Qatar International Horse Show 2008

Qatar is a peninsula located halfway down the west coast of the Arabian Gulf. It enjoys sunshine almost every day of the year. The Qatar leg in Doha is the start to the 2008 Global Champions Tour, with a massive 5, 5 millions in price money. Qatar as an Arabic country, the week starts with Sunday and ends with Saturday; the Doha show goes on from Thursday to Saturday. Doha is a venue with that meets the highest standards is home to the frequently held Arabian horse races and was home to the Asian Games in 2006 > read our report >.

Mikael and Noora participates with one horse each, Mikael with Nandele and Noora with Evli Maike.

Report 

The passed weekend in Qatar was a welcomed change to the routines in the cold and chilly Northern Europe. The horses has already arrived back and landed in Maastricht on Monday morning. Both mares proved to be excellent travellers and stayed fresh and alert all weekend in a hot and demanding climate. The trip back was hopefully as uncomplicated. The surroundings and arrangements in Doha all left a very good taste and both Noora and Mikael felt it was a worthwhile trip to make.

On Sunday Mikael's Nandele jumped amazingly well and effortlessly a big and demanding 5-star GP. Despite the 8 faults Mikael was heard saying that he believes Nandele is one of their best horses. One Thursday Mikael jumped first in a "smaller" 1m45 class and unluckily took down a rail on the last fence and lost thereby an obvious placing. On Friday the mare jumped a big 1m50 class with good class and was awarded with a few World Ranking points. And despite Saturday's heat, Nandele seemed to still be going well in the biggest challenge ever, jumping for the first time a 5-star Grand Prix, where even many experienced top horses had problems.

Noora's Evli Maike did well especially in Saturday's big 1m50 jump-off class. Noora told she was struggling to find an even feeling with the new horse especially on Thursday, but also on Friday she thought she could have done better herself. On Saturday the rhythm felt right and the course went really pleasingly, despite a +30 Celsius heat that felt really hot around mid-day. 

The incoming week will be much dictated by the upcoming World Cup final and means mostly hard work at home. Noora will also be busy jumping some national classes in Germany, where she shows St. Germain and Quidana. For Gothenburg the horses are loaded on Monday eve.  

Backgrounds:

1. Qatar federation
2. Global Champions Tour

Results Service:

1. Doha Live

Noora's and Mikael's results:

1. Results Summary

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