It’s been some time since the Swiss Student Riders graced us with their organisational presence. The move from their 2017 and 2019 winter venue of the NPZ in Bern to the Reitsportarena in Roggwil was a welcome change, and brought with it both sunshine and a stellar atmosphere.
The horse quality was noted by our Technical Delegate, The Netherlands’ Anna Bohnenkamp, and we owe the Organising Committee, and Christina Moers in particular, a very special thank you for providing the teams with horses upon which they could effortlessly showcase their riding skills to the judges. Some lovely compliments were also given by the new Swiss judges, who were very impressed with the standard of riding throughout the competition, all onboard unfamiliar horses.
The OC’s Carsten Jaescke led an extremely interactive cultural activity and introduced everyone to his beloved world of vaulting. Providing two vaulting barrels, he first demonstrated the range of manoeuvres usually carried out on horseback, and then assisted all those who wished to give these moves a go for themselves. An interesting and enjoyable introduction to this niche equestrian discipline.
Competitors were given the chance to experience some of the typical Swiss competition food of Älplermagronen and Bratwurst mitt Pommes. So now we’re wonder if this had anything to do with the high standard of riding over the weekend? I guess we’ll never know!
Rather remarkably, the all jumping Belgian team consisting of Brecht Rooms, Anouk van Kerrebroeck, and Dries Vlayen scooped the team dressage title from usual favourites Germany. Anouk was unlucky to miss out on a spot in the individual dressage final and had to make do with an eventual third place finish. Dries went on to receive the dressage style prize, awarded to the individual who achieves the highest mark in the first round of dressage. Clearly a change of discipline should be on the cards for these three!
Yet again, Germany’s Nele Lubina proved to be a force to reckoned with by winning the individual dressage title: a second in a row for her following her win in the Gold League during last year’s World Finals in France. She narrowly missed out on a podium finish in the individual show jumping section, but, nevertheless, these two results saw her crowned the individual combined champion.
We had a number of very competitive newbies on our hands for this SRNC, as it was Poland’s Kacper Niedwiadomski who topped the individual show jumping podium, with Ireland’s John Carr not far behind him in third. However, it was Ireland who bested in the team show jumping, thanks in part to another top performance by the ever consistent Ciara Dennigan in the show jumping final, leaving Poland to settle for second.
The team combined title also went to Ireland, who improved on their second place finish at the SRNC in The Netherlands earlier in the summer. Ireland clearly fielding a squad of very strong and consistent riders so far this year!
As always, a huge thank you must go to the many fantastic sponsors of this competition, many of whom are returning AIEC sponsors, and their loyalty to AIEC is greatly appreciated.
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