Dateline: January, 2010 - Rolex World Rankings - Showjumping

The new year rankings see one of showjumpings most popular riders heading the list as Albert Zoer for the Netherlands moves from 2nd to first which sees Marcus Ehning for Germany move from 1st to 2nd.

For moving pictures of Albert Zoer in action - click here or on youtube button.

Pius Schwizer (Switzerland) changes places with Canada's Eric Lamaze to bein 3rd place with Eric in 4th now.

Current European Champion, Frenchman Kevin Staut moves from 7th to 5th place while Sweden's Rolf Goran Bengtsson moves from 7th to 6th place.

Rodrigo Pessoa (Brazil) drops from 6th to 7th place while McLain Ward for the USA moves from 9th to 8th spot.

Harrie Smolders for the Netherlands moves from 10th to 9th and Marco Kutscher for Germany again enters to the top 10 moving from 12th to 10th.

Australia's Edwina Alexander has dropped from 5th spot to 12th and America's first lady of showjumping drops from 11th to 13th spot.

Jessica Kurten for Ireland moves up again from 17th to 15th and Penelope Leprevost, France's sweetheart moves into the top 20 from 24th position.

So at the moment the Top 10 is very much a boys club with no women featuring but no doubt that will change again in the next ranking period.

It may seem to some that these rankings are just numbers and not of all that much importance but to be in the Top 10 is of huge significance for the riders. Entries to International shows are tightly monitored and numbers are limited so the scramble to get in to the top shows is not always easy. If you are in the Top 10 you can pretty much choose which shows invitations you will accept which also makes it easier to stay in the Top 10 as the top shows have the higher reward points - and the Top 10 receive invitations to shows and no longer have to enter as such.

Dateline: January, 2010 - Rolex World Rankings - Dressage

The Dressage World Rankings work differently to the showjumping in that the rider AND horse are ranked according to their wins at top shows.

The current leader by a huge margin is the man of the moment with a horse that is possibly going to rank as the greatest dressage horse of the past 50 years, Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas who lead on 2645 points.

Second ranking belongs to the amazing young lady, Adelinde Cornelissen and the feisty redheaded Jerich Parzival sitting on 2345 points. Great to see that Adelinde's success is being rewarded and Parzival is now named for the newest partner in the ownership of the horse, H. Jerich of Jerich International, a logistics firm of great reknown.

Third in the rankings is new mother, Isabell Werth with Satchmo for Germany and they sit on 2233 points while the Netherlands is sitting closely in 4th place with Anky van Grunsven and Salinero on 2202 points.

Steffen Peters and Ravel for the USA take 5th position on 2145 points and Britain's glamour girl, Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris are in 6th position with 2119 points.

The points then drop quite dramatically as we come to riders and their second string horses and we see Anky van Grunsven and Painted Black on 1984 points in 7th, Imke Schellekens-Bartels and Hunter Douglas Sunrise in 8th with 1946 points.

Isabell Werth again features, this time in 9th position with Warum Nicht on 1883 points and Mathias Rath with Sterntaler-Unicef in 10th with 1875 points.

ONe of the biggest jumps belongs to Australian Heath Ryan and Regardez-Moi who have moved into the top 100 at number 99 from 168th position.

Dateline: January, 2010 - Rolex World Rankings - Eventing

The eventing world rankings have seen no changes in the top 10 since the last ratings:

1 - GBR - William Fox-Pitt - 541 points
2 - GBR - Oliver Townend - 487 points
3 - AUS - Megan Jones - 482 points
4 - GER - Michael Jung - 470
5 - GBR - Lucy Wiegersma - 470
6 - GER - Andreas Dibowski - 455 points
7 - AUS - Stuart Tinney - 440 points
8 - USA - Phillip Dutton - 439 points
9 - BEL - Karin Donckers - 435 points
10 -USA - Bruce Davidson Jnr - 403 points.

Two huge leaps come from Australian Wendy Schaeffer who went from 107th position to 31st positions and South African Graham Winn lept from 106th position to 71st.

Dateline: 23rd January, 2010 - Lausanne, Switzerland

The FEI have upheld their decision regarding the relegation of three teams from the 2009 Meydan Nations Cup Super League. The British Equestrian Federation challenged their relegation to the Nations Cup Promotional League feeling that the confusion surrounding the decision had led to an incorrect result.

The intricacies of the rules are at best confusing and at worst a bungle but in fairness to the FEI and the working group who fathered the document, there are always teething problems when a new competition is developed and the Meydan Nations Cup is no exception.

For those who are interested enough to see what has caused all the confusion click here for the full Tribunal Hearing and be prepared to suffer a constantly changing opinion on whether the relegation is correct or not.

The residing FEI Tribunal have annouced their decision to not intervene in the Bureau's decision of 17th September, 2009 to relegate Great Britain, Belgium and Italy and have declined the British Equestrian Federation's challenge.

As a result of this decision , at this stage, we will see 9 teams battling it out in the top league at 8 locations, starting in France (La Baule) and finishing in Ireland (Dublin).

The British Equestrian Federation has 30 days to appeal this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport which will see us into the beginning of March leaving things very close to the beginning of the Meydan Nations Cup series on May 13th, 2010.

Dateline: 24th January, 2010 - Leipzig, Germany - Rolex FEI World Cup

Leipzig would surely now be on Jessica Kurtens list of top cities as she won her third Leipzig World Cup qualifying class, giving her the hat trick, in front of a packed crowd.

And the day belonged to the girls in Leipzig as coming second was Australia's golden girl, Edwina Alexander and in third was France's entry Penelope Leprevost.

In an usual sighting in the results of this class a second Australian took home some money! Youngster Phil Lever is one of the luckiest Australian showjumpers - he has his dad, Laurie, Olympic horse Ashleigh Drossel Dan in Germany where Phil is currently based.

In his first Western European Rolex FEI World Cup start both the horse and rider looked super and completed double clear jumping to finish in 8th placing.

Dateline: 26th January, 2010 - Randbøl, Denmark

The Blue Hors Stud made the sad announcement that the mare who won hearts all around the world was humanely put down after a field accident.

Matine spent her hours in the field with her buddy Blue Hors Cavan every day and she was with Cavan when the accident happened.

There was no doubt that Matine had "broken her right front leg at the knee, and the vet immediately diagnosed that there was no way possible to save her life."

Andreas Helgstrand rode the mare for all of her competitive career and went from National Danish Young Horse through to Individual Silver and Bronze medals in Aachen at the World Equestrian Games.

For those who have ot ever viewed the footage of this exceptional mare click here - and those who have not looked for a while click on the link and remind yourself of a beautiful mare who had such talent.

Dateline: 28th January, 2010 - Western Europe - Rolex FEI World Cup

With 8 competitions completed the leader is currently Eric van der Vleuten for the Netherlands on 57 points with Jessica Kurten (Ireland) and Pius Schwizer (Switzerland) both on 48 points.

Penelope Leprovost for France is on 47 points with Germany's Ludger Beerbaum breathing down her neck with 46 points but Ludger has no chance to relax as the current European Champion, France's Kevin Staut is sitting on 45 points.

And still there is no let up for anyone as Marcus Ehning for Germany sits on 44 points and is followed by Italy's Natale Chiaudani on 43 points.

Rodrigo Pessoa for Brazil looks set to return to the World Cup final as he currently sits on 41 points placed 9th on the leaderboard with Switzerland's Daniel Etter currently in 10th position with 40 points but he shares this score with Marco Kutscher for Germany and Philipp Weishaupt also for Germany.