Gwendolen dans Eventing Magazine

24 avril 2015

IT is some years since France fielded a female on a championship team, but with Gwendolen Fer taking second individually and leading the home side to victory in the Nations Cup, she could be difficult to ignore when it comes to picking the Gallic squad for the Blair Europeans.

“It was my first time as a formal member of the French team for a Nations Cup and I really wanted to do well to repay the confidence that Thierry Touzaint and Michel Asseray have shown me,” said Gwendolen, who has taken part in squad training sessions at

Saumur over the winter.

Riding Romantic Love, the 29-year-old was 13th after dressage with 44.1, but then moved up the leader board with the fastest cross-country round by some distance.

Gwendolen finished just three seconds over the 6min 19sec optimum time, a full 15 seconds faster than the next speediest performance.

“Fontainebleau is well known for the difficulty of reaching the time, but Romantic felt easy and gave me the right answers all the

way, so we tried to continue in the same rhythm,” she said. “He's a great cross-country horse — he has a very strong gallop and is

able to re-engage rapidly after the fences.”

The pair were fourth in the CCI3* at Blair last year and since then have worked with Serge Cornut and Jean-Pierre Blanco

on the dressage.

“I could feel he was quite excited before the dressage in Fontainebleau, but he produced a personal best at three-star,”

she said. “I know he can do even better. On the jumping side, during the Saumur training sessions I was happy to get

Thierry Pomel's input, as well as that of my jumping coach, Brice Grugeon.

“I was proud he recovered well and kept jumping high at Fontainebleau on difficult ground,” she added.

Gwendolen was backed up by Arnaud Boiteau and Quoriano ‘ENE HN', who finished fourth and have evidently picked up

where they left off last season, when they finished with third at Pau CCI4*. Helene Vattier provided the final counting