Dressage

American dressage star Guenter Seidel returned to top form at CDI Hamburg, winning the Grand Prix Freestyle on UII. Seidel, who has represented the United States on numerous occasions, broke his pelvis a year ago and has made an amazing recovery to the top of the sport. After a third place finish in the Grand Prix in Hamburg, Seidel topped the field in the Freestyle with a score of 73.400%. Lillann Jebsen of Norway was second on Pro-Set and Alexandra Bimschas was third for Germany on Dick Tracy.

Results from Hamburg are available here: http://www.engarde.de/start/index.php

Not far away at the Munich CDI5*, Shawna Harding rode Come On III to sixth place with a score of 66.542% in the CDI5* Moorlands Grand Prix Special. Harding has been training and competing in Europe since the Reem Acra World Cup Dressage Final.

Results from Munich are available here: http://www.pferdinternational-muenchen.de/hp/index.php/ergebnisse-2011

Back in the U.S. at the CDI in Raleigh, NC Susie Dutta dominated the Grand Prix division on Currency DC. They scored a victory in the Grand Prix Freestyle with a score of 71.025% over James Koford on Rhett and Tuny Page on Wild One. Dutta and Currency DC's score of 66.319% meant they topped the Grand Prix field as well. Susanne Dansby Bollman was second and Page and Wild One were third again. Page picked up a win of her own in the Grand Prix Special riding Alina. They scored 65.971% to take top honors over Luis Reteguiz-Denizard on Nalando and Dansby Bollman on Cooper.

In the small tour, Tami Batts topped big fields to win both the Intermediaire I and the Freestyle on Ranko. She won the Freestyle with a score of 71.417% over Endel Ots and Toscano and Venezualan rider Alejandro Gomez on Revenge. Batts took the top prize in the Intermediaire with a score of 69.430% over Lars Petersen on Willano (from Denmark) and Chris Hickey on Witness Hilltop. Petersen won the Prix St Georges, Ots and Toscano were second again and Hickey and Witness Hilltop were third again.

Information about the Raleigh CDI is available here: http://www.cdi-raleigh.com/

Driving

Chester Weber scored a major victory in Hungary - he stormed to the win at the CAIO Veces (an FEI World Cup Driving qualifier) over Dutch Driver Koos de Ronde. Weber celebrated his 36th birthday as well as celebrating his first CAIO victory - which began with a winning dressage performance. Weber's sixth place marathon effort was enough to maintain the overall lead going into the cones. His faultless cones performance meant his final score of 145.51 gave him a four point lead over de Ronde. Jozsef Dobrovitz from Hungary was third. Weber nows sits fifth in the FEI World Cup Driving Final standings with 25 points.

Please visit the event website for more information: http://www.dobrohorses.hu/bemutatkozas

Jumping

The U.S. Nations Cup team jumped to fourth place at CSIO St. Gallen in Switzerland on Friday. The Nations Cup was a good effort by the U.S. squad over a very difficult track. Margie Engle and Indigo, Charlie Jayne and Athena, Rich Fellers and Flexible and Christine McCrea and Romantovich Take One fought hard until the end with McCrea jumping clear in both rounds. This result moved the U.S. into fifth in the FEI Nations Cup Series standings after the first three legs.

The efforts kicked off on Thursday where Ashlee Bond and Cadett 7 were fifth in the Radisson Blu Hotel, St. Gallen, which was a speed class. On Saturday, Fellers and McGuinness were runners-up in the Wegelin & Co. Privatbankiers Table C class, and on Sunday Fellers returned to the irons on Flexible and put in a heroic effort in the Longines Grand Prix of Switzerland in a deluge of rain and wind to place second behind Great Britain's Nick Skelton. McCrea was third in the Grand Prix on Romantovich Take One.

Please visit www.csio.ch for complete information or visit: http://www.usefnetwork.com/featured/2011FEINationsCup/ for highlights, photos and coverage of the American effort in the FEI Nations Cup Series.

At CSI Hamburg, Alexandra Thorton kicked off the horse show by winning the Prize of Eurogate Container Terminals Opening Competition for the CSI3*/CSI5*. She rode Silvana in the 1.40m class, beating 96 starters. This pair was then third in the CSI3* First Qualifier for the German Jumping Derby. Laura Kraut and Cedric were eighth in the Mercedes-Benz Championat of Hamburg CSI5*, which was won by Denis Lynch from Ireland on Latinus. Kraut was then second on Dona Evita in the illbruck-Poresta Youngster Cup CSIYH1* (for young horses) just a fraction behind Roger Yves Bost from France. Kraut and Dona Evita were then fifth in Saturday's Youngster Cup. Thorton and Silvana finished the weekend with a ninth place finish in the LGT Speed Derby CSI3*.

Please visit www.engarde.de for complete information.

At CSI Munich in Germany, American Peter Wylde picked up ribbons all week. He was second and sixth in the CSI1* 1.40m classes with Wetter and fourth in the CSIYH 1* class with Zidane. In the CSI3*, Wylde was sixth on Lipton De L'Othain.

Complete results are available here: http://www.pferdinternational-muenchen.de/hp/

At the CSI Eindhoven in The Netherlands, Cara Raether and Andrew Ramsay represented the U.S. Ramsay began the week with an eighth place finish in the CSI3* Plospan Prijs on Julia des Brumes. Raether and Saskia 269 were then tenth in the International Jumping Competition CSI3* on Saturday and Ramsay rounded out the weekend with a sixth place finish on Woitchek in the VDL Groep Derby Eindhoven. Sunday's class proved difficult class and there were no clear rounds.

Jumping results from Eidhoven are available here: http://results.scgvisual.com/2011/eindh/results/results.htm

In British Columbia, the U.S. riders made their trip to Canada a productive one. Karl Cook led the U.S. charge in the CSI, he was sixth with Uno de Laubry and ninth with ASB Conquistador in the $55,000 CSI2*W Mibroc World Cup Grand Prix. Tammy Chipko and Zico 13 finished just ahead of ASB Conquistador in the World Cup class in eighth. The pair was also eighth in the $30,000 CSI2* Thunderbird Show Park Spring Classic in which Kirsten Coe rode Vernon G to a fifth place finish and Shelly Fellers was ninth on Revenge 421 while her husband Rich was jumping in St. Gallen.

There were a number of riders representing the U.S. in National level classes, please see: http://www.thunderbirdshowpark.com/default.asp for complete information and results

ENDS