After the two first legs of the FEI World Cup Vaulting 2017-2018, we wanted to give you our insights from the events in Madrid and Paris.

> Madrid – Anna Cavallaro and Lukas Heppler at the top for the second time in a row

Anna Cavallaro
Photo: FEI/Lukasz Kowalski

Even if the audience is a bit shy at Madrid Horse Week in Madrid as most of them are not into vaulting, the athletes were very pleased to be there: Most of them rented a horse, such as Manon Noël (FRA) who told us that it was an interesting experience to share a horse with other vaulters. In fact, she said that “you are challenged by the horse himself, but you also feel less pressure in a way, so you learn quite a lot from this experience“. Manon chose Rosenstolz 99 to perform, lunged by Laura Carnabuci and finally scored 7,570.

Anna Cavallaro (ITA), the wolf, scored 8,500 with the same lent partners. She got the first place, ahead of Kristina Boe (GER) who scored 8,110 with her topical Rey catsuit from Star Wars. She performed on Hot Date Tek with Laura Carnabuci as a lunger.

Silvia Stopazzini (ITA) was very very close to Kristina: She scored 8,107 with her horse Rosenstolz 99 lunged by Laura.

Ilona Hannich (SUI) was attending her first CVI-W and was very happy to be there representing Switzerland, she ended up with 8,011. Ilona said that she was enjoying a lot her freestyle so she was urged to show it again in the next legs. See you soon!

Concerning male vaulters, Lukas Heppler (SUI) showed a great performance in Madrid on a horse he didn’t know (Monaco Franze 4, lunged by Nelson Vidoni from Italy): 8,689 and the first place with his Doctor Strange theme.

Not far from him we also saw a nice freestyle from Jannik Heiland (GER) inspired by the movie “War Horse”, scored 8,668.

The Hungarian Balázs Bence did pretty well with 8,192, even if he doesn’t take himself too seriously with his clownish theme. He chose Hot Date Tek and Laura Carnabuci as partners.

Francesco Bortoletto (ITA) ended up in the fourth place, with a clean freestyle and a final score of 8,068.

Daniel Janes and Kristian Roberts (USA), both from Pacific Coast Vaulters were vaulting on Dante and lunged by Nelson. They had bad luck with the French horse they planned to compete on. The gelding Lutteur Vaucoulmin owned by Zoé Dory got lame a few days before heading to Madrid. Daniel scored 6,542 and Kristian 7,467, giving their best on a horse they have trained with once.

Find the detailed results for the female individuals here and the live videos here.

Find the detailed results for the male individuals here and the live videos here.

After the competition we had a little meet-up (our first VW Meet-Up) and some beers with the participants, lungers and vaulting friends. We were glad to have the chance to chat with them about the Vaulting World, but see yourself!

madrid horse week

> Paris – The French pick up everything

Manon Noel
Photo: Sportenphoto/Philippe Denis

Manon was also in Paris at Salon du Cheval, where she was totally matching with the city with her cute and perfectly executed freestyle of Amélie Poulain. As far as we remember, we never saw Manon so at ease and so beautiful on her horse. She won her first Word Cup with her faithful partners Kirch de la Love and Kevine Moneuse with a final score of 8,448.

Corinna Knauf (GER) showed her new routine on Fabiola W with Alexandra Knauf. She left Paris with the second place and scored 8,237.

Carola Sneekes (NED) performed on a new horse, Safari H, and did very well together with Marjo Sneekes as they got 8,023 as a final score. Sheena Bendixen (DEN) ended with 7,522 on Klintholms Ramstein, lunged by Lasse Kristensen, and Lisa Wild (AUT) who is focusing on trying some new horses at the moment, performed with French Kiss and scored 7,461. Sandra Anderberg (SWE) showed a solid longer version of her Kill Bill freestyle on Klintholms Ramstein, with Lasse as a lunger.

For the male individuals, Clément Taillez (FRA) widened the gap with by far the best score: 8,488. His Sun King freestyle made everyone agree among the audience and the judges: He showed very smooth and elegant moves, as always. Balázs Bence (HUN) chose Safari H to perform his funny choreography this time and ended up with 7,584 for his second participation.

For the very first time, we could see an Australian fellow vaulter attending the World Cup series: James Hocking showed a remarkable and refreshing performance with 7,277. We will see him again in Offenburg, and he will be training in Denmark in the meantime with Lasse.

The other French athlete, Vincent Haenel was not at its best, as he got a final score of 7,026 when we all remember his outstanding performance in Le Mans last year where he got second, not far behind Lambert Leclezio.

Daniel & Kristian both performed on Uvea 21, lunged by Céline Pittard. The horse was apparently inexperienced with this level of competition but behaved pretty well with the vaulters, who finally got 5,550 for Daniel, and 6,464 for Kristian. For the Americans you can imagine that it is quite complicated to organise the trip to Europe so they logically chose to attend the three first legs in a row: Madrid, Paris & Salzburg this weekend. Good luck for the last one!

Find the detailed results for the female individuals here.

Find the detailed results for the male individuals here.

We have also uploaded our live videos on our Facebook page.

Last but not least we would like to mention the presence of Lambert Leclezio, who was out of the competition but performed stunning new moves. We were excited to see him in Paris!

We were also happily surprised to see Hannah Eccles in Madrid, as she was invited to comment the FEI livestream. Hannah is now coaching in Scotland, but she admitted she was missing her trainings at the moment so we might see her back on a horse sooner than later. 😉

The next step of this FEI World Cup will happen in Salzburg, Austria, from this Friday, 3:30 p.m, don’t miss it!