Lexington, KY – The US Show Jumpers bounced back from two disappointments on the Meydan FEI Nations Cup to storm to the win at CSIO Rotterdam. The second tour of riders for the US, jumping in their first Meydan Nations Cup of the year, they delivered with phenomenal jumping and stopped the French sweep finishing on a score of zero. Their win was convincing over the British who finished on 7 faults.

Lauren Hough proved a dominant pathfinder for the US with Laura and Meredith Mateo’s lovely bay Quick Study. He jumped clear in both rounds to finish on zero. Skara Glen’s Davos out-jumped his experience on his first European excursion. The flashy grey matched Quick Study’s score and looked confident in the big arena at the Rotterdam venue for his rider Candice King.

Nicole Simpson and Tristan (owned by Ilan Ferder) rebounded from a single rail in the first round with a great second round – they were just over the time allowed of 75 seconds to add only one time fault, but it was good enough to secure the win meaning the Laura Kraut and Happy Hill Farm’s Cedric didn’t even have to return to the ring to try to duplicate their dazzling first round clear. Kraut decided to jump again to qualify for the Grand Prix on Sunday and duplicated her first round effort with tiny Cedric.

“They were fabulous. Both the horses and the riders were fabulous,” said Chef d’Equipe George Morris. “I was hopeful of this group, they are really good riders, seasoned riders. We had some fresh faces for the horses – Davos and Tristan I haven’t seen on the international scene. I hadn’t seen them in this situation but they are quality horse so I was hopefully optimistic.”

“It was a great Nations Cup course,” Morris continued. “He got the time exactly right and it was technical with delicate fences and some scope- it was big enough. It was a great test for the Nations Cup.”

Chef d’Equipe George Morris commandeered another dynamic performance out of the US Squad – and they now sit third in the Meydan FEI World Cup Rankings behind France and Great Britain. They head to CSIO Falsterbo July 8-11. All four of these women and their horses are on the USEF Long List for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

ENDS

Live webcast of the Nations Cup is available on FEI TV. Please click on www.feitv.org for more information.

For more information about the competition, results and rider bios, please click here.

These are four of the 15 horse/rider combinations named to the USEF Show Jumping Long List for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. That list is available here

The USEF wishes all of its long listed riders the best of luck on the summer European tour: http://clubequestrian.com/videos/watch/1688.aspx