Some of the nation’s best young reiners will participate in the upcoming SVAG Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Reining Championships for Young Riders & Juniors. A record-breaking 16 countries will be represented at the show in Switzerland.
With four countries taking part in the SVAG FEI European Championships for Seniors (France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland), lighting up the stage in Givrins will be the Young Riders and Juniors with a record number of 16 nations represented: Belgium, Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and USA — who will participate with full teams in the SVAG FEI Young Riders World Championship — and Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and USA who will be vying for the FEI medals in the Juniors Team competition.
Taking part in the Individual Young Riders and Juniors Competition, along with the above countries, are also riders representing Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg and Slovakia.
Contenders and Defenders
In 2017 the very first FEI Junior & Young Riders World Championships were hosted by CS Ranch. An amazing 34 Junior and 35 Young Riders provided amazing competition writing an important piece of FEI history. This year, flourishing young reiners will come back to fight for the FEI Team and Individual medals inside the pen, and once again building world-wide team spirit outside the show arena.
Juniors
In 2017, the Junior World Championship closed with Team Italy claiming the gold medal, Team USA the silver and Team France the bronze. Just off the podium was Team Belgium. They will all be back riding for the medals! Team competition determines and qualifies athletes for the Individual Competition: In the past edition Axel Pesek of France took the gold riding his Uncle Sparky (Shining Spark x Cats Okey Dokey x Doc’s Oak) with an incredible performance worth a 221.5 score.
Claiming the silver and bronze respectively were Italy’s Matteo Bonzano and Gabriele Landi. The two were on the Italian Junior Team that claimed the Junior Riders World Championship gold medal. The three will be coming back performing for their flags on the Young Riders Team as they leave the Juniors podium to new names and new faces.
Young Riders
Two years ago, Gina Schumacher and her National Reining Horse Association Non-Pro World Champion Gotta Nifty Gun (Dun It Gotta Gun x Custom Nifty Nic x Custom Crome) raised Team Germany’s final score to a 655. The talented rider also went on to claim the individual gold medal — for Gina, it was the last year of competition as a Young Rider and this time around she will go on to compete for her country in the Senior competition.
Team Competition saw Italy take the silver medal and Belgium the bronze. The individual medals went to Germany, and it took a run-off to determine who would occupy the second and third step of the podium as two Italian riders had obtained the same score: Nico Sicuro and Dino Lulli. The two took silver and bronze respectively. Neither will be coming back this year and, here again, slots are open for Young Riders to leave their mark in the history of FEI competition
Seniors
The SVAG FEI European Reining Championship rocked the crowd in 2017 as team competition closed with Team Belgium taking the gold, Germany the silver and Italy the bronze. It was a first for Belgium as Bernard Fonck came back to firmly conquer the gold in the Individual Competition. This year Fonck will not be representing his country at the Championships leaving the podium open to new contenders!
In the individual competition, Dominik Reminder, part of Germany’s Team Silver, slid to the second step of the podium. Germany also came back for the bronze with another component of Team Germany, Giulia Schumacher, who this year will come back to ride for her country in the SVAG FEI World Reining Championship.
Beautiful CS Ranch owned by non-pro reiner Corinna Schumacher. Its covered arena measures 95×50 meters and can accommodate more than 1400 spectators. Admission is free. Visit www.cs-ranch.eu for more details.
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