ASIA-PACIFIC EVENTING CHAMPIONSHIP
NEW ZEALAND QUALIFY A TEAM IN EVENTING FOR ATHENS 2004

New Zealand qualified an Eventing Team for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens
by winning the silver medal at the Asia- Pacific Eventing Championship 3*.
The Championship was organised in Blenheim (GBR) in conjunction with the CCI
3* from 11 to 14 September and included 11 riders from Australia, New
Zealand and Japan.

Australian team of Philip Dutton/Nova Top, Sam Griffiths/Private Colin,
Clayton Fredericks/Dara Sass and Bill Levett/Muddy Chuddy won the gold
medal, followed by New Zealand and Japan.

Philip Dutton (AUS) won the individual Gold after having cleared the cross
country with no penalty and having performed a jumping test without any
fence down. He finished the competition with 45.60 points penalty, ahead of
Sam Griffiths, who also went clear on the cross country and the jumping
course to end up with a total of 51.40. Blyth Tait (NZL) earned the bronze,
with Welton Envoy. He was in the lead after the dressage, completed the
cross with 4 time faults but had 3 fences down at the jumping test to finish
with 59.00.

The CCI 3* saw the victory of Pippa Funnel (GBR) on Jurassic Rising. This is
her fifth victory from six starts this season.

The beautiful surroundings of Blenheim will host the 2005 European Eventing
Championship.


CIA REIS (USA) WINS PAN AMERICAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

Cia Reis of Pennsdale, PA (USA), won the individual Gold Medal at the 2003
Pan American Endurance Championship which took place on 13 September 2003 in
Trout Lake, WA. A member of the USA East squad, Reis rode Catch A Wave to
the Gold and also the Championship's Best Condition Award.

A member of the US Team that competed in last year's World Equestrian Games
in Jerez de la Frontera, Reis finished the ride time of 9:14.13. Heather
Reynolds of USA Pacific South, the defending Pan Am Gold Medalist, won the
Silver Medal with a time of 9:37:40 on Aleclipse. Vicki Crance of USA East,
won the Bronze Medal on RA Jestic Diamond in 9:43:13.

The team Gold Medal was won by the USA Pacific North team of Sharon
Westergard on MCM Phantazem "Taz", Pat Murray on CR Flash Gordon, Michele
Roush on PR Tallymark, and former World Champion Cassandra Schuler on ELD
Triton.

The team Silver went to USA Mountain and the Bronze went to Canada West.
Full results of the 2003 Pan American Endurance Championships are available
on line at www.endurance.net/2003pac

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE
FOUR DAYS TO GO BEFORE THE FINAL TEST !

With just four days to go the Final of the first Samsung Super League series
in Barcelona it seems that France must be firm favourites to take the title
but, after a season full of surprises, can we be so sure?

Who could have predicted at the beginning of the year that the French would
be so dominant, with three outright victories and an exceptionally
consistent run of form? It is difficult enough to put together a team of
horses and riders capable of winning one major championship but, in the
space of 12 months, the French are World Champions and European Silver
medallists, yet still managed to head the Samsung Super League leaderboard
throughout the entire series - their strength in depth is nothing short of
remarkable.

The Irish too have been surprisingly effective although they have faltered
in the latter stages. They can always be relied upon to put in their very
best effort at the most unlikely times and few would have expected them to
head the line-up at two of the toughest rounds of the Super League in St
Gallen and Aachen. They were snapping at the heels of the French until
things went horribly wrong for them at the penultimate leg in Rotterdam but,
still in second position and ready to pounce should the long-time leaders
find themselves in trouble, they can never be discounted.

Rotterdam, of course, created the biggest surprise of all when the home side
won through on a day when most of the main contenders floundered and the
Dutch now find themselves comfortably placed in fourth behind the British
whose victory, also on home soil, bolstered their position.

If the French and Irish suffer disaster next Sunday it is still possible
that the British could win the series and their squad which includes Richard
Davenport, Andrew Davies, Scott Smith and Michael Whitaker will be fully
aware of that. Double-points are on offer so the top three teams are all in
contention for the title, but it would take a very poor performance from the
French and a third-placing or lower for the Irish to allow the British take
the spoils.

The Dutch send Gert Jan and Peter Bruggink, Jan Tops, Albert Zoer and Eric
Van der Vleuten but they will be jumping fences a great deal bigger than the
modest track at Rotterdam and will do well to retain their position on the
league table because the Germans, lying one place further behind in fifth,
are sending their big guns including newly-crowned European individual and
team champion Christian Ahlmann and European individual silver and team gold
medallist Ludger Beerbaum along with Marco Kutscher, Caroline Muller and
Lars Nieberg.

Ludo Philippaerts will be hoping to break the run of bad luck he has endured
in recent weeks when lining out alongside Jos Lansink, Stanny Van Paesschen,
Jean Claude Vangeenberghe and Maurice Van Roosebroeck and the Belgians,
currently sixth, will be acutely aware that they need to finish ahead of the
remaining two teams.

Malin Baryard, Maria Gretzer, Helena Lundback, Helena Persson and Royne
Zetterman will be flying the Swedish flag with determination to finish in
front of the Italians but Roberto Arioldi, Bruno and Vincenzo Chimirri,
Roberto Christofoletti and Massimo Grossato will have been well-primed by
Italian Chef d'Equipe Duccio Bartalucci and will fight long and hard to
avoid relegation. The battle for positions at the bottom of the league table
promises to be just as fierce as it is at the very top when the action
begins on Sunday.

The French seem to hold all the aces. Florian Angot, Bruno Broucqsault,
Hubert Bourdy, Laurent Goffinet and Christian Hermon have been designated
the task of securing this first-ever Samsung Super League trophy which Chef
d'Equipe, Jean-Maurice Bonneau, has had clearly in his sights from the very
start. The fact that this is not the most experienced team the French can
muster is an indication of the enviable wealth of talent from which their
selectors can now choose.

The Irish, on the other hand, having lost the services of Kevin Babington
who has returned to home to America and both Peter Charles and Billy Twomey
due to horse injuries, are considerably weaker. Robert Splaine has had an
exceptional season with his stallion Coolcorron Cool Diamond but Cian
O'Connor's Waterford Crystal has not been showing form of late. Lieutenant
Shane Carey was on the winning Irish squad at Gijon recently along with
Harry Marshall who also won the Grand Prix there so they have earned their
stripes along with fifth team member, Marie Burke, but she will be really
thrown in at the deep end if she is called up with her stallion Chippison as
neither horse, nor rider, have ever competed in Nations Cup at any level
before. Despite four Nations Cup wins and qualification for the Athens
Olympic Games in 2003, Chef d'Equipe Tommy Wade is coming under increasing
pressure to produce the best possible result for Ireland this weekend.

The organisers have pulled out all the stops to ensure that the Samsung
Super League final will be something special and, as host country, a Spanish
team including Christophe Francois, Jesus Garmedia Echevarria, Rutherford
Latham, Cayetano Martinez de Irujo and Pascal Levy join the eight Super
League teams at the Real Club de Polo de Barcelona. It will be a glittering
and glamorous occasion in the city that hosted the much-celebrated Olympic
Games in 1992 and the FEI has ensured that journalists covering the European
Eventing Championships are kept fully up-to-date as a live TV-link will be
provided to the Press Room at Punchestown next Sunday showing the second
round of the competition.

Barcelona promises to provide a nail-biting finale and none will be watching
the competition closer than the Swiss, the current leaders of the ordinary
Samsung Nations Cup series who are hungry to take the place of the team that
will suffer relegation when finishing last on the Samsung Super League
leaderboard after this final leg of the series which has brought Nations Cup
show jumping to a whole new level.

The website for the SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE FINAL IN BARCELONA is
www.csiobarcelona.com.

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE LEADERBOARD
1. France - 52.30 points
2. Ireland - 41.75 points
3. Great Britain - 36.00 points
4. Holland - 25.00 points
5. Germany - 23.75 points
6. Belgium - 18.50 points
7. Sweden - 16.30 points
8. Italy - 13.80 points.

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE -
NATIONAL PRIDE, INTERNATIONAL PASSION!


TOP TEN FINAL IN GENEVA

The FEI Gandini World Jumping Riders Rankings published on 3 November 2003
will decide on the participating field of the Top Ten Final to be held in
Geneva (SUI) on 6 December 2003 at 21.00.

The following World Rankings will be published on 8 December and include
points earned at CSI-W Geneva.

The 3rd Top Ten Final, open to the best 10 riders of the FEI Gandini World
Jumping Riders Rankings will take place in, Geneva on Saturday 6 December
2003. The first two editions of the Top Ten Final saw the victory of Ludger
Beerbaum (GER), with Goldfever in 2001 and Gladdy'S in 2002

www.concours-hippique.ch


2nd INTERNATIONAL IPEC COMPETITION IN JOSEFIN (POL)
7-10 August 2003

The competition was held in Aromer a large National Equestrian Centre in
Josefin, 25 km East of Warsaw.

Fifteen competitors representing 6 nations participated (3 from Croatia, 3
from Finland, 2 from France, 2 from Italy, 1 from Hungary and 6 from Poland)

The organization was professionally handled Jagoda Maciaszek and supported
by Marta Chilczuk. The atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed.

All foreign riders rode good quality borrowed horses. Three were ridden by
two riders of different Grades.

The competition was covered by National Polish Television.

THE LIST OF PARTICIPANTS FOR THE FAILTE IRELAND AND IFG EUROPEAN EVENTING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The field of competitors for European Eventing Championship, that will take
from 18 to September in Punchestown, Ireland, is now defined. Following the
deadline (11th September) for all nations to confirm the names of their
riders (each nation can enter up to six combinations, Ireland as host nation
can enter twelve) the list of riders is now complete and it includes all the
top European riders that will try to win the 2003 continental titles.

Hot favourite is once again Pippa Funnel (GBR) who just became the first
rider in history to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing when she rode
Primmore's Pride to victory at the Burghley Horse Trials (GBR). In
Punchestown Pippa, who is the current European champion after having won the
last two editions of the continental championships (Luhumuhlen '99, Pau
2001) will be defending her title on Walk on Star. Strong contender in this
year Eventing European Championships will be also the current World
Champion, Jean Teulere from France, riding Hobby du Moulin.

15 nations have confirmed their participation either individually or with a
team: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain,
Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Rumania, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden.

www.sporthorseshow.com


IN MEMORIAM

Ernst Knappe (SWE) former Senior Vice President of AB Volvo died on 7
September after a hearth failure. He was 78 years old.

During the 20 years of Volvo's sponsorship of the FEI World Cup Jumping,
Ernst Knappe was, together with Volvo President Pehr Gyllenhammar, and
Volvo's Equestrian Manager Ulf Bergqvist, its most faithful supporter. The
drastic expansion of the World Cup in the mid to the end eighties was
largely due to Ernst Knappe's support within Volvo. In 1991, he was the
first recipient of the World Cup Gold Medal of Honour.
--
Arthur Schmid, the most faithful and dedicated owner in the history of Swiss
Show Jumping died on 3 September at the age of 87. Arthur Schmid, a
businessman, provided jumping horses for several decades. Dozens of horses
wearing the AS on the saddle cloth were ridden by Hans Möhr, Bruno Candrian,
Urs Fäh, Beat Mändli, Lesley McNaught, Markus Fuchs and Thomas Fuchs.
--
Silvia Brenes Rojas, 40 years old FEI Steward of Costa Rica, tragically died
on 4 September 2003 when her vehicle plunged over a cliff in Piedras Negras.
Very committed to equestrian sport, Silvia Brenes officiated as FEI Steward
at the recent Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic.

-------------------------------------
Muriel Faienza, FEI Communications
FEDERATION EQUESTRE INTERNATIONALE

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