HICKSTEAD, England, July 29, 2018–France won the Nations Cup Sunday, repeating the 2017 team competition victory that was their first ever top placing. Great Britain placed second and Portugal third. Sweden was the overall winner of the trans-Atlantic series of seven events for the second year in a row.
Pierre Volla on Badinda Altena led France to victory, posting a personal best score of 76.325 per cent to win the Grand Prix Freestyle Sunday after placing first individually in the Grand Prix Friday.
Hayley Watson-Greaves on Rubins Nite placed second on 74.575 per cent to earn silver for Great Britain that had no room for error when one of the four combinations withdrew to leave the country with the minimum of three horses and riders.
Portugal finished third and Sweden fourth in this event that was the the third straight week of Nations Cup competitions, that has sparked criticism from some countries. The series began in Wellington, Florida at the end of March then moved to Europe.
This year also saw a new scoring format for five of the six European shows of placings of three combinations in the Grand Prix and three from the combined Grand Prix Special and Freestyle with the lowest score winning. The CDIO5* in Aachen, Germany, the world’s premier horse show, retained the traditional format of counting scores from the top three combinations on each team.
Sweden clinched the series in Falsterbo, Sweden, the fifth event in the lineup.
