Britain’s point-scoring venues for the 2015 showjumping Nations Cup series have been revealed.
The four Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup competition legs in which Britain will be scoring points for the 2015 series, are Rome (14-17 May), Rotterdam (17-21 June), Dublin (5-9 August) and Hickstead (30 July–2 August).
Last year the team scored some mixed results throughout the series.
Despite a win in the St Gallen leg in May, some disappointing performances followed and Britain remained in the relegation zone in the penultimate round of the Nations Cup at Hickstead last summer.
The squad of Ben Maher (Wings Sublieme), Jessie Drea (Touchable), Robert Whitaker (Catwalk IV) and Guy Williams (Zaire) finished equal sixth, in the competition that was won by the USA.
At the time performance manager Rob Hoekstra was criticised for failing to field a stronger team.
Rob countered that the World Equestrian Games was the priority for 2014, and that Britain didn’t have the strength and depth of horsepower to field the top combinations all the time.
However, the team of Ben Maher, Scott Brash, Spencer Roe and Joe Clee put in a strong performance to finish second in the final leg of the series, in Dublin — earning Britain a place in the Barcelona final and enough points to avoid relegation to division two of the series.
This year also in division one are Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
Last year’s series was won by the Netherlands.
The other legs of the competition are: Lummen, Belgium, (29 April-3 May), La Baule, France, (14-17 May), St Gallen, Switzerland, (4-7 June) and Falsterbo Sweden (9-12 July).
Each country competes for points against four other teams at four events throughout the series.
