The Classique Internationale De Blainville (Jumping Blainville) will host top course designers David Ballard and Linda Allen Salinas during its two weeks of exciting competition. The first week of Jumping Blainville will get underway July 7-11, 2010, and the second week will continue July 14-18, 2010. Jumping Blainville has hosted 22 World Cup Qualifying competitions, and this year it will host the $60,000 World Cup Qualifier on Sunday, July 18, 2010.
Riders representing Belgium, England, France, Guatemala, Venezuela, Russia, Austria, Ireland, the United States and Canada will travel to Jumping Blainville to compete on July 16 and 18,, 2010, for FEI and World Cup points, In 2008, Alison Firestone Robitaille took home the top prize in the World Cup Qualifier, and in 2009 the win went to Andres Rodriguez. Both riders will be returning to Jumping Blainville in 2010 to vie for the winning title once again. Native Quebec riders David Arcand, François Lamontagne, Paul Halpern, Laurie Bucci and Angela Laurence Covert will also be there to represent their province.
David Ballard and Linda Allen Salinas are two of the world’s most experienced course designers, combining more than 75 years of experience in course designing at the top competitions. They will use their knowledge to present an exciting arrangement while working around the horse psychology with the available jumps, and offering both horses and riders an exciting challenge for the world-class events.
David Ballard FEIO, of Canada, was the assistant course designer in both the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. His courses are known to be safe and use intelligent turns to promote the agility of the horse, bringing out the best in both the horses and the riders. Ballard’s exciting design will be the highlight event on Sunday July 11, during the $40,000 Grand Prix Jumping Quebec.
Linda Allen Salinas is an FEIO course designer, FEI International judge and show jumping clinician. She started competing in 1970, and was the course designer during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia and the 1992 World Cup Finals in Del Mar, California. She has won the Walter Cox Trophy and American Horse Show Association Course Designer of the Year award four times. Allen is known for delicate attention to detail when producing a course. She will spend hours looking at the riders and examining every detail of the course before she is satisfied. On Friday, July 16, she will design the course for the $32,000 FEI Welcome Stake, and on Sunday, July 18, riders from 10 Nations will try to produce clear results during the $60,000 World Cup Qualifier.
For more information about Jumping Blainvillle or to download a copy of the prize list please go to www.classiqueblainville.com.
