Lugano/Säffle, January 8th, 2019
We are proud and happy to be able to invite you to the sixth year of a Young Riders Academy for promising riders (18 – 23 of age).
At the time, a few years ago, when we started to consider this project, we would have never imagined ending up dealing with such a scenario.
What we have done since the beginning is to start the process of building bridges between different years’ promotions, we have invited riders from all teams to common clinics and to other events.
Once a rider enters the program and achieves it, he will permanently be part of our team, because “An Academy member will always be a member”.
This is what “a Young Riders Academy Family” is about.
Furthermore, we were not expecting to live and enjoy so many exciting situations with these athletes, as we are; we really hope the feeling of satisfaction is same for you as a Federation.
This November at the Holsteiner Verband we celebrated the YRA 5 years Anniversary with a U25 show and a Gala Dinner at Breitenburg Castle, together with more than forty athletes from all selections; it has been a great occasion indeed.
As you already know the “young Riders Academy” has been developed by a group of equestrian professionals with the cooperation of the International Jumping Riders Club (IJRC) and with the generous support of Rolex. The aim of YRA is to assist in training show jumping young talents and preparing their career as future professionals in this sport.
The young Riders Academy program, thanks to Rolex, will give the chance to five to six promising riders to live several months of training and boarding at a well-known professional stable. On top of it, the program includes professional education on topics as: Veterinary, Business & Economics, Communication and Legal Aspects.
Each European Federation is invited to enter up to three candidates for the program. Out of these entries, a selection panel consisting of Emile Hendrix, Dirk Demeersman, Jean-Maurice Bonneau, Otto Becker and Sven Holmberg will select about 25 riders who will be invited to one of two events either in Arezzo during Toscana Tour (March 26th to 31th) or to Mannheim Germany (May 3th to 7th), depending on travel distance. By the mid of May, the above panel will identify final participants. The selection will be based on jumping results (140 -150 classes), availability of horses and candidate’s personal profiles. The trainers involved are professionals as Kevin Staut, Marco Kutscher, Rolf Göran Bengtsson, Jos Lansink, Henk Nooren, Marcus Ehning and Ben, Wim and Gerco Schröder. The assignment of the trainer to each participant will be decided by the selection panel in agreement with the participant himself. Other trainers may also be part of the team.
Entries should be sent at latest by February 28th, 2019 following instructions below.
There are no obligations for the NF and the program will not conflict with other programs the NF may have for their young promising riders. On the contrary we are fully prepared to find ways of cooperation both in planning and follow-up. The draft program, experiences from previous years and the entry form can be found on the web-site where we kindly ask you to enter your candidates within the above deadline.
Kind regards
Eleonora Moroni Ottaviani & Sven Holmberg