All the Kiwi eventers are happily through the first horse inspection at the FEI World Eventing Championships in Italy and all focus now turns to the dressage which will run over the next two days.

New Zealand has drawn 16 to go which Jock says he’s happy with. The team running order is Monica Spencer on Artist, Clarke Johnstone on Menlo Park, Jonelle Price with McClaren at number three and Tim Price aboard Falco the anchor. Amanda Pottinger and Just Kidding will compete as individuals.

The riders got their first look at Guiseppe della Chiesa’s cross country course today. Comprising 42 jumping efforts, the 30-fence track covers 5,600 metres with time allowed 9 minutes 50 seconds.

It’s a roller coaster from start to finish with constant undulations, climbs and drops. The Slide is one fence ESNZ general manager of high performance Jock Paget thinks will be tricky. “It is a tough combination – it is a very steep hill early in the course on very fresh horses so it will be a real question of how much control you have,” he said. “The course will cause problems. There are a lot of frangible pins out there and time will be tight.”

Riders will walk the curse plenty times over the coming days before the big day on Saturday, but first it is the dressage which continues to scale new heights. In the past seven world eventing championships, the eventual winning team has been placed either first or second after dressage. It was Team New Zealand at the 1990 Stockholm World Championships that last defied this trend by starting in fifth place after dressage. The on-form Swiss team have never started a world championship inside the top 10 after dressage and their best placing was ninth in Jerez (ESP) in 2002.

TIMETABLE

Event

Date

NZ Time

First Horse Inspection

Wednesday 14th

11.30pm

Dressage Day 1 – Session 1

Thursday 15th

7.30pm

Monica Spencer

Thursday 15th

9.57pm

Dressage Day 1 – Session 2

Thursday 15th

Midnight

Clarke Johnstone

Friday 16th

1.27am

Dressage Day 2 – Session 1

Friday 16th

7.30pm

Amanda Pottinger

Friday 16th

7.54pm

Jonelle Price

Friday 16th

9.52pm

Dressage Day 2 – Session 2

Friday 16th

Midnight

Tim Price

Saturday 17th

2.30am

Cross Country

Saturday 17th

8.30pm

Second Horse Inspection

Sunday 18th

7.00pm

Jumping

Sunday 18th

9.30pm

Jumping – Top 25

Monday 19th

12.30am

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THE HORSE DETAILS:
Falco – owned by Sue Benson and Tim Price
McClaren – owned by David and Katherine Thomson
Menlo Park – owned by Jean, Rob and Clarke Johnstone
Artist – owned by Monica and Andrew Spencer
Just Kidding – owned by the Pottinger Family

By Diana Dobson – HP Media Liaison
Photos by Libby Law/ESNZ