Great Britain won the fourth and last leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ Dressage 2013 pilot series at Hickstead today. But they had to settle for third place, behind Sweden, in the final rankings as The Netherlands claimed the series title. Germany finished on the same final scoreline as the British at the end of this trial season, but a double of wins gave today’s host nation the nod for third place on the final leaderboard.

The British were pushed hard by a highly competitive US side whose combined score left them less than one point in arrears this afternoon, while Germany finished almost two points further adrift. The Dutch team slotted into fourth ahead of Sweden in fifth, while France, Ireland and Spain, each fielding only three-strong sides, finished in sixth, seventh and eighth places respectively.

The FEI Nations Cup™ pilot series has been staged over four events beginning with CDIO 3* Vidauban in France last May where the Dutch came out on top. At CDIO 5* Rotterdam in The Netherlands in June the British achieved their first victory but a week later it was the host-side German squad that took the top step of the podium at CDIO 5* Aachen. The first three venues took the option to stage a Grand Prix competition as part of this trial FEI Nations Cup™ Dressage season, but CDIO 3* Hickstead opted for a Freestyle competition to bring the test series to a close, and there were some very high-quality performances at this final event.

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