FEI Nations Cup Rotterdam News

With pre-Olympic tension reaching boiling point, Germany grabbed maximum points in the fourth leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ 2012 series at Rotterdam, The Netherlands today. But the eventual winners were pushed all the way to the finish line by the super-cool Swedes who piled on the pressure with four clear performances in the second round. The French, at last, provided Chef d’Equipe Henk Nooren with an encouraging third-place result, while the Irish slotted into fourth ahead of Switzerland in fifth. The British were hampered by a difficult day for pathfinder, Tim Stockdale, to take sixth, while the Dutch finished a disappointing seventh ahead of Belgium in eighth place. It was like a pressure-cooker in the Rotterdam ring, with Olympic selection hanging in the balance for so many of the horses and riders. And as German team-member, Ludger Beerbaum, pointed out “it was a really exciting competition because until the last rider went in it wasn’t clear who would be the winner!"