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The staff of jumpingaround.com will be bringing the colour of Punchestown as it comes alive for the European Eventing Championships 2003 and the 2003 Open European Endurance Championships from Thursday, 18th September, 2003 through to Sunday, 22nd September, 2003 so tune in each day for more photos and stories about the daily happenings.

Our reporting of the results will be more by way of the picture stories as the official site will be bringing you the up to date results in text form. For immediate access to the official site click here.
Thursday, 17th September, 2003

Today was Eventing Dressage day with competition starting at 9.30am and the weather almost was threatening to be another beautiful Autumn day but this was not to be the case when around the middle of the day the skies became overcast and threatening and by just after 1pm the spitting rain was a reality rather than the earlier threat!

But nothing was going to dampen the spirits of the spectators, competitors, supporters and trade village folk - this was the European Championships and everyone was pleased to be there!

At jumpingaround.com we have decided that events held in Ireland have to be among the best in the world - it seems as though the "smiling Irish eyes" are everywhere and everyone from the guys manning the carpark gates to the stewards situated throughout the venue and the friendliness and helpfulness is fantastic.

Thanks must also go to Lucia Montarella and her fantastic staff in the Press Room who are running a tight and incredibly efficient Press Room with access to all the necessary information quickly and again delivered with an everyready smile!

There are 16 countries contesting the Gold, Silver and Bronze European Championship medals both as teams and individuals and these countries are Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Romania, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republich, Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Finland, Greece, Netherlands and Sweden.

The Individual Gold medallist will take home a sensational Waterford Crystal trophy, a commenmorative horse rug, a Horseware Jacket, commemorative plaque and a cash prize of euro20,000 with the Silver medallist also receiving a Waterford Crystal trophy, a commemorative horse rug, Horseware jacket, commemorative plaque and a cash rpize of euro15,000. The Bronze medallist will take home the same spoils and a cash prize of euro10,000 with cash prizes going through to 17th placing for the individuals.

In the Teams event the Gold medal Team will earn the prestige for their country added to by a Waterford Cyrstal Trpphy, commemorative horse rug, Horseware jacket, commemorative plaque and cas prize of euro6,000. Silver Team medal will take the same spoils home plus cash of euro4,000 and the Bronze Team will take the spoils and cash of euro2,000.

The Trade Stands were looking great and the Trade Village looks beautiful and the stands have some fabulous gear so make sure if you get down to Punchestown you make time to go and have a good look around.
above left - the merchandise stand has some great gear and our pick of the bunch are the "quirky t-shirts" which we will bring you photos of in the coming days!
above right - toys for big kids - the road go karts appealed to many!

above left - the Joules stand certainly took some of our photographers money - she couldn't help herself!
above right - The Horseware horses looked very handsome indeed in their "winter clothes" - Horseware are not only sponsors of this great event but owner Tom McGuinness also has his horse Horseware Fabio running for Ireland with Austin O'Connor

At 1pm there was a break in the proceedings which saw a Dressage Ireland demonstration in the main Arena. Dressage has not been a major discipline in Ireland for that long and in fact the first Prix St. George competition was held in 1998 and was won by Heike Holstein who has since gone on to claim 8 National titles (her latest being just 10 days ago at the National Championships held in Cavan) as well as having competed at Olympic and World Championship levels. The enthusiasm and dedication of Dressage Ireland will, I believe, ensure that in the not so distant future the Irish will be major players in good numbers at the top level in the main International Dressage arenas.

William Mecklam commentated the Dressage display and again made it so inviting to watch and learn as the two riders put their beautiful horses through their paces.

Then it was "back to business" with the rest of the field doing their dressage tests! Please follow the links to Page Two.

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