Nations Cup week at Deeridge Farms is showcasing 60 Olympic-caliber athletes from 13 countries; they will compete with 115 horses for $716,500 in prize money. On Sunday, the marquee event will take place: The $230,000CSIO5* Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ USA will showcase teams from Canada, Colombia, Ireland, Israel, Mexico and USA that will navigate courses set by one of the world’s most respected course designers, Ireland’s Alan Wade.
The five-member NetJets® U.S. Jumping Team features a powerhouse contingent comprising four Olympic veterans, the last two Longines FEI World Cup™ Champions and two of the four members of the U.S.’s gold medal team from the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games™. The U.S. team features Beezie Madden, a four-time Olympic veteran, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and the reigning Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final Champion; McLain Ward, a fellow four-time Olympian with two gold medals and winner of the 2017 Longines FEI Jumping WorldCup™ Final; 2008 Olympic and 2018 WEG team gold medalist Laura Kraut; 2000 Olympic veteran Margie Engle; and Lucy Deslauriers, who at age 19 is already a veteran of numerous FEI Nations Cup competitions.
The roster of riders from the other nations’ teams includes some of the biggest names in the sport. Canada’s athletes include Mario Deslauriers, an Olympic veteran who won the 1984 FEI World Cup Final; Hyde Moffat; Erynn Ballard, Tiffany Foster, Susan Horn, Amy Millar, and Keean White.
Mexico is represented by five athletes, including Eugenio Garza Perez, Enrique Gonzalez, Manuel Gonzalez Dufrane, Fernando Martinez Sommer, and Juan Jose Zendejas Salgado. The Irish contingent is strong, as it features Cormac Hanley, Darragh Kenny, Paul O’Shea, Conor Swail, and Shane Sweetnam.
Daniel Bluman, a two-time Olympic veteran, heads the list of entries from Israel. That group also includes Ashlee Bond, Ilan Ferder, and Danielle Goldstein. Riders from Colombia include Juan Pablo Betancourt, Ilan Bluman, Juan Manuel Gallego, John Perez Bohm, and Roberto Teran Tafur.
In addition to the six countries sending teams to compete, Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Switzerland and Venezuela have riders competing as individuals. Headlining this group of riders are some of the sport’s most accomplished riders, including Great Britain’s Ben Maher, currently the seventh-ranked rider in the world according to the Longines Jumping Rankings, and Martin Fuchs of Switzerland, who made his Olympic debut in 2016 and was the individual silver medalist at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games™.
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