European Championships Plan Celebration Preview of WEG Kentucky 2010
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WINDSOR, England, July 21–The Alltech FEI European Jumping and Dressage Championships are organizing a celebratory preview next month of all eight International Equestrian Federation disciplines at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in 2010.
The celebration in Britain’s most famous back yard–that of Windsor Castle–will include a £10,000 (US$16,500) eventing competition for the first time ever and will be held Friday night, Aug. 28.
The European Championships for Jumping and Dressage to which 32 nations have been invited, will take a break from competition and embrace the other FEI disciplines–driving, endurance, eventing, reining, vauliting and paralympics–for an Alltech World Equestrian Games Gala Night.
For the first time ever, 10 eventers from Great Britain and overseas will get the chance to ride in a unique Eventing Grand Prix at the famous Windsor showground. After a show jumping round, the horse and rider combinations will challenge the daunting fences seen at some of the most renowned cross country courses around the world that will be re-built in the Castle Arena. Clayton and Lucinda Fredericks are the first to have confirmed their participation.
The program includes an arena Carriage Driving speed competition, a quadrille choreographed by Jenny Loriston-Clarke, Para-Equestrian dressage to music; a unique take on reining and endurance and the skill and precision of a vaulting team display.
The climax of the night will be the return of the big red wall for the H&M Puissance, just three months after William Whitaker took the glory at Royal Windsor Horse Show.
To celebrate Kentucky’s famous bluegrass, Windsor will turn “blue” for the week by giving visitors the chance to try out its famous Kentucky Bourbon Ale and get into the ‘swing’ of things with bluegrass music.
Event director Simon Brooks-Ward said: “This is a hugely important time for equestrian sport. With the Alltech FEI European Championships in August and the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games a year later, there is a real buzz around and we want the Europeans–and our home nation–to be the start of that. It’s the perfect time to attract national and international visitors to see equestrianism at its very best, in such an iconic venue, and I’m hoping the Friday evening spectacle will attract all the sport lovers out there.”
