Helsinki International UB Horse Show offers the public the best names in jumping. Helsinki has six Top 10 riders. Among the field of riders are equestrian legends as well as new young stars. Also the Finns have a strong team, headed by Nina Fagerström, for the UB Horse Show.

Among the Top 10 riders there are familiar names from the previous Helsinki Horse Shows but also some new names. The European Champion and the World Equestrian Games silver medalist Kevin Staut is at the top of the European ranking list. The FEI World Cup winner Christian Ahlmann comes to Helsinki to defend both the Rolex FEI World Cup™ and the Helsinki Grand Prix wins.

The Irish Denis Lynch and Billy Twomey visit Helsinki for the first time. The leading lady, Edwina Alexander has won two GCT Grand Prix’s in Chantilly and Cannes and is always a strong competitor. The former world number one Pius Schwizer is familiar with winning in Helsinki.

- The five-star status has attracted the very best riders to Helsinki. The top competition with the equine “NHL stars" is a treat we can offer to the Finnish public once a year, says Event Director Tom Gordin.

The Germans have a strong team backing Ahlmann with the three time World Cup winner, the charismatic Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, Alexander's team mate Daniel Deusser, the World Equestrian Games medalist René Tebbel, Holger Wulschner and Jan Sprehe.

Also the French have a competitive team in addition to Staut. Patrice Delaveau shared the team silver with Staut at the World Equestrian Games in Lexington. The World Champion Roger-Yves Bost has already 22 international wins with over ten different horses this season. Clément Boulanger is the least experienced rider of the team.

There are many other interesting riders to point out like the Britt Ben Maher, who won team bronze at the European Championships in Madrid, the Irish Cian O'Connor who won three classes in Helsinki Horse Show in 2006, the Dutch Wout-Jan van der Schans, who has won three times the World Cup qualifier in Helsinki, and the lovely Swedes, successful Malin Baryard-Johnsson and the new star Angelica Augustsson.

Finnish Young Riders are making a strong debut

The highest ranked Finn, Nina Fagerstöm (68.), leads a promising team to Helsinki together with the 20 years old national Grand Prix winner Anna-Julia Kontio. Both ladies won classes in Helsinki last year, and are the public favorites this year. The brand new Finnish Champion Mikael Wahlman, 19, who is the youngest ever title winner, will be a hot favorite as well with his 8-years old Wilantos van Bon Cheval. 

Swedish based riders Piia Pantsu, Satu Liukkonen and Sebastian Numminen, and Dutch based Jessica Timgren are named for the World Cup classes together with Fagerström and Kontio.

Roosa Ruutsalo, Lotta-Riikka Rintamäki and the Young Riders Finnish Champion Annina Nordström are nominated for the other international classes. Ville Peltokoski, Sanna Backlund, Marina Ehrnrooth and Hanna Tardiveau qualified last weekend in Ypäjä.

Highest price money in sports

UB Horse Show has 60 international riders. The main classes are the Helsinki Trophy on Friday, the UB Grand Prix on Saturday, and the Rolex FEI World Cup™ qualifier on Sunday at 15.45 hours local time.

There are totally nearly 300 riders and 400 horses taking part in the event. UB Horse Show has the highest ever price money, 400.000 € of which 110.000 € is divided in the Rolex FEI World Cup™ class. It is the highest price money in sports in Finland. There are five Rolex Ranking classes in UB Horse Show.

UB Horse Shows’ partners are Rolex, UB Asset Management Ltd, the City of Helsinki, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finnish Equestrian Federation, a number of partners, as well as The Horse Show Crew - more than 450 volunteers. The Finnish Broadcasting Company covers the event with over five hours of live program on Saturday and Sunday. The organizers expect more than 40 000 visitors to this year's event. 

Download: CSIW international riders