Venezuela’s Andres Rodriguez has acquired the talented gelding Verdi from Ukraine’s Alexander Onischenko and Team Ukraine. Verdi, ridden for Ukraine by Ulrich Kirchhoff and Cassio Rivetti this past season, will now be ridden under Venezuela’s exciting young talent, Andres Rodriguez. The 12 year-old gelding jumped well in the 2013 season under Kirchhoff, jumping on the winning Ukrainian team in the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup in Rome in May. With Cassio Rivetti, Verdi jumped double clear for the winning Team Ukraine at the Nations Cup event at Linz-Ebelsberg. In addition, Cassio Rivetti and Verdi finished second in the CSI4* Grand Prix of Linz-Ebelsberg. The gelding is certainly an exciting addition to Andres’ team and will certainly be a very strong mount for the 29 year old jockey, who is currently ranked 90th on the Longines World Rankings. “It is a very exciting opportunity for me to ride a horse that has been at the big sport for a couple of years,” says Andres. “We will start in Oliva, Spain and then just make a plan from there, depending on how it goes in Spain.” © Arao Enterprises
