There’s a sizzle of excitement at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden ahead of this evening’s official opening ceremony for the Longines FEI European Championships 2017. Para-Dressage is already well underway, and with the veterinary inspections for Dressage and Jumping now completed another 147 horse-and-rider combinations – 66 in Dressage and 81 in Jumping – are making their final preparations for what promises to be a fantastic week of top sport.
It has already been a testing time for the British whose Dressage team was reduced to three after Gareth Hughes’ Don Carissimo was withdrawn after being held over in yesterday’s first horse inspection. And they’ve got another tense wait because Michael Whitaker’s Jumping contender, Viking, is scheduled for re-inspection at 08.00 tomorrow.
A total of 16 nations – Austria, Belarus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine – will battle it out for the Dressage team medals which will be decided by the Grand Prix which begins tomorrow and finishes on Wednesday. In all, 20 countries will be represented in these Championships as there are also individuals from Belgium, Estonia, Georgia and Norway.
The individual Grand Prix Special will take place on Friday and then the Dressage action concludes with Saturday’s Freestyle. The Netherlands are defending team champions, but all eyes are on the Olympic gold medallists from Germany led by star performers Isabell Werth and Weihegold.