Royal International Horse Show 2013: Recapping Friday's Top Events

As we approach the weekend’s events, the Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead comes to its inevitable climax, the cream of the crop readying themselves for the most thrilling action.

That being said, it was on Friday that arguably the most anticipated event occurred: the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup, pitting some of the world’s best riding nations against one another.

Of course, there was other action on display in West Sussex, too, none of which failed to entertain the masses on hand to watch.

Saturday and Sunday also offer up a healthy sample of riding events, but first let’s look back at just how Friday unfolded.

Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup

Looked upon as one of the favourites heading into this event, Germany didn’t disappoint its followers with a nearly flawless outing in the FEI Nations Cup.

The only nation not to incur a penalty in Round 1, the European nation led the field of seven other countries thanks to the work of Marcus Ehning, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, Hans-Dieter Dreher and Ludger Beerbaum.

The official FEI Twitter account was quick to point out the German dominance, too:

Meanwhile, hosts Great Britain slipped down to fifth spot after racking up 15 penalties and increasing their chances of relegation to Division 2 come the end of this year’s proceedings.

Children on Horses Grand Prix

Aside from the international action on display, Maja Burnell came out on top of the first individual events of the day, riding a time of 40.45 seconds in the Children on Horses Grand Prix first phase.

Trailing some three seconds behind was Harry Charles riding Milord Delle and three other riders, William Walker, Kerstin Deaking and Henrietta Dales, all of whom fell toward the back of the pack having been handed penalties in their attempts.

In the second phase, Jordon Marshall clocked a time of 32.67 seconds atop Micklow Madness which, combined with their first phase time, was enough to see them above Charles and into a £200 prize fund.

The Old Lodge Young Breeding Horse Championship

After two phases, it was Louise Pavitt and and Sussex Caretino who won the Old Lodge Young Breeding Horse Championship, netting her and her horse a £500 cash sum as a result:

In a close second was Alice Watson and Billy Lemon, while Jamie Wingrove and Diva II received the bronze award.

Things didn’t go quite so well for Michael Jones, who finished last and was the only rider to rack up an aggregate time of more than 90 seconds.