Team NZL take second place during the SAP Cup – CICO4*-S Nations Cup Eventing Prizegiving. 2019 GER-CHIO Aachen Weltfest des Pferdesports. Saturday 20 July. Copyright Photo: Libby Law Photography
New Zealand has named a team packed with experience and exciting new talent to compete in the CCIO4*-S Nations Cup teams’ competition at the very prestigious CHIO Aachen in Germany next month.
Olympians Tim Price, Jonelle Price and Jesse Campbell will be joined by Maddison Crowe in the teams’ event, with Tayla Mason competing as an individual.
New Zealand won the hotly-contested Nations Cup class in 2018, which was just the second time the Germans had been beaten at Aachen and backed that up with a second in 2019. Tim, Jonelle and Jesse were all part of the 2019 team, with the event cancelled in 2020.
World no. 7 Jonelle has been named aboard 14-year-old McClaren, who competed at the 2018 World Equestrian Games with Sir Mark Todd. The German-bred gelding has been competing internationally with Jonelle since 2020 and they have formed a formidable partnership placing third in the CCI4*-L at Strzegom and second in the CCI4*-S at Millstreet as well as sixth in their last big outing, the CCI3*-S at Barbury Castle last month.
Tim and the 12-year-old Falco won their last international in the CCI4*-L at Millstreet in June. The world no.2 really rates the German-bred gelding who he stated at the lowest of levels in 2016 and has brought carefully through the grades with numerous successes along the way.
Jesse is in on the 10-year-old Gambesie who joined him in 2018 after previously being campaigned by Jonty Evans. Maddison Crowe has not long been in the UK and will be looking to make a solid start with her lovely 13-year-old mare Waitangi Pinterest. They did very well in New Zealand, including winning the National Three Day crown last year. This will be their first big outing in Europe.
Tayla Mason and Centennial, who last week shone in the Nations Cup at Le Grand Complet in France, will compete as an individual.
ESNZ high performance eventing manager Graeme Thom says the riders are all looking forward to Aachen. “It is a competition that has been a pinnacle event for the team for a very long time. It brings in super high quality competition and is a fantastic venue. The organising committee are amazing there and we always really look forward to it,” he says.
“The goal is to podium and it is nice that we have two new faces with Maddison and Tayla – two riders who are clearly up and coming for the future. It will be a great experience for them and hopefully proof of programme depth that is developing but they also have a lot of support from the veterans Tim, Jonelle and Jesse. It is a great mix and I know there will be excellent leadership for the new ones.”
The first horse inspection for the CCIO4*-S is on Thursday (September 16), with the dressage on Friday (September 17), showjumping that evening and the cross country on Saturday (September 18).
Rudiger Schwarz is designing the cross country course with Frank Rothenberger tasked with the showjumping.
Teams from Australia, France, Great Britain, Germany, United States and Ireland have all been invited to compete, along with Japan, Sweden and The Netherlands as reserve teams. The starting order for the Nations Cup will be done at a press conference on Thursday (September 16). There is a prize pool of Euro175,000, with the winning team pocketing Euro 16,500 and winning individual Euro37,000.
Aachen is considered to be the closest event to a true championship, outside of the Olympics and World Equestrian Games and costs a staggering Euro18million to put on.
It is the only German event allowed to run Nations’ Cup competitions, which will be held across jumping, dressage, eventing, driving and vaulting this year. Historically, this is the event everyone wants to be at – whether to watch, ride or shop. With a global pandemic, this year will be different and has many regulations and restrictions in place.
In 2019, there were more than 340 riders, drivers and vaulters from 30 countries, 550 horses and more than 68,500 spectators.
Media from across the globe are in Aachen to cover the event that dates back to 1898, including almost 800 journalists. It takes more than 1200 employees and volunteers to run
the event, including 64 judges and officials, 39 stewards and 325 grounds stewards.
And in case you wondered . . . all those horses will be in 430 permanent stables, which will have had around 600 bales of straw down for bedding, and they’ll be chomping their way
through 18,000kg of oats, 18,000kg of hay and 1500 bales of straw over the 10 days.
Spectators are there as much for the shopping too, and are spoilt for choice by more than 230 exhibitors from all over the world, covering everything from fashion through to
Mercedes-Benz cars. Tents in the CHIO Village cover 22,500 square metres, with 43 kilometres of cables laid.
The opening ceremony is scheduled for September 14 and will feature more than 200 horses and 600 riders with organisers promising an “extravaganza in a class of its own”. Everything revolves around this year’s partner country, Japan. The ceremony celebrates 160 years of Germ/Japanese friendship.
Another highlight of this year’s event is Isabell Werth retiring her “soul” horse Bella Rose, a 17-year-old mare who has 13 times won the Deutsche Bank Dressage Prize at Aachen.
WHAT: CHIO Aachen – world equestrian festival
WHEN: September 10-19, 2021
WHERE: Aachen, Germany
MORE INFO: https://www.chioaachen.de/en/
DOWNLOAD THE APP: CHIO Aachen
THE HORSE DETAILS:
McClaren – owned by David and Katherine Thomson
Falco – owned by Sue Benson, Jackie Olivier and Tim Price
Gambesie – owned by Sarah Moffat
Waitangi Pinterest – owned by the Crowe Family
Centennial – owned by Sonya Mason, Sue Rutter, Kyle Mason and Tayla Mason
By Diana Dobson – HP Media Liaison
Photos by Libby Law/ESNZ