Champions Crowned at the FEI WBFSH World Breeding Jumping Championships
Future talent has been decided upon at the 2018 FEI WBFSH World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses in Belgium. The annual event, that takes place to recognise future superstars whilst rewarding breeders and riders, welcomes five days of competition comprising of a selection of qualifier and championship classes.
Five-Year-Olds
The 5 year-old-category was dominated with winners from the Irish Sport Horse Studbook who took gold, silver and bronze. Out of the total horses that campaigned for the prestigious title, only 53 qualified with 24 of them entering the jump off.
Bay stallion, Uppercourt Cappucino, owned by HK Horses and bred by Paul Bryne, reigned supreme next to 232 other horses who were entered into the category.
It was gelding CSF Sir George with his rider Darragh Ryan, who set the fast-paced ‘one to beat’ round, stopping the clock on 35.34 seconds. However, it was Uppercourt Cappucino’s rider Richard Howley, who navigated the stallion superbly around the 1m30 course a mere 0.17 second of a hoofbeat ahead.
To finish the all Irish winning podium was the Bravo Hughes Ltd’s owned, HHS Vancouver ridden by Michael (Mikey) Pender.
Six-Year-Olds
The six-year-old category was the largest of all with a total of 273 horses campaigning for a top placing. A total of43 horses qualified for the super-fast jump off.
Last year’s 5-year-old champion, Chilli (BRAND studbook) rode by Donald Whitaker for Great Britain, looked set to capture the six-year-old category, however, it was late to go BWP’s Mystic van’t Hoogeinde who clinched the gold stopping the clock just short of one second ahead of the grey Colestus Mare.
Ridden by Belgium’s Jeroen de Winter, mare Mystic van’t Hoogeinde joined Jeroen’s stable as a four-year-old and is still half-owned by breeder Rony Thys with Erik de Winter.
BWP’s Mano Negra van de Bucxtale, bred by Els Boterdale and owned by Ecurie de Costa, claimed bronze with rider Thiago Ribas da Costa, from Brazil.
Seven-Year-Olds
Counting towards Longines Ranking, the 1m45 seven-year-old class held a smaller gathering of only 40 starters with a total of 11 making it through to the jump-off.
It was the son of Stakkato, Solid Gold Z, who finished in the top spot for Germany’s Christian Ahlmann. Bred by A.Sprehe, the stallion has already enjoyed considerable success this season in France and Germany, so taking the seven-year-old title was a perfect finish to the year.
PhotoFEI/Jeroen Willems
The Oldenburg stopped the clock on 38.34 seconds to clinch the gold, with the Netherlands Willem Greve and his bay KWPN stallion Grandorado TN in second on a clock time of 39.49 seconds.
Belgium’s Gudrun Patteet rode the last double clear to take the bronze on her own SCSL Studbook’s, Sea Coast Crystal de l’Eau, bred by Hof Ter Leeuwe.
See full results here
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.