As the days get shorter and winter closes in (boooo) thank goodness there are a few things to look forward to… Like Christmas… steaming mugs of hot chocolate… and the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping season. Hooray!
40th anniversary
This year the series celebrates its 40th anniversary and the final in April 2018 returns to Paris, where it was last held 30 years ago.
The first leg has already kicked off, with Daniel Deusser winning in Oslo riding Cornet d’Amour.
Daniel was the penultimate rider in a seven horse jump-off. Rio Olympic team gold medallist Kevin Staut had set a fast time of 36.96 seconds and admitted he wasn’t “expecting anyone to be faster!”.
However, Daniel produced a flowing round with a super fast finish to post a time of 36.83 seconds. Last in was Ireland’s Bertram Allen, who had one down with Izzy By Picobello, which left the German rider in first place.
‘Great instinct’
Daniel, who won the World Cup Final in 2014, was delighted with his new horse who was previously competed by American rider Lauren Hough.
“Lauren has an American way of riding and she’s half my size, so there’s been a period of adjustment,” said Daniel. “He’s very sensitive, you have to get to know him a little bit, but he has great character. He wants to help you in the end, he wants to win and he has a great instinct in the ring.”
Daniel’s win put France’s Kevin Staut in second place, while Australian wonder-woman Edwina Tops-Alexander was third, just 11 weeks after giving birth to her first child, Chloe.
Highest placed Brit
Michael Whitaker was the highest placed Brit coming eighth with Calisto Blue. The pair jumped a great clear, but incurred an unfortunate time fault and just missed out on the jump-off.
The second leg of the World Cup Jumping takes place this weekend (22 October) in Helsinki, Finland.
You can watch all the action on H&C when FEI World Cup Jumping: Oslo premieres on 19 October at 8pm on Sky 253. You can also watch online via H&C Play or Amazon Video.