1. Show jumping

➢ The pluses

Kevin Staut's magnificent victory in the Rolex Top Ten at the CHI in Geneva (2nd French rider only) will surely be remembered for a long time. Staut is also the best French rider of the year, always regular in the top 10 of the FEI rankings with notably 6 months in the top 5 including 4 in third place this year.

On the French side, Julien Epaillard's remarkable year is also worth mentioning, with many big victories; World Cup in Bordeaux, Global Champions Tour at Paris Eiffel Jumping, Longines Speed Challenge in Paris, World Cup in London...

Peder Fredricson's victory at the European Championships (which take place every two years) is noteworthy: he becomes European Champion after having been crowned Olympic vice-champion in Rio last year. Ireland is the European Team Champion, led by Rodrigo Pessoa.

McClain Ward was impressive in Omaha: 4 clear rounds on 4 courses; winner of the Speed Event, the Grand Prix and the World Cup Final.

The revelations of this year are for us the Italians Alberto Zorzi (many podiums and in particular a victory at the Global of Monte Carlo) and Lorenzo de Luca who signs his best year with many beautiful victories (Global of Valkenswaard, Paris Eiffel Jumping, Global of Shanghai)

The surprise of the year: the victory of Pedro Junqueira Muylaert in the Grand Prix de La Baule.

➢ Minus

Nick Skelton, notably Olympic team champion at the London Olympics and individual champion at the Rio Olympics, retired at the age of 59 along with his crack Big Star.

The 2017 edition of the Grand Prix du Saut Hermès left us with a bitter taste, with a course that seemed too hard and almost trapping for the horses and their riders.

➢ Bulk

This year has been marked by many fine sporting performances, such as the victories of Simon Delestre in the World Cup Grand Prix in Lyon, Bosty in Rome, Daniel Desseur in Oslo, and Bassem Mohamed in Doha, to name but a few. Harrie Smolders is remembered for winning the Global Champions Tour by a wide margin.

2. Dressage

It is impossible not to mention Queen Isabell Werth, who once again had a remarkable year, breaking her record in January at the Amsterdam World Cup, winning almost all the major events, and ending her sporting year with three horses in the world's top six.

We remember his beautiful victory in the European Championships, after a duel at the top with Sönke Rothenberger who revealed himself there. The young German rider, only 22 years old, showed an incredible performance in the Grand Prix Libre which earned him a 2nd place with 90.614%, one hair behind Werth (90.982%). It was the first time that two couples exceeded the 90% mark in such a competition.

This year, Hans Peter Minderhoud achieved what could almost be called a feat, beating Isabell Werth for the first time since the Rio Olympics. In the Music Free Ride at the World Cup in 'S-Hertogenbosch in March, the Dutchman obtained an average of 84.890% against 83.300% for Werth.

This feat was repeated in October at the first World Cup dressage event (Herning), where the young Danish rider Cathrine Dufour won at home in front of the world number 1.

As far as the French are concerned, Ludovic Henry and Arnaud Serre performed well at the World Cup Grand Prix in Lyon. Both riders performed well above 70% in the Grand Prix Freestyle. Ludovic Henry beat his personal record in Salzburg a few weeks ago with a beautiful recovery scored at 75.6%.

We also remember the great performance of our French riders last July, which allowed them to win the Nations Cup in Hickstead.

Last but not least, José Letartre was the best French rider at the European Para-dressing Championships, taking 4th place with a score of 70.243% - just two hundredths off the podium. Two of the four French riders took part in the Freestyle Grand Prix: Céline犀利士
Gerny finished 5th and José Letartre 6th in their respective categories.

3. Eventing

Gwendolen Fer scored the most beautiful victory of her career at the CCI 4* in Pau, which allowed her to move up from 86th to 24th place in the world. It is the third French success in a row in this competition, after Astier Nicolas and Maxime Livio.

Michael Jung is still performing superbly and retains his world number one title, which he acquired more than two years ago. He won the FEI Classics circuit.

We salute the performance of Karim Florent Laghouag, king of the indoor cross-country. The Frenchman won for the 3rd time the indoor cross in Bordeaux, won the one in Paris more recently, and then did it again in Geneva for his last outing of the year.

We remember the magnificent performance of the German Bettina Hoy at the European Championships. She came close to her personal record in dressage by performing one of the most beautiful tests in history (24.6) in a major championship.

At these European Championships, Germany lost its team silver medal after Julia Krajewski's horse Samurai du Thot tested positive for drugs.

We are proud of the Frenchman Maxime Livio, who is currently ranked third in the world.

We also note the victories of Andrew Nicholson in Badminton, Karim Laghouag in Pompadour, and Astier Nicolas at the Mondial du Lion.

4. Other significant events

Horse Ball: for the first time in 25 years, the French team, despite being the favourites, lost to Spain (golden goal event after a 7-7 match) and finished 2nd of the European Pro Elite Championships. On the other hand, the French team won (7-4 against Spain) in the Ladies final, and the youth team (under 16) also won a new European title in their category (12-5 against Italy).

Voltige: Clément Taillez, French Vice-Champion, wins the bronze medal at the European Championships. It is the German Erik Oese who is crowned European Champion. Less good performance for the French team who unfortunately had to withdraw to preserve their horse Wizner.

Couse (Galop): French and European record for Christophe Soumillon who has 302 victories in 2017.

Reining: 3rd place for the French at the Junior Reining World Championships, with a beautiful gold medal for Axel Pesek (17 years old).

Driving: we also note the great performance of the Swiss Jérôme Voutaz who won two European Championship titles (marathon and handling) and became vice World Champion behind the untouchable Boyd Exell (Australian - 7th title at this level). The number one rider won again almost all the big events this year, only beaten at the World Cup stage in London by Dutch rider Ijsbrand Chardon.

Olympic Games: it is now official, the 2024 Olympics will be held in Paris.

5. Hard knocks

This year 2017 was also marked by a few sadder events. First of all, the end of Equidia Life, which had been sharing the passion for horses and equestrian sports with as many people as possible since 2011.

We would like to pay tribute to Espoir de la Mare, who passed away at the age of 25. The French saddle horse had allowed his rider Jean Teulère to win many international titles, and in particular to become individual World Champion and Olympic Team Champion.

Baloubet du Rouet also died this year, aged 28. This French saddle-saddle stallion犀利士
s sire, is the only horse to have won the show jumping World Cup final three times in a row. He was also Olympic champion under Rodrigo Pessoa.

Jean Rochefort, ambassador and defender of the world of horses, actor and breeder, died at the age of 87. Fernand Leredde, also left us at the dawn of his 86th birthday. Creator of the Haras des Rouges (Normandy), he was the breeder of Quidam de Revel, a great show jumping stallion, and gave birth to many champions such as Papillon Rouge (Olympic Champion - Show Jumping).

Finally, we were very saddened to learn of the death of the promising French eventer Maxime Debost, only 29 years old and father of a little boy, following an accident on the cross-country course of the CCI 1* in Châteaubriand.

Now that we have reviewed 2017, we wish you a happy holiday season, and a great 2018!

The Seaver Team