Above: The victorious New Zealand Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ team from Abu Dhabi in February. Photo Source: FEI

Although the FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ Final, which was scheduled to take place in Barcelona in October, has been cancelled, there will still be plenty at stake when New Zealand riders descend on the Czech Republic capital of Prague next week. New Zealand has a spot, along with 19 other countries, in the FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ competition to be held next Friday and with only four places available on the team, the competition for those places will be fierce. Five does not go in to four, so one combination is going to have to miss out, not only on a FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ berth, but also an opportunity to push their cause for selection in the team for the postponed Tokyo Olympics, now scheduled for the next Northern Summer.

The five combinations vying for the four places will be Richard Gardner and Calisto 5, Bruce Goodin and Backatorps Danny, Daniel Meech and Cinca 3, Tom Tarver and Popeye and finally Lily Tootill and Ulysses NZPH. Gardiner and Goodin will be having their first FEI level outing since New Zealand’s victory in the most recent FEI Nations Cup event, held in Abu Dhabi, way back in February, while the other three combinations have had at least one warm up event in Europe since competition resumed a few weeks ago.

Each combination will compete on Thursday individually, each, no doubt, keen to do well and press their case for inclusion in the team which will be named after the conclusion of Thursday’s competition.

We are confident that the New Zealand team, with German based Helena Stormanns as Chef d’Equipe, will do us proud, regardless of which unlucky combination misses out on selection in the team.

More information about the four-day show can be found HERE.