27 March 2018
Caravino 2018: A good start into the outdoor season
The fourth edition of the CAI2* at Caravino near Turin took place this last week-end, March 22 to 25 and saw 37 starters in the International classes, the strongest being the Single Horse Class in the year of the forthcoming World Championship in Kronenberg (Ned).
Beat Schenk
Unfortunately only one German driver found the way southbound in the Youth classes, in spite of the fact that the European Championship will be staged this coming August in Hungary. Definitely a lost occasion to test their preparation and the opinion of the Ground Jury President, Ms. Pia Skar from Denmark, who will fulfill the same position also at the Championship.
In addition also a CAN was held, judged by an Italian Jury directed by level 3 FEI judge Mariangela Beverina, also on the International event panel, with another 11 emerging or even starting competitors, happy to have the rare opportunity to drive a marathon in their home country.
Despite spite of heavy rains a couple of days before starting dressage and the rather pessimistic weather forecast for Sunday, the good reputation of Mediterranean sunshine was not contradicted and the excellent natural ground conditions allowed for a perfect footing during all 3 competitions: the dressage arena even had to be watered and the marathon was holding up with no damaged track till the last driver crossed the finish line.
Cristiano Cividini
Photo: Moreno Benvenuti
All the starters and their trainers were very satisfied for the technical difficulties built into the courses by Italian CD Gabriele Panier Suffat. The entire marathon was on private terrain in the woods with no car traffic to cope with and easy on the horses legs, while the cones course was just hard enough to have a challenging test with only two clear rounds in the whole international field.
Of the very strong and numerous Swiss delegation, the absolute best driver altogether was young Stefan Ulrich in the Singles Class, who won both the marathon and the cones and only 1,28 points off the winner of the dressage. He presented also a second horse, a young Trakehner, which placed fifth. Of the 17 starters in this field, the first 7 places went to Swiss drivers but although 8th the first Italian competitor, Cristiano Cividini, was very happy with the performances of his 6-year old horse at his first competition.
In the Pairs class only home driver Jozsef Dibak was able to stand up against the strong Swiss competitors, placing second behind bronze medal winner at the last championship Beat Schenk and preceding Stefan’s father, Werner Ulrich, a long time leader on the international scene.
In the pony and the youth classes the scarce attendance offered a limited challenge but everyone had a good chance to test his or hers start into the season, before attending harder contests.
Altogether a very nice event, in a simple ambience surrounded by snow covered mountains almost like in a fairy tale, with the Organizers, the Filisetti family trying to improve every year. Of the six obstacles two were new and one rearranged, there is plenty of space to train, and last but not least, good home cooking!
For next year the hope is that the good success of this event will attract more competitors from several other countries to give it the status of ideal starting place for the international scene.
Elvezia Ferrari
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