Britain prepares for Samsung Super League

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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