Beau de Laubry Z helps colour the Grand Prix podium in Nancy

In France last weekend, the international show jumping community headed to Nancy, where a new edition of Jump'Est was on the programme. For four days, the event featured show jumping at three-star level, with quite a few Z-horses also making their appearance in the ring. The CSI3* Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon was the apotheosis of the weekend, in which a Z-horse helped colour the podium.

Just after 3pm on Sunday afternoon in Nancy, the CSI3* Grand Prix kicked off, with sixty combinations on the starting list. The 1.55m high basic round proved to be a particularly challenging task, as only five combinations managed to qualify for the jump-off. One of these five barragists were home rider Julien Anquetin and the 13-year-old gelding Beau de Laubry Z, a son of Bisquet Balou C van de Mispelaere and Nabab de Rêve bred by the Haelterman family of Haras de Laubry. In the jump-off, Anquetin and Beau de Laubry Z managed to repeat their flawless performance from the basic round and with a finishing time of 41.13 seconds they secured the bronze podium place.

There were also some blue/yellow victories to note in Nancy and one of them was provided by Swiss rider Nadja Peter Steiner and 10-year-old grey gelding Clearround Il Mondo Z, a son of Comme Il Faut and Clearway from Tim Naessens' breeding farm. Peter Steiner and Clearround Il Mondo Z triumphed on Friday, where they were the winners of the 1.50m Grand Prix Qualifier. In a jump-off for which seventeen combinations qualified, they crossed the finish line in 35.25 seconds, giving them an eighteen-hundredths of a second lead over the competition.

^4th place in this section was also taken by a Z-horse thanks to Brazilian rider Marlon Modolo Zanotelli and the 10-year-old chestnut stallion Eddie G Z (Echo van't Spieveld x Jodokus - breeder: Stoeterij Gaesbeek VOF). They managed to put a time of 35.48 seconds on the scoreboard in the jump-off, where they finally just missed out on a podium place.

Earlier on Friday, the first part of the 1.40m class also got a Z-horse at the top of the leaderboard. Making sure of that was Egyptian rider Ahmed Naser Elnaggar and the 13-year-old stallion Zwiebertje NCS Z, a breeding product of M. Dekker who combined the blood of Zilverstar T with that of Andiamo Z. With a clear^2nd phase in 28.66 seconds, they had a lead of over half a second over their closest pursuer.

A third and final victory was there Nancy for French rider Jean Luc Mourier and the 10-year-old gelding Vagabond of Picobello Z, a son of Vagabond de la Pomme and Contact van de Heffinck bred by the Ruant family of Picobello Horses. Mourier and Vagabond of Picobello Z won the 1.35m class with great conviction on Thursday, where, with a finishing time of 57.42 seconds, they were the only combination to manage to keep the chrono under 60 seconds. During the final day on Sunday, they confirmed this performance by finishing ^5th in the 1.40m class.