’s senior show jumping team. Robert Splaine has been the Irish chef d’equipe since 2005, but his contract expires on Dec. 31.
World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses has released their ranking naming the best show jumping sires for 2012. The legendary Baloubet du Rouet (Galoubet A x Starter) tops the list followed by Kannan (Voltaire x Nimmerdor), Darco (Lugano van la Roche X Codex), Quick Star (Galoubet A x Nithard) and Heartbreaker (Nimmerdor x Silvano).
Jos Lansink has yet another future super star in his stable. This time it’s the 6-year-old Geena van’t Roosakker. The Belgian Warmblood mare was third in the Belgian Championship for 6-year-olds this season and was a finalist in the 5-year-old championship, as well as jumping at the World Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken 2012. Up until now Geena has been ridden by Dieter Laheyne.
Judy Ann Melchior has purchased the 5-year-old talent Casuality Z (by Cassini II) who recently was the runner-up in the 5-year-old-final at the World Breeding Championship in Lanaken. The grey stallion has up until now been seen under Pieter Clemens but will now move to Zangersheide to continue his education there.
Athina Onassis de Miranda has bought the 7-year-old Rackham Jo (by Diamant de Semilly). The French stallion won the championship for 5-year-olds in France and was sixth in the championship as a 6-year-old. Edwina Tops-Alexander rode Rackham Jo for a short while, and now we can look forward to see him under Onassis de Miranda. However, Onassis de Miranda had a bad fall during training on Nov. 13 and will be out for some time due to fractured vertebrae, though there was no spinal cord involvement. She plans to be back showing in time for the 2013 FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.).
Three more legs of the Rolex FEI World Cup have been held this month in the Western European League. Pius Schwizer won in Lyon (France) after a brilliant jump-off. Then Sergio Alvares Moya took an amazing win in Verona (Spain) aboard his only 8-year-old ride, Zipper. Moya has enjoyed a tremendous start on the World Cup season as he was third in Oslo (Sweden) and second in Helsinki (Switzerland) with Carlo 273 as well as picking up points in Lyon on Action Breaker. After the fifth leg in Stuttgart (Germany), which went to Kevin Staut and Silvana HDC, Moya has the overall lead in the Western European League.
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