Great Britain will line-up alongside Australia, The Netherlands and hosts France for the opening leg of the FEI CICO3* Eventing Nations Cup competition, which gets underway in Fontainebleau, France on Friday (20-22 March 2015).

The British team, supported by the National Lottery UK Sport funded World Class Programme, has been announced as;

• Nick Gauntlett with either Crown Talisman owned by Neil Woodford and Madelaine White or El Grado owned by Neil Woodford and Madelaine White
• Flora Harris with Amazing VIII owned by Caroline Harris and Sue Nicholls
• Izzy Taylor with KBIS Briarlands Matilda owned by Mr Guy Avis
• Francis Whittington with Easy Target owned by Catherine Witt

Team manager Philip Surl commented; “We use the Nations Cup as a development competition, bringing through riders and horses and giving them top level team experience; Fontainebleau sees two new faces to the team in Nick and Flora. We are going out to be as competitive as possible; we’ve had success in the series in the past and we hope to continue this going forwards, particularly with a home Europeans looming.”

Now in its fourth year, the FEI Eventing Nations Cup series, which provides great opportunities for riders to gain team experience, continues with CICO3*s in Ireland, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy and Belgium before the climax at Boekelo (NED) in October. 2014 saw an exciting and close competition, with Germany taking the title ahead of Great Britain.

The Equestrian World Class Programme has been funded through Exchequer and National Lottery funds via UK Sport.

For more information about the Fontainebleau event, please visit www.thecrazyride.com

FEI Nations Cup Eventing Calendar
24-26 April: Ballindenisk, IRL
28-31 May: Houghton Hall, GBR
25-28 June: Strzegom, POL
11-14 August: Aachen, GER
17-20 September: Montelibretti, ITA
24-27 September: Waregem, BEL
8-11 October: Boekelo, NED