seats as two of Britain’s top showjumpers
were in contention to win with very fast
clears against the clock in the jump off.
But they were totally awe struck when
rank outsiders Emanuele Gaudiano and
Admara produced a blistering round
against the clock that just could not be
beaten.
The 29-year-old Italian and his
10-year-old gelding left the other 16
competitors in the jump off in their
wake, with a fearless gallop to the last
and some incredible displays of agility
by the horse to leave the poles up at such
acute angles. The remaining top-class
contenders were at least a second behind
the pair, with Ben Maher taking the
runner-up title with Diva ll ahead of
Michael Whitaker and Viking in third,
world number one Scott Brash and Hello
M’Lady in fourth and Guy Williams and
Titus taking fifth place, having set a fast
clear very early on.
In just his second visit to the event,
Emanuele certainly gave his team a
Christmas to remember but the modest
rider, who wasn’t short of delivering
the goods in the arena, was a little more
reticent with his words afterwards, “to
win here is very nice for me because Italy
can only send one rider to an FEI World
Cup class and I chose to come here as I
Image: Ben Maher riding Diva
credit Kit Houghton
10
Image: Emanuele Gaudiano riding Admara
credit Kit Houghton
really love this show”. He did however,
speak more freely about his mount who
he has had since a two-year-old, “he’s a
fantastic horse, very clever and careful,
and I love him.”
Ben and Diva did a bit of jumping
by brail, tapping a few rails as they sped
round the track, but most importantly
left everything up to slot into second. Try
as they might, they just could not catch
the impressive speed of the Italian before
them - “Emanuele, when he’s clear, it’s
impossible to beat him. “Ben said of his
successor, “he’s renowned for being a
very fast rider but next year, he’s better
off being in Italy than here!” he laughed.
The class had an unusually large
number of entries into the jump off
given the level of prestige associated
with this Global competition, but as
course designer Bernardo Costa Cabral
said, “it’s a fine line of balance between
making the event sporting and giving
the spectators a show.” In this instance,
the course walked more difficult than it
rode, but with a track not totally up to
height, even the restrictive parameters of
the Olympia Grand Hall were not going
to be enough to produce a satisfactory
level of clears in the first round to make
EVERYTHING HORSE MAGAZINE • Issue 28 • January 2016