Paris (AFP)

Olympic champions, world champions or world number one: All the best riders rushed to Grimaud (Var) for the first post-containment show jumping competition, the Hubside Jumping, hoping to get back in the saddle, sportingly and financially.

"There are not many competitions, we are fortunate to have this competition to fill the boxes of our competition stables which are suffering a lot in this period", explains to AFP the world N.1, the Switzerland Steve Guerdat.

"I have my own structure and 85% of the income comes from competition winnings. It's an almost white year at the moment, the 30 horses I have are still there, and I have 10 employees", continues- he.

Sunday, it will align itself with the 5-star Grand Prix (the highest level of difficulty) whose endowment is 200,000 euros, of which 25% to the winner.

"It's a fantastic opportunity," said 2008 American Olympic champion Laura Kraut, who lived in confinement in Europe, on her English farm. "I'm so happy! At this time of year, it's rare to have so many top riders."

"Today, we have 22 of the top 30 riders in the world, a few have stayed in the United States", details Denis Monticolo, who works for the organization and who had to refuse the world: "It's sad to say no, sometimes we had to say no to exceptional riders. We are limited to 50 riders for the 5-star competition, and there we had double or even triple requests. "

- 'More exactly the same sport' -

The Grimaud Hubside Jumping was created 3 years ago and is offering a 5-star competition for the first time this year. The organizer fought to make the event exist while the vast majority of competitions were canceled. And other cancellations continue to fall for this end of the year but also for tests scheduled in January and February.

"It feels good," said the 2016 French Olympic champion, Kevin Staut. There was the cessation of the operation of the equestrian centers and also the event part. It's very complicated and it will remain so. "

"Everyone has been affected, individually everyone is trying to manage at best financially. But without the competitions, it has been difficult for the teams focused on the high level," he said.

The rider notes that, concerning him, "the horse was not the first financial sacrifice" on the part of the owners. "The owners continue to take on this sporting part and are not afraid that the 2020 season will be almost white. But 5-star events like at Grimaud, there will be very few."

And the Frenchman goes further. "We are going to have a very difficult winter season to manage with the fear of the new wave, there will be organizers who will not want to take the risk of maintaining the events".

"What will the show jumping look like tomorrow, there will have to be reflections, will there be the same number of contests, should we reduce to make it more readable? changes, I don't know which ones but we will have more exactly the same sport ", he confides.

© 2020 AFP