Bokerberg, Sweden- The Sweden National Championship Councours de Reining International (CRI) started the day with all nominated horses successfully passing a very brisk Swedish morning horse inspection. But the cool spring weather could not stop the exciting reining competitions.
Vital to the qualification process for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian games (WEG), riders from across Northern Europe scrapped their stifled air travel plans due to closed airports across northern Europe because of Icelandic volcanic activity, and instead drove to beautiful Bokerberg facility in hopes of gaining the compulsory scores, necessary for the increasingly intense effort to make their respective national reining teams for the much anticipated WEG.
Among the starters, three-time Olympic dressage gold-medalist Anky Van Grunsven, riding on behalf of her native land Holland, joins reining athletes from Denmark and the home nation in back-to-back CRI competitions today and tomorrow.
At the press event arranged by the Organizing Committee, when asked to compare the differences between the two sports, Van Grunsven instead chose to focus on the similarities, stating "the basics of dressage are the same as reining. There really is not a major difference at the very basic level. As a matter of fact, there is much we have in common. While I wish that some of the smart things from reining could be adopted by dressage, like the clear, straight-forward scoring system, the two sports are similar on the desire for an enhanced and refined display of horsemanship."
When speaking of her horse, Whizashiningwalla BB, owned by the standing Non-Pro European champion Cira Baeck from Belgium, Van Grunsven spoke warmly about the palomino quarter horse, saying "He is a great horse and we are having a lot of fun together. He is really helping me get the feeling of reining and he knows his sport-sometimes a little too well", she laughs. "As a dressage rider you gain from reining, but sometimes it is hard to remember, for instance in reining when you stop the horse it is the opposite of dressage: you loosen your reins, sit down and just say 'whoa' -and the horse will stop....this doesn't happen in Dressage, Von Grunsven jokes.
The AQHA, on behalf of its international affiliate, the Swedish Quarter Horse Association, has supplied major funding for the Bokerberg event as a part of the Association's continuing effort to increase exposure and awareness of the American Quarter Horse around the world. FEI reining events are one way the Association views as a high-impact way to accomplish this goal.
Born of the maneuvers a western working horse must perform on the ranch, the sport of reining is the only western sport in the FEI family and will enjoy a homecoming, of sorts, at the WEG as they are hosted for the first time in the USA. However, it's no longer just a North American Sport. Reining can be found on five continents and more than 30 nations, including Sweden.
For more information, contact HorsePower, Inc. the producers and managers of the Swedish National Championship Concours de Reining International online at http://www.HPowerInc.com, by email at Brad@HPowerInc.com or by phone at +1.720.982.3574.
For more information on reining activities in Sweden, please contact Anneli Silverstolpe of the Swedish Reining Horse Association http://www.srha.nu mail: asilverstolpe@mac.com or by phone at +46.70.652.01.64.
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