As expected, the new place of Cavaliada had been anticipated by the athletes. More than 300 pairs have registered for the CSI competition in Kraków, but finally 138 athletes from 13 countries have been approved. They will bring 272 horses altogether.

There are also many foreign guests. We will see all the best Estonians (Elermann, Kivisld, Klettenberg, Pill and the leader of World Cup CEL Kullo Kender) and the best Lithuanians (Petrovas and Sarka). Among the six-person team of Russia are Vladimir Beletskiy and Natalia Simonia. There are also top athletes of the South Sub-league of World Cup CEL including Andrea Herck from Romania, and Kriton Zafiropoulos and Nikolin Makarona from Greece. In the German team, Michael Kolz, the current bronze medallist of the country, will be the best of them. There is no need to remind horse riding fans of such famous European riders as Austrian Gerfried Puck, Hungarian Mariann Hugyech or Belgian Jan Vinckier.

Obviously, Poles are the most numerous group including Jarosław Skrzyczyński, the leader of the PZJ ranking (53rd competitor of the FEI ranking) and Krzysztof Ludwiczak, the leader of the Cavaliada Tour. Other athletes from Poland’s TOP TEN are Wojciech Wojcianiec, Adam Grzegorzewski, Michał Kaźmierczak, Jan Bobik, Grzegorz Kubiak and Maksymilian Wechta, who is back after a break. The fans from Kraków will certainly support the best athletes from the Małopolska region, such as Michał Ziębicki, Anna Szary Ziębicka, Jarosław Koziarowski, Monika Grundkowska, Natalia Koziarowska, Olga Skrobacz and Krzysztof Leśniak.

Let’s remember that show jumping at Kraków’s Cavaliada (28 02 – 3 03) will consist of 11 competitions, in which the two most difficult ones (Friday big round and Sunday Grand Prix) will be included in the world ranking and the Cavaliada Tour ranking. The total prize pool for the CSI2* amounts to PLN 300,000. In addition to the CSI competition, the top Polish show jumping athletes will also perform in a special Venus vs Mars competition on Friday evening and the youngest riders of this competition will compete on Saturday and Sunday as part of Cavaliada Future.