David McPherson and Scott Brash were the joint winner’s in round nine of the $32,000 ( £20,291) Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) Challenge Cup Series in Florida.

The class, held at the FTI Consulting WEF yesterday (8 March), was split due to the high number of entries – 99.

And David and his own Silver Spring and Scott and Lady Harris and Lady Kirkham’s Sanctos Van Het Gravenhof the joint honours and prize money.

Just 10 combinations went through from the first round, with no faults over the course set by Venezuela’s Leopoldo Palacios.

Five jumped double clear in the jump-off and David and Scott had the fastest times – David and Silver Spring completing in 39.56sec to win section A and Scott and Sanctos in 39.74 sec, to win B.

Scott and Whisky Mac IV, finished third in Sec B with a four-fault round in 38.93 seconds.

“This is his [Silver Spring’s] first show in well over a year,” said David.

“It was a tough track; a really tight time. But he is as brave as a lion and has all of the scope; he is a lovely horse.”

Scott was delighted to have made it to the jump-off with each of his two mounts in the class.

He said: “Sanctos is a new horse for me, I’ve only had him since the start of January.

“The first few weeks I was just getting to know him. I changed his bit a few times and juggled about.

“Hopefully we’re on the right track now. He jumped very, very good today. Hopefully we can go on from here.”

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Germany secured the showjumping team gold tonight at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, adding nothing to their team score with three clear rounds, while Britain’s riders had mixed fortunes.

Germany had led overnight, and when her first two riders, Janne-Friederike Meyer and Carsten-Otto Nagel, both went clear, they only needed either Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum or Marcus Ehning to be fault-free for victory. Meredith, in the third rider slot, secured the winning round on Checkmate.

“It’s a great honour to be the third member and be able to secure the gold without our last rider going and I’m very proud,” she said. “I’m pleased to have done it on Checkmate as he’s always been in Shutterfly’s shadow.”

After his two clears earlier in the week, Britain’s Robert Smith suffered the disappointment of two rails down on Talan, but he has made it through to the next round of the individual contest as he is 29th and the top 30 go through.

The next Brit into the Rolex Stadium, David McPherson, had fence four down, and then the first part of the tricky treble at five. With the young Chamberlain Z clearly wrong-footed, he pulled him out of the third element and when he also had the triple bar at seven down he retired — although the scoreboard showed him as eliminated, he didn’t look to have presented at fence eight.

Third Brit Scott Brash just had the last part of the treble down on Intertoy Z: “The combination’s a bit tight for him and I sat up a bit early, I just needed a bit more leg on coming off the ground. But the horse was brilliant and he’s come on a lot this week.”

Michael Whitaker rounded things off in fine style with just one time-fault on GIG Amai.

“He’s learnt every time he’s gone in and he tried very hard in there; he was perfect,” aid Michael. “This week’s brought my horse on no end and all in all the team’s done as well as we expected.”

Michael thought he had done enough to make the cut for the individual qualifier, but has just missed out in 33rd.

The Americans had a disastrous night after going into the evening in bronze position and ended up 10th, with Britain ahead of them in ninth.

Meanwhile France and Belgium climbed up through the order from fifth and eighth overnight to take the team silver and bronze medals.

The next round of the individual showjumping contest takes place on Friday night, when the top 30 riders fight for a place in Saturday night’s final, where the four leading riders swap horses and all jump a round on each other’s mounts.

Showjumping results from WEG

Full report on the showjumping from WEG in H&H out 14 October, more updates on the individual contest online later in the week.

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Britain has qualified for the team showjumping final at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games tomorrow evening by finishing in 10th place after the second leg of competition today.

British team first-timer Scott Brash (pictured) improved dramatically on his performance yesterday to just have four faults for a foot in the water with Intertoy Z today.

“I’m a lot happier today, he jumped excellently,” said Scott. “I’m a bit gutted about the water, I thought he’d jumped it, but he must have just touched on it. He’s not a great speed horse, so the course suited him better today and I rode him better than yesterday.”

Michael Whitaker ended up as Britain’s discard score today after having the planks after the water and the final oxer down on GIG Amai.

“I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m pretty pleased with the way he jumped,” he said. “I gave him a big kick at the water and after that he got keen and it all got a bit disorganised.”

Robert Smith, who went clear this morning on Talan with one time-fault, is in eighth position individually after two rounds, while David McPherson (Chamberlain Z) also contributed to the team score today with just four faults at the water.

Tomorrow’s competition will be over the same track as today’s, with some alterations to dimensions of fences. The water jump will also be replaced by another fence — potentially good news for Britain as Intertoy Z and Chamberlain Z both faulted there today.

Germany is leading the team contest after today’s competition, with Brazil in the silver position and the USA in bronze. But the scores are very close, with six teams within one fence down and Britain only six marks behind Germany.

“We’re sitting pretty here tonight as the one-two-three, but we could be five-six-seven tomorrow,” said Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa at the press conference.

Rodrigo (HH Rebozo) is second in the rolling individual standings to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Khaled Al Eid (Presley Boy).

There has been some confusion about the format for tomorrow’s competition, but a statement just released has clarified matters. In the evening, starting at 7.20pm (00.20am Thursday in Britain), the top 15 individual riders — either competing as individuals or whose teams are not in the top 10 — will jump first in reverse order. The top 10 teams then jump in reverse order, so Britain’s riders will be first to go in each rotation. The final team placings are decided after this. Only the top 10 teams are still in the running for team medals.

In the afternoon, starting at 1pm (6pm in Britain), all team members whose teams were placed below 10th, plus individuals who are not qualified for the evening, will jump. This session will take place in reverse order of individual classification.

Showjumping results from WEG

Log on tomorrow to find out where Britain’s showjumping team finishes, full report on the WEG showjumping in H&H out 14 October.

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Some days you luck in, some days you luck out. Today, it looks like I’ve lucked in. While my Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games reporting colleague Sarah Jenkins shivers at the paradressage — I’ve just lent her a fleece — I get to watch showjumping in blazing sunshine.

After yesterday’s exhaustion, I’ve got my second wind. And I’m loving showjumping today. I had the opportunity to walk the course and wow, those jumps are big. I evented to intermediate level and have walked my fair share of four-star cross-country tracks in the service of H&H, and I thought I knew about bravery and huge fences, but this is something different.

The other great thing is that the organisation here have made a serious effort with the presentation of their course. Each day, there’s a theme, with the jumps decorated accordingly. Today, it’s Kentucky racing. So fence six is the Tote Board and Winner’s Circle (above left) — “Here the Churchill board displays this year’s Kentucky Derby results” says the helpful explanatory sheet which comes on the reverse side of my course map.

It’s a good thing they’ve got 5,000 volunteers here, because it took a small army to reassemble the Tote Board (below right) when Kamal Bahamdan, from the Kingdon of Saudi Arabia team (KSA in short, took us a while to work that one out), and Cezanne 30 crashed it down.

There’s some confusion here in the press office. We thought only the top 10 teams jumped again tomorrow night, but the organisers have now announced another session of jumping tomorrow afternoon for the teams placed below 10th, so everyone gets to jump again — or at least, that’s the current plan, but don’t be surprised if it changes. With individuals thrown into the mix too, it’s tricky to keep up, and the poor press office staff are having a nightmare trying to get us the right information.

With luck, it won’t affect Britain too much, because if Scott Brash and Michael Whitaker can keep up the great efforts made by Robert Smith and David McPherson this morning, we’ll be jumping in the eventing.

In an effort to keep up my reputation as “the girl who mostly blogs about what she eats”, I took a picture of my pudding last night (left) in the gorgeous fish restaurant we ate in. It was, as you can see, rather large. I didn’t eat it all, even I have my limitations. But they kindly popped the leftovers in a box for me to take home. Note to Editor: don’t worry, I’m not exceeding my daily food expenses budget. Food is cheap here.

I’m off to find out the latest on the showjumping tomorrow, but while that kind of change would sometimes throw me, I’m taking it in my stride today. The sun’s shining, Britain’s doing well — and I’ve got half a macadamia nut brownie in the fridge for when I get back to the hotel.

Log on again for more updates on the showjumping at WEG, full report in H&H out 14 October.

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Britain lies seventh halfway through the second leg of the team showjumping competition at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The top 10 teams go through to tomorrow night’s final, so the pressure is on to retain that position this afternoon.

After his strong performance yesterday, Robert Smith (pictured) racked up another clear this morning with Talan, adding just one time-fault to his score.

“I’d like to have not had the time-fault, but at the beginning he was quite careful so I had to give him a little bit of time, and then he got quite strong,” said Robert. “One minute I was kicking, the next I was pulling.”

Britain’s second rider David McPherson had four faults when Chamberlain Z landed in the water jump at fence seven, and was left kicking himself for a “dummy jockey error”.

“I’m as sick as a pig — my horse was jumping amazingly,” he said. “When I go to the water, he gets a bit quicker than I anticipate, so the last stride gets a bit compressed [leading to him landing short]. It’s his greenness showing, he’s not consistent in the length of his stride.”

America led overnight, but has slipped to fourth now, with Germany taking the lead. Mario Deslauriers, yesterday’s individual leader for the home nation, had eight faults today with four at the water and the last down. He jumped out of order due to Urico losing a shoe in the warm-up, but said this did not affect his performance.

“At the water he drifted left which made the stride a little off and made a real effort but must have just touched the tape,” he said. “The last fence was unlucky — he overjumped the front rail and got it behind.”

Britain’s Scott Brash is the second rider in after the lunch break, with Michael Whitaker later this afternoon.

Showjumping results from WEG

Log on again for more updates on the showjumping at WEG, full report in H&H out 14 October.

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Three of the four British riders were disappointed today in the speed competition which opened the showjumping at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

This afternoon, championship debutant Scott Brash was first out for Britain with Intertoy Z, having three down to finish with an adjusted time of 89.02sec, including 12sec added for faults. He now lies 82nd out of 120 competitors.

“I’m very disappointed, to be honest,” he said. “The speed competition wouldn’t be his strong point, but I expected him to be spooky in there and he wasn’t, he was too forward. I expected him to back off and jump, but he didn’t. It’s a learning curve and I hope he’ll be better tomorrow.”

British anchorman Michael Whitaker was enjoying a brilliant round on GIG Amai until taking off too far from the parallell over the water tray at fence 12 and taking off the bar, and then going on to hit the second part of the double which followed.

“The first one was definitely my fault — I was too far off,” said Michael. “I really fired him at the one before and got away with it, so I went on the same one again, but didn’t get away with it. It was a bit too much of an ask for a younger horse. You can’t blame him, he was trying.”

Michael’s adjusted time of 82.28sec leaves him 43rd.

David McPherson also had two down this morning on Chamberlain Z, and now lies 56th.

The British team lies ninth, and although this is a training team of younger horses here for experience rather than medals, the riders were visibly disappointed with today’s performance.

The only happy British rider was Robert Smith, who produced a fast clear on Talan and finished 14th out of the 120 starters.

The home side dominated today, with lunchtime leader Marco Deslauriers holding top spot on Urico at the end of the day and McLain Ward slotting in just behind him on Sapphire. Hungary’s Sándor Szász is third on Moosbachhofs Goldwing. (Pictured are McLain, Mario and Sándor, left to right).

In the team standings, America leads, followed by Germany and then France.

All Britain’s riders will jump again in the team round tomorrow, after which the top 10 teams go through to the team final on Wednesday night.

Showjumping results from WEG

Log on again for more updates on the showjumping at WEG, full report in H&H out 14 October.

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British team members David McPherson and Scott Brash (pictured) will be taking their World Equestrian Games (WEG) horses to Gijon, Spain for a last run before leaving for Kentucky.

Named on the Gijon CISO 5* Nations Cup team to compete on 3 September, the grey Chamberlain Z is owned and ridden by McPherson and is a veteran of two Meydan Nations Cup teams.

Brash’s ride Intertoy Z made his Meydan Nations Cup debut at La Baule in May.

They will compete in Spain beside fellow Brits Tim Stockdale and his King George V Gold Cup winner Fresh Direct Kalico Bay, and Robert Bevis (Courtney 6).

The WEG squad has been selected with the idea of building experience for London 2012 and includes Tina Fletcher (Hello Sailor) who, along with Brash, will be making her championship debut in Kentucky. They will be joined by team stalwart Michael Whitaker (GIG Amai II) and McPherson.

The World Equestrian Games take place in Kentucky, USA, from 25 September to 10 October, with the showjumping taking place from 4-9 October.

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Michael Whitaker has gained the ride on David McPherson’s former British team horse Pilgrim II.

David rode the Holstein stallion to a British team bronze medal in the 2007 European Championships at Mannheim (pictured right) before the horse was sold to Norway’s Line Raaholt.

Since leaving the UK the horse has also been ridden by Dutch rider Henk van der Pol.

“I schooled him in a small class at Addington for second place at our first show” said Michael, who plans to test the waters over a bigger track at Hickstead, where he is entered for the Bunn Leasure Derby Tankard on Thursday.

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British team managers are bemoaning the sale of David McPherson’s European bronze medal-winning show jumper, Pilgrim, to Norway.

The deal was struck late last month to catch the 1 January deadline for registering horse and rider together in time for the Beijing Olympics, at which Norway will field a team for the first time.

“This is a major blow,” said British show jumping team manager Derek Ricketts. “Pilgrim performed really well in the Europeans. He is a real championship horse.”

The 13-year-old stallion was sold by his owner, Germany’s Peter Nagel-Tornau, to 24-year-old Norwegian rider Line Raaholt.

David McPherson told H&H that the sale happened very quickly — and had not been part of his plan.

“I guess there was a feeding frenzy coming up to the end of the year, and he is a horse that has jumped two championships,” he said. “The biggest problem is we have phenomenal riders in this country, but not the depth of horsepower. Let’s hope that changes by 2012.”

The pair posted some good results last year, including jumping the sole double clear of the team to take Britain to victory in the Rotterdam leg of the Samsung Super League in June.

David added that he felt the horse had improved enormously since he took over the ride in February 2007, and had another 30% to give.

“You can’t put in to words how you feel, but as much as I hated losing Pilgrim, in show jumping this is one of the facts of life,” he said. “It’s a business, and horses change hands for an extraordinary amount of money. There’s not much you can do if owners choose to sell.”

British team performance director Will Connell said the pair had been major contenders to represent the country at this summer’s Olympics.

“They were in the team that won Great Britain its first show jumping medal in 10 years, and the horse was a power jumper with the scope to jump Olympic tracks,” said Mr Connell. “It’s a big shame, especially for David, but that’s the business. The Brits went very well at Olympia, and we have to look forward.”

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This story was first published in Horse & Hound (3 January, ’07)

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Britain has a five-man show jumping squad for the first of the season’s Samsung Super League Nations Cups in La Baule, France (10-13 May) .

All five are members of the BSJA’s new Performance squad and will be led by team manager Derek Ricketts.

The team comprises Nick Skelton and Lisa Hales’s 12-year-old stallion Russel; William Funnell (pictured) with his 2006 Hickstead Derby winner, Cortflex Mondriaan, owned by Julie Slade; David McPherson, who has returned to Britain from Germany and will partner Peter Nagel-Tournau’s Pilgrim II; Mark Armstrong on his wife Emma’s mare Thesaura and British number one Michael Whitaker, riding Gillespie Equestrian’s Las Vegas grand prix winner, Suncal Portofino 63 .

The Nations Cup takes place on Friday, 11 May, and the Longines Grand Prix finishes the show on Sunday, 13 May.

The Performance squad is one of three groups identified as part of the new BSJA and World Class Performance development plan. The plan is designed to assist riders to maximise their horses’ performance and therefore improve Britain’s results at international level.

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Michael Whitaker completed a fantastic day for his family by riding Insultech Portofino to victory in the opening leg of this year’s British Open Show Jumping Championship at Sheffield’s Hallam FM Arena.

A wonderfully smooth round from the Yorkshireman put him just 0.13sec ahead of wildcard qualifier David McPherson, who rode a classy round on another mare, Bob Moore’s good Bob’s Diamond.

Dutchman Eric van der Vleuten was third on Paloma, with reigning champions Robert Smith and Kalusha looking dangerous in fourth. Good rounds from Robert Whitaker (La Croix), Geoff Luckett (Compliment) and Tim Stockdale (Fresh Direct Corlato) also put them in contention for Sunday’s showpiece class.

Michael was delighted with Portofino, saying: “She felt really good and that was as good a round as she’s jumped here.”

Ellen Whitaker opened the show with a great performance on Kanselier to win the Steel City Shield, while the masters’ jump-off resulted in a “Whitaker whitewash”. John produced a fantastic round on Exploit Du Roulard, chased all the way by son Robert with the lovely coloured horse, Nureev.

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