Carl Hester At No. 4 on Nip Tuck Moves to Highest World Ranking in 5 Years
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Feb. 1, 2017
The Olympic team gold medal partnership of Isabell Werth and Weihegold OLD just off a career high 90+ per cent performance remained atop the world rankings at the end of January while Carl Hester moved up to No. 4 on Nip Tuck for the rider’s highest standing in almost five years.
Carl and Nip Tuck, a 13-year-old KWPN gelding, that were on Great Britain’s Rio silver medal team moved ahead of America’s Laura Graves on Verdades that slipped one place into No. 5 in the latest International Equestrian Federation (FEI) rankings.
Since the Olympics, Carl and Nip Tuck have competed in three World Cup events, winning both the Grand Prix and the Freestyle at the London Olympia Christmas show. At No. 2 behind Isabell and Weihegold on the World Cup Western European League standings he almost definitely will be invited to the Final in Omaha at the end of March.
The German rider who has won the most Olympic medals of any equestrian with 10 moved into the top spot with the 12-year-old Oldenburg mare at the end of October 2016. The pair scored 90.720 per in the Amsterdam World Cup Freestyle last weekend.
Olympic team mates Kristina Bröring-Sprehe and Desperados FRH and Dorothee Schneider and Showtime FRH remained in the second and third places, respectively in the latest standings.
Car Hester moved into the rankings at No. 298 on Nip Tuck in the summer of 2014 after he was no longer competing his 2012 Olympic team gold medal horse Uthopia. He and Uthopia had been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world over four months from December 2011.
Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro, the double Olympic individual gold medal pair from 2016 and 2012, although retired from competition actually moved up one slot to No. 39 in the world based on just five results throughout 2016. The top eight results within the past 12 month can count for the standings, but the British superstar combination competed in the three classes at Rio–Grand Prix, Special and Freestyle–and the Grand Prix and Freestyle as a warmup CDI3* competition at Hartpury, England, winning them all.
Laura Graves of Geneva, Florida and her 15-year-old KWPN gelding remained the top ranked American pair at No. 5 with two victories last week at Florida’s Adequan Global Dressage Festival in their first competition since the Olympics in August.
Sweden’s Tinne Vilhelmsson-Silfvén, a seven-time Olympian, moved up one spot on her Rio mount Don Auriello into No. 9, swapping places with Steffen Peters of San Diego, California on Legolas that led the United States to Olympic team bronze at Rio.
Diana Porsche of Austria on Di Sandro was atop the Under-25 world rankings for the seventh straight month.
Germany’s Anna-Christina Abbelen on Fuerst on Tour moved to the top from No. 4 at year’s end on the Young rider rankings.
Semmieke Rothenberger of Germany on Dissertation was the No. 1 Junior rider for the seventh straight month.
World rankings at the end of January are available here.
