From December 5 to 8, the world’s greatest riders will meet in the City of Light for the Longines Masters of Paris. Seven Olympic champions and most of the world’s top 12 will compete in front of the 50,000 expected spectators at the Paris-Villepinte track. No less than 350 star horse and ponies are also expected. This weekend, the Longines Masters of Paris will indeed be hosting the most prestigious stable in the world!

The indoor stars will shine

The fittest horses of the moment will obviously be there. In particular, Apart, on whom Pieter Devos, the Belgian rider and defending European team champion, won the Longines FEI World Cup in Stuttgart a few weeks ago. Another big name that Parisian spectators will have the chance to see this weekend is Jasmien vd Bisschop who, in combination with the German rider Daniel Deusser, excelled in late November in Prague. The European Champion and World Runner-up, Martin Fuchs of Switzerland, will be accompanied by The Sinner, the 2018 winner of the Power Lido Masters of Paris, then under the saddle of Denis Lynch from Ireland. Among the other star horses, Fleurette, the recent winner of the FEI World Cup in Washington DC, under the saddle of American Laura Kraut, is also expected in Paris. Other French horses who are particularly adept in indoor competition will also be competing in Paris. These include Sultane des Ibis, who with Félicie Bertrand in the saddle won the last Land Rover Grand Prix of the Longines FEI World Cup in Bordeaux. Then there’s Hermès Ryan, the horse with the huge leap, double winner with Simon Delestre in 2018 and 2019 of the Saut Hermès at the Grand Palais, and first in the Longines FEI World Cup in Lyon in 2017.

Last minute: Canadian Kara Chad, a student of champion rider Eric Lamaze, joins the Americas Riders Masters Cup team in place of American Lucas Porter. Young rider Bryan Balsiger of Switzerland, winner of the Longines FEI World Cup in Oslo last October, will join Christophe Ameeuw’s Riders Lab, which offers to a selected handful of promising young riders access to the Longines Masters Series tracks.

Advertisement