Pavo Cup Pre-Selection to Be Held at Hartpury College in the UK

Possibility for selecting young dressage horses for Pavo Cup semi-finals at Hartpury College, July 3rd. KWPN dressage horses are very successful around the world. The Olympic champion Valegro, the Olympic silver medalist and 2012 World Cup winner Parzival, and the Olympic team gold medalist Uthopia are three of the many outstanding KWPN horses. Their achievements speak for themselves. The KWPN has achieved worldwide success through its policies of strict selection and identifying talent at an early age. The Pavo Cup is one of several tools for identifying talent. The annual competition for four- and five-year-olds has proven to be successful in producing champions. Given the huge success of the first Pavo Cup pre-selections at the 2012 Hartpury Festival of Dressage, pre-selections will be held at the event this year too. On Wednesday, July 3rd, the KWPN and the organizers of the Hartpury CDI will work together again so that  four- and five-year-old dressage horses in the UK can have the opportunity to get selected for the semi-finals, held  at the KWPN Horsedays at the new KWPN-centre in Ermelo, the Netherlands from August 12-17.

The Pavo Cup is a competition for talented four- and five-year-old dressage horses in which they are evaluated in groups of two as they perform various dressage movements in front of an experienced panel of judges. Four-year-olds are required to show the walk, trot, and canter in both directions as well as a few strides of medium trot, medium canter, and leg yield. Five-year-olds must show the basic gaits plus extended trot, extended canter, and shoulder-in. Horses are judged on their basic gaits, carriage and elasticity, overall impression, and functionality and correctness of conformation.

The Pavo Cup pre-selection will take place at the CDI*** on Wednesday, July 3rd, at Hartpury College. The competition, like in the Netherlands, is open to four- and five-year-old dressage horses which meet the registration requirements outlined in the competition rules. Only horses registered with the KWPN or KWPN-NA or those which were registered as foals with the NRPS, as described in the competition rules, are eligible to qualify for the semi-finals held at the KWPN Horse Days event in Ermelo.

For more information and competition rules, please visit www.kwpn.org or e-mail ukwpn@kwpn.nl.