Skewbald, Life is Beautiful, Qualifies for FEI Jumping World Cup

Life is Beautiful, and he’s heading home to Gothenburg…..

by Louise Parkes

And he’ll be meeting Dennis the Menace!

It’s not every day that a skewbald horse who spent many years harness-racing qualifies for the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final, but dreams do come true. And the 16-year-old gelding, Life is Beautiful, can expect a very warm welcome when he enters the Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg, Sweden as the Longines 2019 Final begins next April, because he is coming home to the city where he was born.

Ridden by 35-year-old Shino Hirota, this special horse competed in five of the six legs of the FEI Jumping World Cup™ 2018/2019 Japan League, and with three wins and two runner-up placings topped the series leaderboard by a long distance to claim a qualifying spot for the Swedish showdown.

It will be a huge step-up for Shino, but her horse is likely to take it all in his stride. Sold to Japan after a career as a harness-racer in Sweden, he was spotted by Kiwi rider Bruce Goodin who advised his business partner, Ryumi Hirota, to buy him.

Ryumi, who represented Japan at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (AUS) and at three FEI Jumping World Cup™ Finals, wasn’t overly impressed when he tried him at first because he had such an economic jump. But the higher the fences were raised the higher Life is Beautiful would go, and from the moment Ryumi’s wife, Shino, took up the reins they really clicked.

Now the pair are seen as potential candidates for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on their home turf, so they couldn’t have arrived at the peak of their performance potential at a better time…

All around the globe horses and riders have been hard at work in their regional leagues, and Tegan Fitzsimon (28) posted two wins and two runner-up placings with Windermere Cappuccino to top the New Zealand FEI Jumping World Cup™ series. In Australia, Aaron Hadlow (31) and his mare Vahlinvader were qualified for the Longines 2019 Final long before the last round of Australian series that took place in Sale, Victoria earlier this month. It’s a huge achievement for the rider who has a day-job as an Accounts Clerk and who has developed his winning horse from the outset.

Brazil’s Luis Felipe Pimenta Alves (34) topped the South American League, Egypt’s Abdel Said (29) won the Arab League North Africa Sub-League and four-time Olympian Ramzy Al Duhami (47) from Saudi Arabia won the Arab League Middle East Sub-League. Not for the first time Thailand’s Siengsaw Lertratanachai (22) reigned supreme in the South East Asia qualifying series, while the Chinese League was won by Tongyan Liu (51).

Each have their own individual story, and success didn’t come without effort.

However if there was a prize for fortitude and determination, for courage, team-work, ingenuity and true grit it would go to South Africa’s Lisa Williams (52) and her horse Campbell. They will arrive in Gothenburg in six weeks time after one of the most tortuous journeys imaginable.

Having won the FEI World Cup™ South African League for the third time in a row in the 2017/2018 season Williams decided to export the cheeky Campbell, whose stable-name is Dennis the Menace, to Europe. It turned into a four-month adventure that tested the character and resolve of everyone, including her horse.

The first 21 days of quarantine in Cape Town were followed by a further 90 in Mauritius which were very tough on “Dennis” who became chronically ill due to the intense heat and humidity. When eventually he arrived in Belgium in March 2018, Williams had less than six months to prepare him for the FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2018 in Tryon, USA but they made it, and have spent the winter months back in Europe preparing for the Longines Final 2019. What a triumph it will be when they ride into the Scandinavium Arena together, flying that South African flag.

Meanwhile the complete line-up for the 41st FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final has yet to be decided, with the results of the Central European Northern and Southern Sub-League and the Longines North American series rounding it off during week ending 10 March.