FEBRUARY 2007 - sees another nationality change!

BRITAIN - Englishman/Irishman Peter Charles has now reverted back to British nationality!

In a press release early this month the Equestrian Federation of Ireland put out the following:

"The Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI) has been notified by the FEI (Federation Equestre Internationale) that the show jumper Peter Charles has decided to relinquish his status as an Irish rider, and has applied instead for international selection with the Great Britain show jumping team.

Peter Charles, who is 47, was formerly a British rider, and successfully applied to change his nationality to Irish in 1992. Although he has not been prominent on Irish teams in the last few years, he did make a significant contribution to Irish show jumping achievements, particularly through the 1990s and the early part of this decade.

We wish Peter every success in his move back to the British team.

AUSTRALIA - new showjumping coach a huge success.

Word from Australia is that new coach, Germany's Gilbert Boeckmann is a big hit with the elite in both showjumping and eventing!

After a period of negativity in past years, Australian showjumping appears to be enjoying a new wave of well founded optimism in the sport. With one of Australia's most fiercely competitive riders, Vicki Roycroft, taking on the the role of National Chair of Showjumping there is a very positive feeling within the country.

Changes are being made to bring Australian training in line with the rest of the world, and with the caliber of riders and now homebred and imported horses to match, things can only improve and we will hopefully see Australia presenting world competitive teams in the not too distant future!

WORLD WIDE - a reminder to all horse owners

Strangles is an insidious disease which affects horses - regular vaccination against it will do much to stem the random epidemic outbreaks throughout the world and owners must be vigilant in keeping these vaccinations up to date.

From Scotland the following release was received: British Dressage's Scottish winter regional final at Gleneagles has been cancelled due to a confirmed case of strangles.

While Australia's Gippsland area of Victoria reports of cases of strangles are coming in proving that this is not a disease which is restricted to one country or climate - with Australia and Scotland being at the furthest extremities of climate!

Please note that in most countries around the world, Strangles is a notifiable disease, meaning the relevant authorities must be advised when horses are diagnosed as confirmed strangles status.

SPAIN - The Sunshine Tour

While those at home in Europe are bemoaning the lack of warmth on their skin, those on the Sunshine Tour in Spain are enjoying the winter sunshine.

Now into the third week of this 5 week tour Brazil's Katty King is enjoying great success with Lover Boy in the Small Tour while Israeli Yaniv Elad is also seeing success in Spain with an excellent team of horses.

Britain's William Funnell has racked up a couple of wins and good placings to make his trip worthwhile and host nation Spain has seen their riders at the head of the prize giving line on many occasions.

Ireland is well represented on the Sunshine Tour with Billy Twomey taking away much of the prize money and young Ivan Dalton has clocked up a win as well in the age classes.

Australia is represented by James Paterson-Robinson who has a team of 5, 6 and 7 year olds and a Small Tour Grand Prix horse, As Good As It Gets, owned by Englishwoman Lisa Hales of Golden Bear. New Zealand has several riders ranging from the Small tour through to the Big Tour.

WORLD RANKINGS - Showjumping

The current Showjumping World Rankings sees some major changes!

Germany's Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum has taken on the number one position, while Sweden's Rolf Goran-Bengtsson steps into 2nd place in the world. Germany ranks in 3rd place with former number one Marcus Ehning while Ireland's leading lady, Jessica Kurten is in 4th place.

Fifth place sees another of the top women, with Beezie Madden for the USA taking this spot. Switzerland's Markus Fuchs sits in 6th with Britain's Michael Whitaker in 7th spot.

The Netherlands has Albert Zoer in 8th position and Germany takes 9th position with Christian Ahlmann and Germany again in 10th with the legendary Ludger Beerbaum,

Australia's Edwina Alexander continues her steady climb through the rankings and has moved from 19th place to 16th as she makes her bid to enter the top 10.

WORLD RANKINGS - Dressage

The world of dressage has not seen many changes in the rankings list with Holland's Anky van Grunsven and Keltec Salinero holding their lead over Germany's Isabell Werth who remains in 2nd with Warum Nicht FRH and 3rd with Satchmo 78.

The outstanding Blue Hors Matine and Denmark's Andreas Helgstrand remain in 4th spot and Sweden's Jan Brink and Bjorsells Briar stay in 5th place. Germany again features in the top 10, this time in 6th spot with Nadine Capellmann and Elvis VA.

Switzerland's Silvia Ikle and Salieri CH have moved from 9th place to 7th place. Holland's second rider in the top 10 is Imke Bartels and Sunrise and also for Holland, Edward Gal and Lingh have dropped from 7th to 9th place remaining in the top 10.

Filling out 10th place on the world leaderboard is Finland's Kyra Kyrklund and Max.

WORLD RANKINGS - Eventing

The Australians continue to dominate the world rankings for eventing with British based Australian Andrew Hoy on top of the leaderboard holding a good lead from Britain's William Fox-Pitt.

Australia is there in third place with another British based Aussie, Clayton Fredericks.

Fourth place belongs to British based, German wife of Australian Andrew Hoy, Bettina (you can't get much more international than that!) and Germany also holds 5th place with Andreas Dibowski.

Three riders sit on equal 6th place and they are Amy Tryon for the USA, Frank Ostholt for Germany and Karen Florent Laghouag for France.

Ninth place again belongs to Australia, with Aussie based Shane Rose and France takes 10th place with Nicolas Touzaint.

The Australians are definitely to eventing what Germany is to Dressage and Showjumping - 9 out of the top 20 are Australians with 5 out of the top 20 being British riders.

The Australians are definitely proving that if you are an eventer Australia is NOT too far away geographically as we see Aussie based riders, Shane Rose (9), Christoper Burton (11), Heath Ryan (15), Stuart Tinney (17) and Emily Anker (20) all up there.

We see two husband and wife pairs in the top 20 with Andrew and Bettina Hoy competing for two different countries, while Clayton and Lucinda Fredericks both wear the Aussie colours.