The FEI, the World Governing Body for Equestrian Sport, this week confirmed that Bermuda as a country has gained two Individual Places in Show Jumping and one Individual Place for Dressage for the forthcoming Pan American Games to be held in Ontario this summer.
The Show Jumping places were gained by virtue of the excellent performances of two of our European based riders over the past year, Patrick Nisbett and Jillian Terceira, who virtually every week during both Outdoor and Indoor seasons competed in International level competitions throughout Europe thereby gaining valuable points to be recognized on the Longines sponsored World Ranking Points list.
This is a complex system whereby riders gain points depending upon their results over the course of a year and at the end of February 2015 the points standings were used by the FEI to determine that one place was awarded to the best placed rider from Group IV which covers North America and the Caribbean region, and the other place was awarded to the best place rider in the whole of the Americas.
However the places are awarded to the country not to the individual rider, but in Bermuda’s case it is most likely that Nisbett and Terciera will be the riders to represent Bermuda in Canada in Jumping.
The place for Dressage was gained by participation in the Central American and Caribbean Games held last November in Mexico, where rider Virginia McKey placed sufficiently high enough to gain the spot.
However again the place is awarded to the country and not the individual rider and this situation is further complicated in that the place can be competed at Prix St George test level or the higher Grand Prix level.
Actual representation will not be decided until later in the Summer.
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