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Giulia Martinengo: The winner in Spain. Photo by Oxer Sport. Giulia Martinengo and Brazil ́s Pedro Veniss took home the two biggest classes in La Coruna yesterday in the beautiful weather in Spain. Martinengo rode her wonderful mare Loro Piana Athletica (Achil-Libero H x Pit I) to a clear and fast round over the 1.50 course and crossed the finish line at 57.30. 0,o3 seconds behind the Italian ladies came Richard Spooner and Apache (by Mescalaro)who are back from America again to take home some more ribbons from Europe. Spooner is usually known as the Master of the Faster and has taken many fast wins together with Apache which says a lot about Giulia and Athletica’s speed in Spain yesterday. Another Italian rider, Piergiorgio Bucci secured third place in the class on another fast time, 57.84 with Waomi (Lupicor x Boreas).

Congratulations Christian and Judy-Ann! Photo by Jenny Abrahmsson.Judy-Ann Melchior and Christian Ahlmann became parents to their first-born son today. His name is Leon - a name he shares with Judy-Ann’s father Leon Melchior. This means that Christian now can concentrate about his Olympic tasks that sets off in London next week.

A big congratulations to Christian and Judy-Ann.

Paige Johnson and Chiron S. Phot by Kendall Bierer//PMGThunderstorms plagued the Kentucky Horse Park as riders gathered beneath the lights of the Rolex Stadium to compete in the $25,000 Hagyard Lexington Classic at the Kentucky Summer Horse Show. Paige Johnson proved to be the best of the best, controlling the jump-off with one of only seven double-clear efforts aboard Chiron S to lead the victory gallop. Shane Sweetnam and Danielle Goldstein also tackled the short course, but their times could not catch Johnson's speed, each placed third and fourth, respectively.

Nic and Scarface. Photo by Normand St-Jaques.Nicolas Dello Joio completes the only double clear round of the BonjourQuébec.com World Cup qualifying event at the International Bromont Sunday July 22. The course, designed by Venezuelan Leopoldo Palacios, was made up of 13 obstacles for 16 efforts, including 3 double combinations (2 jumps counting as one). The time allowed of 80 seconds proved to be a handicap for many riders who did not make it to the jump-off. Of the 26 horse/rider teams participating, only 6 made it to the second round, representing: the United States (Leslie Howard, Peter Leone and Nicolas Dello Joio), Russia (Ljubov Kochetova), Canada (Jonathan Asselin) as well as Quebec (Angela Covert-Lawrence, from St-Lazare).

We really hope that Nick and Big Star will end up in the medals in London. Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson.The WoSJ-team has taken a closer look at who we hope, dream, think and wish will take home the medals at the Olympics in London. Ten individual combinations have been chosen as our hottest tips, and five teams. But, as always – it’s a wide open contest and in showjumping nothing is decided until the last fence has been jumped. And – there’s almost always a surprise element; that one horse and rider combination that nobody placed their bet on. Anyway, here are our bets in random order:

Individual medals

1.     Nick Skelton and Big Star (Great Britain): The powerful Big Star (Quick Star x Nimmerdor) is relatively young at the age of nine, but has endless scope and talent – and all the qualities needed to take home the Olympic gold. It would be the perfect scenario for Skelton; a gold medal on home soil in London. Big Star needs little introduction; he has won some big classes in Aachen, Hamburg, Antwerp and Wellington this year – as well as being double clear for Britain in the Nations Cup in La Baule. This horse rarely touches a pole. Skelton is currently rank five on the Rolex Rankings, and has competed at no less than six Olympic Games, won ten European Championship medals, six World Championship medals, a World Cup title and over 60 major Grand Prix’ titles. We think Big Star deserves to live up to his name in London!

Denis and Lantinus - here seen in Aachen where the disqualification leading to the withdrawal of his Olympic nomination took place. Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson.Denis Lynch made an unexpected move yesterday, as he in 'the last minute' asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to consider the withdrawal of his Olympic nomination by Horse Sport Ireland. To Irish Examiner Denis’ brother and manager Shay Lynch has stated that Denis "would not have submitted the appeal unless he felt there was a reasonable chance of success".

Rolf: Sweden's flag bearer. Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson.Rolf-Göran Bengtsson will carry the Swedish flag in the Olympic opening ceremony in London tomorrow. During the Parade of Nations athletes from each country participating in the Olympics will parade in the Olympic stadium, preceded by their flag. It is considered a huge honor to be selected as flag bearer. Rolf is not the only showjumper that will be present as flag bearer – Rodrigo Pessoa will carry Brazil’s flag.

Rolf-Göran Bengtsson is currently the highest ranked showjumper in the world, reigning European Champion and individual silver medalist from the 2008 Olympics.

Michael and Viking are the British reserves. Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson.According to horseandhound.co.uk Michal Whitaker will ride Viking in case he gets called up as the British reserve for the Olympic Games. The decision has supposedly been made on the basis of veterinary advice as the three Olympic rounds demands any horse to be in perfect condition to stand a fair chance. Even though GIG Amai and Michael recently won the Aachen Grand Prix Amai recently came back from an injury and the decision has been made with "the best interests and welfare of Amai".

Source: horsandhound.co.uk

Laura Chapot with Quointreau Un Prince. Photo by ©ESI Photography.The weather proved perfect for competition at HITS-on-the-Hudson IV this weekend and was highlighted by Sunday’s $50,000 HITS Grand Prix, presented by Pfizer Animal Health. As 22 entries made their attempt to capture Sunday’s big stake, Laura Chapot and Quointreau Un Prince, owned by Laura Chapot & McLain Ward emerged as the winners. International course designer Olaf Petersen, Sr. of Paehl, Germany set the course and had nine horse and rider combinations advance to the jump-off.

Rodrigo Pessoa and HH Rebozo in action during the 2010 WEG. Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson.Rodrigo Pessoa must have been raised well. Upon our request to meet up for an interview, he – yes he, the equestrian super star Rodrigo – calls us up to ask where to meet. This has never happened in WoSJ-history before; it’s usually a case of us hunting our objects down – but with Rodrigo we can skip the hunt. Whether it is because he just wants it done with (he’s probably done a thousand of these interviews before), or if it’s because he is extremely professional and polite – we don’t know. But happy as we are that Rodrigo will meet us we go with the latter, and run off to meet the Brazilian rider.

Hans Günter Winkler holds the record on winning the most Olympic medals in showjumping. Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson.Louise Parkes has written a really good preview on the Olympics for the FEI. If you haven´t been through it already, you can read it below:

Since equestrian sport was first officially embraced by the Olympic movement a century ago, Jumping has always been the largest and most popular discipline, and the historical records tell of wonderful horse-and-rider partnerships whose names will never be forgotten. Golden heroes like Germany's Hans Günter Winkler, Italy's Raimondo d'Inzeo and Graziano Mancinelli, Pierre Jonqueres d'Oriola from France and America's Bill Steinkraus are the stuff of legend, their names forever forged into the annals of their sport.

We would have loved to see Michael Whitaker and GIG Amai in London. Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson.Some horses and riders will really be missed at the Olympics in London this year. The most obvious once are probably Michal Whitaker and GIG Amai that put on such an amazing performance in the Rolex Grand Prix of Aachen, and won this prestigious class. The British team was selected ahead of the CHIO Aachen, and British Chef d’Equipe Rob Hoekstra thus missed out on taking Michael’s performance into account when choosing his team.

Helena Persson with Bonzai H will be the Swedish reserve. Photo by Jenny Abrahamsson.Helena Persson and Bonzai H will be the Swedish Olympic team’s back-up ahead of the Olympics. One and a half weeks ago, Malin Baryard-Johnsson’s ride H&M Tornesch got an injury and was replaced on the team by reserves Lisen Bratt Fredricson and Matrix. With these changes, Ninja La Silla stepped in as reserve horse for Rolf-Göran Bengtsson’s ride Casall La Silla – and now the Swedes have an extra back-up in Persson who will join the team in their preparations towards the Olympics.

Source; ridsport.se

"I started riding mini ponies at the age of 4, but didn't decide to go professional before I had finished my eductaion. Today I have about 20 competition horses at our yard. My current top horses are Salvador, Cayenne, Appearance and Oscar du Rozel" says the youngest of the Kingsland sponsored Ehning brothers, Johannes.

Click here to read the Kingsland interview with Johannes.