Western European League 2012/2013 (Show jumping)

The Western European League of the FEI World Cup Jumping 2012/2013 (Rolex FEI World Cup ™ Jumping 2012-2013 Western European League) was the 35th season of the Western and Central European League of the FEI World Cup Jumping . The World Cup is the most important tournament series in the indoor season in the Western European League.

Course of the tournament series

As in the previous season, the 2012/2013 Western European League also comprised twelve stations. All of these tournaments were advertised as CSI 5 *, the highest category in show jumping. They were marked with the suffix -W (i.e. CSI 5 * -W) to identify them as World Cup tournaments.

The series extended from October 11th to March 17th in the 2012/2013 season. The best 18 riders in the Western European League as well as any additional participants ("extra competitors") qualified for the 2013 World Cup finals . The main sponsor of the Western European League and the World Cup finals was Rolex .

The World Cup special stages took place on Sunday afternoons and occasionally on Saturday evenings. They were advertised as a jumping competition with a single jump- off, the height of the obstacles was up to 1.60 meters. These exams are endowed with at least € 100,000 each .

media

The FEI broadcast the World Cup competitions of the Western European League for a fee via its Internet portal FEI TV. The World Cup competitions were mostly broadcast live on television in the host country, while the other competitions of the Western European League were also broadcast live with a time delay in individual European countries. Eurosport as a pan-European TV broadcaster showed summaries of the exams of the Western European League as part of the Wednesday evening program.

The exams

1st test: Oslo

The first World Cup competition in the Western European League traditionally takes place in Oslo . The Oslo Horse Show was held from October 11th to 14th, 2012 in the Telenor Arena . The world cup competition was held on October 14th from 12:30 p.m.

Eight out of 40 participating riders reached the jump-off. Of these, only three riders with their horses remained clear in the jump-off. The decision between these three pairs was very tight: only nineteen hundredths of a second separated places one and three. In the end, Jeroen Dubbeldam with the mare Utascha was the winner. The test was endowed with 106,500 euros as well as a car from the test sponsor Land Rover .

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Netherlands Jeroen Dubbeldam	Utasha SFN	0	-	0	43.79	20th
2	Switzerland Beat Mändli	Louis	0	-	0	43.83	17th
3	Spain Sergio Álvarez Moya	Carlo	0	-	0	43.98	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

2nd test: Helsinki

The Helsinki International Horse Show took place from October 18-21 , 2012 at Hartwall Areena in Helsinki . The second station of the 2012/2013 Western European League was held here.

The jump-off of the World Cup test reached the high number of 14 participants. In the jump-off itself, six riders and their horses again failed to make mistakes. Of this, two riders made the first place at the end among themselves, between the first two places the gap was only nine hundredths of a second. Roger-Yves Bost took the win with the mare Myrtille Paulois ; As in Oslo, Jeroen Dubbeldam and Sergio Alvarez Moya won many World Cup points and thus took the lead in the preliminary overall ranking after two tests.

The Helsinki World Cup test was endowed with 120,000 euros.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	France Roger-Yves Bost	Myrtille Paulois	0	-	0	37.39	20th
2	Spain Sergio Álvarez Moya	Carlo	0	-	0	37.48	17th
3	Netherlands Jeroen Dubbeldam	Utasha SFN	0	-	0	38.98	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 39 participants)

3rd test: Lyon

For the fourth time the Equitá Lyon was a world cup tournament. The tournament took place in 2012 from October 30th to November 4th at Eurexpo in Lyon .

In the first round, more than ten riders out of 40 starters did not manage to stay in the allowed time, so they got time penalties. This also affected three otherwise faultless riders who just missed the jump-off. In the jump-off itself, seven riders were allowed to compete with their horses. Four of the participants managed to remain without mistakes again, Pius Schwizer had the best time with the gelding Verdi III . Kevin Staut with Silvana and Christian Ahlmann with Codex One were even faster than Schwizer, but they each had to accept an obstacle error.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Switzerland Pius Schwizer	Verdi III	0	-	0	39.99	20th
2	Belgium Ludo Philippaerts	Challenge van de Begijnakker	0	-	0	40.83	17th
3	Switzerland Paul Estermann	Castlefield Eclipse	0	-	0	41.58	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

4th test: Verona

The Italian stage of the Western European Show Jumping League took place from November 8th to 11th, 2012 as part of the Fieracavalli. The venue was the Veronafiere in Verona .

In the first round, 12 out of 40 participants remained fault-free, nine more had a result of four penalty points. The twelve riders without faults were able to start again in the jump-off, five of which were again without penalty points. The fastest time of these five had Sergio Álvarez Moya, who was more than two seconds faster than the runner-up with his eight-year-old horse Zipper and thus secured victory. Just like a week before, Christian Ahlmann was faster than the winner in the jump-off, but with Taloubet Z he had an obstacle clearance and came in seventh. Marcus Ehning was even faster , who only needed 41.73 seconds in the jump-off with Copin van de Broy , but also had to score four penalty points (sixth place). The World Cup competition in Verona was endowed with € 190,000.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Spain Sergio Álvarez Moya	Zipper	0	-	0	43.20	20th
2	Italy Luca Maria Moneta	Neptune Brecourt	0	-	0	45.63	17th
3	Sweden Malin Baryard-Johnsson	Tornesch	0	-	0	46.43	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

5th exam: Stuttgart

The fifth evaluation test of the Western European League 2012/2013 took place as part of the Stuttgart German Masters . The tournament was held from November 14th to 18th, 2012. The Grand Prix, which is the World Cup special test in Stuttgart, will be held in the afternoon (2:30 p.m.) on November 18th.

In the first round, 22 out of 40 riders achieved a result of four penalty points or better. Exactly half of this remained without errors and was therefore allowed to start in the jump-off. As the first participant, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum started in the jump-off with the nine-year-old mare Bella Donna . She rode a restrained pace and made no mistakes (eighth in the end). After her, Jens Fredricson , Luciana Diniz and Marcus Ehning started with their horses and were each faster than the one who started before. The majority of the following riders tried to undercut Marcus Ehning's time, but this did not succeed. Towards the end of the jump-off, Kevin Staut started with Silvana , showed a fast lap and reached the finish line a hundredth of a second before Ehning's time. This remained the best result of the jump-off until the end and was thus the victory. The grand prize was endowed with € 154,000.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	France Kevin Staut	Silvana	0	-	0	42.66	20th
2	Germany Marcus Ehning	Nolte's kitchen girl	0	-	0	42.67	17th
3	Portugal Luciana Diniz	Winning mood	0	-	0	43.90	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

6. Exam: Geneva

At the Palexpo in Le Grand-Saconnex near Geneva , the sixth World Cup tournament of the 2012/2013 Western European League took place with the CHI Geneva . The CHI was held from December 6th to 9th in 2012. Exactly a quarter of the 40 starters managed a ride without dropping an obstacle in the first lap, with Steve Guerdat and Kent Farrington each suffering a time penalty with their horses. Therefore, a total of eight riders and their horses entered the jump-off.

Four playoff participants had to accept mistakes. The best Swiss participant was Janika Sprunger , who came fourth with Palloubet d'Halong . With Magnus Romeo , a horse that is partly owned by Swiss came in third. Sergio Álvarez Moya continued his highly successful World Cup season and came in second. The victory went to Edwina Tops-Alexander and her gelding Itot du Château . The Geneva World Cup was endowed with 187,500 Swiss francs.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Australia Edwina Tops-Alexander	Itot du Château	0	-	0	40.40	20th
2	Spain Sergio Álvarez Moya	Carlo	0	-	0	41.64	17th
3	Germany Hans-Dieter Dreher	Magnus Romeo	0	-	0	42.11	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

7. Exam: London

Every year the Olympia London International Horse Show is already decorated for Christmas. This seventh World Cup of the Western European League was held from December 17 to 23, 2012 in London . The World Cup evaluation test was held on Saturday afternoon from 2:45 p.m. local time.

As usual at the Olympia London International Horse Show, the starting field with 35 horse-rider pairs was smaller than in other competitions in the Western European League. Eleven starters had a result of four penalty points in the first lap, eight participants remained faultless and thus qualified for the jump-off. In the jump-off, Marc Houtzager and Tamino showed a fast, faultless lap (less than 35 seconds) and thus secured victory. Nick Skelton , Gerco Schröder and Luciana Diniz were also very fast in the jump-off with their horses and stayed under 36 seconds, but had one or two obstacle drops. Malin Baryard-Johnsson with Tornesch was slower than the three aforementioned riders with 36.63 seconds, but remained clear, which resulted in a second place in the end.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Netherlands Marc Houtzager	Tamino	0	-	0	34.67	20th
2	Sweden Malin Baryard-Johnsson	Tornesch	0	-	0	36.63	17th
3	United Kingdom Peter Charles	Odie de Frevent	0	-	0	37.54	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 35 participants)

8th test: Mechelen

The last major tournament of the equestrian year traditionally takes place in Mechelen , Belgium . This world cup tournament, called Jumping Mechelen - Vlaanderens Kerstjumping, took place in 2012, as in previous years, from December 26th to 30th. The World Cup competition was held on the final day, which is a Sunday in 2012, from 3:30 p.m.

In the first round, 29 out of 40 riders achieved a result of four or fewer penalty points. Of these, nine participants who made it into the jump-off remained error-free. In the jump-off, five horse-rider pairs remained clear, the best three of them with their times within a second. The victory went to the Swede Henrik von Eckermann, who lives in Germany, with Gotha FRH .

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Sweden Henrik von Eckermann	Gotha FRH	0	-	0	35.29	20th
2	Belgium François Mathy Jr	D'Atlantique Royal	0	-	0	35.89	17th
3	Sweden Jens Fredricson	Lunatic	0	-	0	36.08	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

9. Examination: Leipzig

The Western European League was continued in the new year with the partner horse on the Leipzig exhibition grounds . The partner horse was held in 2013 from January 17th to 20th. The Grand Prix on Sunday was the show jumping World Cup test in Leipzig, the test was held from 2:30 p.m. At first it seemed like very few riders would get the jump-off, both the time allowed and the obstacles were challenging. Towards the end of the first round, however, a number of riders in a row managed to qualify for the jump-off. A total of ten horse-rider pairs remained without mistakes in the first round.

After one of the starters failed to make mistakes in the jump-off, Edwina Tops-Alexander took the lead. With her nine-year-old gelding Ego van Orti , who competed in his first ever World Cup competition here, she made no mistakes in moderate times. After her, Pius Schwizer took the lead with Picsou du Chene , but this also changed with the next starter. Last year's winning pair , Christian Ahlmann and Taloubet Z , were four seconds faster than Schwizer without any mistakes. After Ahlmann there were four more pairs at the start, but could not come close to his time. Kevin Staut , who was the last to go into the jump-off with Silvana , misjudged a distance, tore all the bars of the obstacle and then fell, so he was eliminated. For Ahlmann and Taloubet Z , this victory is the third in a row in Leipzig, after they won the World Cup finals here in 2011 and also won the World Cup competition in 2012.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Germany Christian Ahlmann	Taloubet Z	0	-	0	36.45	20th
2	Ireland Denis Lynch	Abbervail van het Dingeshof	0	-	0	38.65	17th
3	Netherlands Gerco Schröder	London	0	-	0	39.53	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

10th exam: Zurich

The CSI Zurich is a world cup tournament of the Western European League for the fifth time. The in Zurich he Hallenstadion discharged tournament took place in 2013 instead of 25 to 27 January. The World Cup competition called Classic was held on the afternoon of January 27, 2013.

In the first round of the test, the time allowed was a particular challenge for the starters: out of 39 riders who started, 16 riders and their horses had to accept penalty points. 14 horse-rider pairs had a result of four penalty points or better, only four remained without errors and qualified for the jump-off.

Henrik von Eckermann and Gotha FRH had to accept four penalty points in the jump-off, and they did not reach the time of the other jump-off participants either. The three other jump-off participants had no mistakes, the decision was based on time - the difference between the three was only 25 hundredths of a second. In the end, Luciana Diniz and her twelve-year-old gelding Lennox came out on top. For the victory she got a car from the test sponsor Mercedes-Benz , a total of around 250,000 Swiss francs were paid out in the test.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Portugal Luciana Diniz	Lennox	0	-	0	35.17	20th
2	Sweden Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	Casall	0	-	0	35.30	17th
3	Germany Christian Ahlmann	Codex One	0	-	0	35.42	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 39 participants)

11th test: Bordeaux

The second French World Cup of the Western European League 2012/2013 was Jumping International de Bordeaux . This tournament took place from February 8 to 10, 2013 in the Parc de Expositions de Bordeaux . Unlike most other world cup tournaments, the world cup jumping test did not take place on the final day, but on Saturday evening. The Italian course builder Uliano Vezzani created the course.

In the first lap the allowed time was not a problem for the riders, only two of 39 starters had to accept time penalties. 16 horse-rider pairs had a result of four penalty points or better in the first round, of which half had no mistakes. In the jump-off of the eight who did not make a mistake, half of the participants also remained without mistakes. With Picsou du Chene, Pius Schwizer was the slowest of the four clear players in the jump-off, the other three were close together at the end. The winner was Hans-Dieter Dreher with Magnus Romeo , who will probably get a starting place at the World Cup final.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Germany Hans-Dieter Dreher	Magnus Romeo	0	-	0	34.25	20th
2	Sweden Henrik von Eckermann	Gotha FRH	0	-	0	34.77	17th
3	France Pénélope Leprevost	Nayana	0	-	0	34.92	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 39 participants)

12th test: 's-Hertogenbosch

The 2013 season finale for the Western European League was the Indoor Brabant tournament , which was held from March 14th to 17th, 2013 in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. The world cup competition was held on the final day of the tournament from 3 p.m. The course of the test was designed by the Belgian Louis Konickx.

In this test, 38 riders started, ten of them achieved a result of four penalty points. With a time penalty, Ludger Beerbaum , who rode Zinedine , narrowly missed the jump-off. Nine horse-rider pairs who made no mistakes in the first round qualified for the jump-off.

Four starters had to accept penalty points in the jump-off. While Gerco Schröder had a slightly slower time in the jump-off with New Orleans and came in fifth, the gap between places one to four was just 1.05 seconds. David Will secured the win, for whom this was the first World Cup start of this indoor season. The German national coach Otto Becker summed up Will's victory: " We threw him into the deep end and he did a great job ".

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Germany David Will	Colorit	0	-	0	35.73	20th
2	Australia Edwina Tops-Alexander	Itot du Château	0	-	0	35.84	17th
3	Germany Marcus Ehning	Copin van de Broy	0	-	0	36.68	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 38 participants)

Final scoring

The overall ranking was used to determine which 18 riders from the states in the Western European League qualified for the final. In addition, other riders from other countries could qualify for the World Cup finals via the Western European League, provided they lived in the Central / Western European League. Each rider was able to collect evaluation points in a maximum of six tests, further evaluation points were deleted.

The riders were also able to collect points in the North American World Cup (see “others” in the table below). Rating points from other World Cup leagues in the world, however, were not transferred to the Western European League.

The regulations can be found in the main article on the Show Jumping World Cup .

	equestrian	Oslo	Helsinki	Lyon	Verona	Stuttgart	Geneva	London	Mechelen	Leipzig	Zurich	Bordeaux	's-Hertogenbosch	Further	scoring points
1	Spain Sergio Álvarez Moya	15th	17th	6th	20th	(0)	17th	-	-	(0)	(0)	0	-	-	75
2	Germany Christian Ahlmann	-	-	12	10	8th	(0)	-	7th	20th	15th	(0)	(6)	-	72
3	France Kevin Staut	(8th)	11	11	8th	20th	(0)	(5)	11	(7)	(0)	(0)	11	-	72
4th	Switzerland Pius Schwizer	10	(2)	20th	-	(0)	6th	(0)	8th	13	(5)	13	(4)	-	70
5	Portugal Luciana Diniz	6th	-	-	(0)	15th	2	10	-	8th	20th	(0)	(0)	-	61
6th	Germany Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum	-	-	8th	12	9	-	-	-	5	12	-	-	19, (7)	60
7th	Germany Marcus Ehning	-	-	-	11	17th	(0)	8th	-	4th	(0)	4th	15th	-	59
8th	Australia Edwina Tops-Alexander	(0)	(0)	4th	(0)	(0)	20th	(0)	-	12	1	1	17th	-	54
9	Sweden Malin Baryard-Johnsson	-	-	0	15th	-	-	17th	-	6th	2	-	13	-	53
10	Ireland Denis Lynch	(0)	(0)	3	-	12	9	-	(0)	17th	(0)	12	0	-	53
11	Netherlands Marc Houtzager	-	-	5	-	-	-	20th	-	9	7th	-	10	-	51
12	Sweden Henrik von Eckermann	-	(0)	-	0	-	0	-	20th	0	13	17th	-	-	50
13	Sweden Jens Fredricson	0	9	-	-	13	-	-	15th	11	-	-	-	-	48
14th	Netherlands Gerco Schröder	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	-	15th	0	10	12	-	48
15th	France Pénélope Leprevost	7th	(0)	(0)	4th	6th	4th	12	(0)	(0)	(0)	15th	(0)	-	48
16	France Roger-Yves Bost	-	20th	(0)	-	-	12	7th	(0)	0	3	5	-	-	47
17th	Germany Hans-Dieter Dreher	-	-	(0)	-	7th	15th	-	1	3	0	20th	-	-	46
18th	Switzerland Steve Guerdat	3	3	(0)	-	(2)	8th	(2)	12	(0)	10	8th	(0)	-	44
19th	Sweden Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	9	-	(0)	-	(0)	10	-	-	1	17th	6th	0	-	43

Places one to nineteen

World Cup Finals

Together with the World Cup final for dressage riders, the World Cup final for show jumping was held from April 24th to 28th, 2013 in Gothenburg , Sweden.