The World’s Top Equine Athletes Declared Ready for Top-level Sporting Action

All the top show jumping horses starring in the second leg of the Global Champions Tour got the green light today after passing the mandatory vet inspection.

The elite equine athletes lined up for the strict health check under clear blue skies at the Oliva Nova Equestrian Centre in the province of Valencia, Spain.

The Grand Prix of Spain on Saturday evening will see the best riders competing for a total prize purse of €285,000 and with crucial ranking points at stake, both horses and riders will need to be in top condition to win the Banco Sabadell Trophy.

Australian rider Edwina-Tops Alexander is current GCT Champion of 2011 and has already turned up the pressure on the other riders by winning the first leg of 2012 in Doha, Qatar.

Over the past few days state-of-the-art trucks transported the highly-prized show jumping horses from destinations across Europe to participate in the first European GCT of the 2012 season.

Global Champions Tour Show Director Marco Danese said: “The horses all passed the vet inspection and are ready for a great show this weekend.” Mr Danese explained that GCT has a top team of veterinarians and a high tech mobile vet clinic on site at the arena because the welfare of the horses is always a priority.

Horses participating in both the 2* and 5* classes were inspected this afternoon before the 2* and 5* jumping classes get underway on Friday. Many of the top riders will take the opportunity to challenge some of their new and younger horses on the courses designed by the internationally recognised Frank Rothenberger.

The sand arena near the golfing greens of the Oliva Nova club, is close to the  wide beaches lining this stretch of the Mediterranean coast. Horses and riders were enjoying the sea breeze as they trained in earnest for the forthcoming competition for the richest prize money in the sport of show jumping.

The world class competition will be broadcast to millions of viewers on Eurosport, national TV channels and via GCT livestreaming.

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