Zallina

Since last Wednesday, Camilla Sæbø Hansen and her horse Zanzibar has successfully defended the Danish colors at the junior European Championships in the Military who is taking place in Portugal. The Equipage, has only been together since April of this year and has shown superb form all season. Showing many impressive results - including a superb victory at the Nordic-Baltic Championships in July and another convincing victory in CCI1 * in Poland in early August. Camilla and Zanzibar arrived at the showground in Portugal on Monday morning after 4 days of driving through Europe. One of the big questions at this year's European Championships have obviously been how the horses would cope with the high temperatures in Portugal at this time of year. But from the first day Zanzibar made all worries to shame - he has been really fresh and totally unaffected throughout the week. Already Tuesday dinner arrived Chef d'Equipe Lars Christensson to Portugal, and he has all week help the riders with the training, timing and all other practical tasks associated with the regatta. After a dressage ride, which unfortunately crept into a few minor errors in the walk and parades, was Camilla and Zanzibar fine with the top of the class on a shared 12th place with 48, 1 penalty. A slightly disappointing result for Camilla, who with Zanzibar usually guarantees a completely error-free ride, but with just 6.2 points down to Emily King and Mr. HIHO first space was the championship is still far from settled. Ground track which was built by Eric Winter so at first glance not seem to be causing major difficulties. But after Saturday's first section had the riders realized that the track featured a number of challenges as a large part of the riders found difficult to solve. Out of the 53 riders to start in the championship had 12 riders withdrawn from the terrain and further 11 riders had to collect 1 or more stops in the terrain. Only 18 riders managed to ride through the terrain track flawlessly. Camilla and Zanzibar showed superb form all around the track. Every jump was forced in convincing style and finish line was crossed just one second over the allowed time! A result which meant that Camilla moved up 4 places in the standings where she ended up in eighth place before Sunday's decisive show jumping. The show jumping was set for a blast of a thriller, where just 10.2 points was the distance from No. 1 to No. 20! Any error would be a very costly affair and providing us with extra excitement among both participants and audience. Fortunately, Zanzibar is fantastically strong in all 3 disciplines and he and Camilla have only taken a single boom this year - and it was their very first one * class together. Even before the show jumping Camilla got the happy news that she and Zanzibar would be awarded a special prize for the horse that was in the best condition for the terrain. Very impressive as Zanzibar, is even one of the show's oldest horses. The vet estimated him to be in the absolute best form as he crossed the finish line. At 15.00 Sunday afternoon started jumping on the 20 best riders in the championship. Camilla was with eighth place one of the last to ride, and as the class progressed, it became clear that it was very small with clear rounds. When Camilla and Zanzibar rode on the track, there had only been 4 clear rounds in the whole class! But with great overview and a fantastic profits forced Camilla the obstacles flawlessly one after another on a most enthusiastic Zanzibar, which all showed no signs of fatigue after yesterday terrain ride. After about 70 seconds on the track Camilla and Zanzibar flawlessly passed the finish line as the fifth rider in the class to great rejoicing for the small but enthusiastic Scandinavian camp - and when a couple of the last riders took one or more fences. Camilla moved additional 3 places forward and ended as a very nice 5th space, which must be one of the best junior performance at Euro Military of Denmark in a long time. That fight at the top of this year European Championship was even incredibly close. Class 2 leading riders in show jumping - Emily King at Mr. HIHO from England and German Josephine Wilms on Corvette D - became, respectively. 1 and 2 fences relegated to secondary positions, while gold instead went to English Zoe Brenan of Latino K ending at 46.9 penalty points. French Kevin Seignier on Or You Genet rode with 47.1 penalty points silver medal home and another Briton, David Doel with Kings Cross secured the bronze medal with a score of 47.9 penalty points. Camilla and Zanzibar ended as mentioned in a fifth place with a total score of 48.5 penalty points just 1.6 penalty points for the gold! In the team competition gold went to England, while the silver went to Germany and the bronze to France.