TEAM France look to be serious medal contenders at their home Olympics next year after posting their fourth win of the FEI Eventing Nations Cup Series at Boekelo, The Netherlands, over the weekend. Stellar two-phase jumping performances gave the nation a decisive win in the final leg of the series with an overall score of 97.8, ahead of Great Britain on 111.2. Belgium finished third on 129.0 and were overall leaders of the series.

There were also celebrations for Italy, who qualified for the Paris Olympics after finishing in overall third place making them the highest placed nation not already qualified.

Strong finish

Clare Abbott was best of the 13 Irish athletes competing in the CCI4*-L event with the team finishing in seventh place. Riding the 11-year-old grey gelding Jewelent (ISH), Abbott posted a competitive dressage score of 31.6 to put them inside the top 30 heading into the cross-country. Abbott was one of just 20 riders to go clear inside the time cross-country, moving her up to 12th place ahead of the show jumping phase. Here, one unlucky fence down dropped Abbott into 13th place on a final score of 35.6.

Bred by Woods Rosbotham in Co Armagh and owned in partnership between Barbra Allen and Lisa Rosbotham, Jewelent ends the 2023 season with a series of excellent international results in the bag, including a win in the CCI3*-S at Lisgarvan House International this summer and a second-place finish in the CCI4*-S Nations Cup at Ballindenisk.

This combination is a welcome addition to the Irish squad, having previously competed at the European Championship in Avenches in 2021 and representing the Irish Sport Horse studbook at Le Lion d’Angers as both a six and seven-year-old for the FEI/WBFSH World Breeding Eventing Championships for Young Horses in 2018 and 2019.

Foot-perfect

Individual glory went to French rider Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe, who completed with a foot-perfect double clear on a score of 25.4. Belgian rider Lara De Liedekerke-Meier was second on 28.6. British rider Rosalind Canter completed the podium riding the Irish Sport Horse MHS Seventeen. The 10-year-old bay gelding is by Callahan (HANN) and out of the Irish Sport Horse mare MHS Dancing Queen and was bred by Mary Brennan from Co Kilkenny.

MHS Seventeen was one of three Irish Sport Horses to finish inside the top 10, the others being Cooley Snapchat (ISH), ridden by British rider Selina Mills and bred by Alan Wheeler, who finished fourth and Dassett Cooley Dun, also ridden by Canter, who finished eighth.

Dag Albert’s Irish team consisted of Abbott and Jewelent, Robbie Kearns making his senior Nations Cup debut with Richard Ames’ Ballyvillane O.B.O.S (ISH), Ian Cassells with Shambo Super Flex (ISH), owned by Frances Corkery, and Sam Watson riding his own and Hannah Watson’s Ballyneety Rocketman (ISH).

Ballyvillane OBOS is by O.B.O.S Quality 004 out of Gleesons Coolcorran by Young Convinced, is owned by Richard Ames and was bred by Tim Gleeson of Co Tipperary.

Shanbo Super Flex is by Flex A Bill out of Shanbo Happisfied by Kildalton King (ID), is owned by Francis Corkery and was bred by Shanbo Stud.

Ballyneety Rocketman is by Diamond Discovery out of Ballyneety Macrocket by Errigal Flight, is owned by Sam Watson and was bred by James Hickey, Co Limerick.

The final Eventing Nations Cup standings saw Belgium in first on 680 points, France in second on 480, having won four out of five competitions entered, whilst Italy were just behind on 475 points overall.