Obviously with no eventing competitions for the team during November there is not a huge amount to report on this month, but this gives us a good chance to look back on the teams achievements during the 2010 season.
The rankings for the 2010 eventing season have now been published and it is great that of the approximate 12,000 British Eventing members, Paul has achieved a UK Rider Ranking of 10th with 828 B.E. points. It should be noted that we started off the season with a double whammy of both Paul and Mannie heading the rankings at the very start of the season, Andrew Nicholson quickly asserted his dominance of the rankings and easily held Paul into second place for the majority of the season, until at the end of the season when Andrew continued to shoot away from the rest of the field and indeed Paul was also overtaken by a few other riders. From the team’s results in all International Competitions Paul has achieved a World Rider Ranking of 17th. Paul also finished 5th in the HSBC classic series, linking all of the Northern Hemisphere’s 4* events together, which was a direct result of the points awarded from winning Badminton which of course is the highlight of the year for the team. In October Paul also got his first official Australian team representation at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, which we hope will be the first of many team representations to come in the future.
British Eventing currently has approximately 14,000 horses registered as competing in eventing and so it is great to have four horses of the team recognised amongst the prestigious top 100 horses list (three in 2009 and two in 2008).
Jenny and Claus Waaler’s Inonothing (Mannie) continues to show his exceptional consistency with a ranking of 11th, with 267 B.E. points (9th in 2009 with 342 B.E. points) This season Mannie also entered into the legendary level of event horses, becoming the 60th winner of Badminton, a 4* win is a mile stone which very few event horses ever achieve and there is no better place to do it than at the most prestigious and longest running event in the world, so congratulations to Jenny, Claus and Mannie!
Martin and Suzi Belsham’s Stormhill Michael (Mike) improved on his 2009 ranking of 66th to this year be ranked 40th with 167 B.E. points.
Captain Fred and Penny Barker’s Kilronan (Tom) burst into the top 100 list this year with a ranking of 86th with 108 B.E. points. He also took the EHOA award for the most points won in a season by a horse who starts the season as a novice pointed horse.
Sue White’s Kilfinnie (Scottie) had a slightly up and down rollercoaster season for a ranking of 92nd with 102 B.E. points.
Our Staff members for 2010; Zoe Wilkinson, Emily Dunn, Claire Ludeks, Keana Marsh, Rylea Constable, Georgie Jupe, Tom Haynes, and more recently Emma Owen, Andrea Beech and Melissa Edmonds and have as always, worked tirelessly for the benefit of the horses in the team, we are hugely thankful for their efforts throughout the year. Special mention to Zoe and Emily for their exceptional loyalty once again and providing us with the back bone to our teams’ workforce for 2010.
At this time of year we also like to closely analyse and compare the teams’ competitive performance and a table of some statistics for our four main riders is overleaf. Looking at the ratios of starters to top ten places and winners it is interesting to note how closely matched all four of us are.
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