05/11/2009 - The horses and riders familiarised themselves with the arena today as the doors opened to the public for the Fieracavalli - the great annual equestrian festival which stages the fourth leg of the 2009/2010 Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping series next Sunday as part of Jumping Verona 09.

With this premier Italian fixture upgraded to 5-Star level there are higher expectations and even greater pressures on the organisers.  "The quality of a show is decided by the quality of the horses and riders who are competing in it, but there are also other considerations" said new Show Director, Eleonora Ottiaviani, this afternoon.  "It's not just the horses, riders and big-prizemoney - the event must be run even more efficiently and the arena must look special - everything has to be perfect" she added.  One of the extra pressures on Eleonora personally comes from her role as Director of the International Jumping Riders Club.  "I know all the riders so well, and if I make even a small mistake they will not be slow to let me know about it!"  she said with a laugh today.  

A lady who made just a single mistake in the Rolex FEI World Cup™ jumping competition in 2008 was Spain's Pilar Coron, and she is determined to put that right this time around.  One year ago she had only just started riding the very exciting stallion Herald which had previously been competed by Germany's Markus Beerbaum but she already knew that this could be her "horse of a lifetime".  

"Normally when I get a new horse it takes me maybe a year to build up a partnership, but with Herald it just clicked right away.  It was like as if we were made for each other - he was happy, I was happy, it felt just right" she explained.  It was her spectacular double-clear with this lovely horse at the Meydan FEI Promotional League Final in Barcelona two months ago however that really put her on the map and then last month she won the Grand Prix at St. Lo in France.  However at the last leg of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping series in Lyon last weekend she had two fences down so she is determined to improve on that.  "Herald did nothing wrong - it was all my fault, he is very sensitive in his mouth and I was not careful enough on the turns.  When you are jumping indoors you need a lot of control and we are still learning together" said the 36 year old rider who is based with boyfriend, Gilbert de Roock, at Haras de Wisbeca in Belgium.

Great Britain's Michael Whitaker, meanwhile, was assessing the fitness and readiness of his faithful mare Portofino this afternoon.  Side-lined since May, Michael has only just returned to the saddle and he has wasted no time, producing an excellent performance at the World Cup Qualifier in Syracuse, USA last Saturday where he was only denied a top placing when Wonami van den Aard hit the very last fence.  This 10 year old horse will stay in North America along with the eight year old Udokus who also won a class at Syracuse because the British rider will return to compete in Toronto, Canada before bringing the two horses home for the winter.  So Portofino, who has been such a class act down the years, has been called back into action after an easy summer when she alternated between light work and grazing the fields on Michael's farm.  "She hasn't jumped since Cannes in May - this is her first show back but she's feeling really good.  What I'm planning to do is to compete in tomorrow evening's speed class and see how she is before deciding which one I will ride in the qualifier on Sunday" he explained.He didn't have the best of luck with Portofino in Verona last year when she finished second on the opening day but then pulled up lame next time out - "it was odd that" Michael said today, "because she seemed to tweak herself but a week later she was perfectly sound again".

If Portofino does go through to Sunday's class she will be one of the grand old ladies of the competition at 15 years of age.  Double-champion at Verona, Albert Zoer of The Netherlands will be riding a horse at the other end of the scale, the eight year old grey Uruguay.  "I don't have Oki Doki here because I decided it was safer to take my older horses to the Global Champions Tour Final in Doha next week" he said, but he still has high hopes for a good result this weekend.  "Uruguay has been jumping really super lately - he's good, he might just surprise you on Sunday!" the Dutch rider suggested.