"Positively surprised indeed" was the unanimous comment from the delegates of the national federations who, on Monday July 3, visited the facilities of the Ippodromo Snai San Siro – the venue for this year's FEI Jumping European Championship in Milan, Italy.

The organising committee and the FEI – represented in Milan by Tim Hadaway (Director Games Operation Department), Somesh Dutt (Games Operation Department), Gerard Lachat (Foreign Technical Delegate EU CH Milan 2023) and Professor Lars Roepstorff (Scientific Footing Advisor) – invited all the participating nations and seven of them accepted their invitation: Sweden (Sara Johansson – Chef de Mission), Switzerland (Thomas Fuchs – National Coach), France (Henk Nooren – Chef d'Equipe), the Netherlands (Ad Wagemakers – Chef de Mission), Great Britain (Di Lampard – Chef d'Equipe), Spain (Carolo Lopèz-Quesada – Chef d’Equipe) and Italy (Marco Porro – National Coach).

In the opening session of the meeting, event director Laura Campopiano, show director Sara Riffeser and FISE General Secretary Simone Perillo illustrated the history and the racing tradition of the facility and presented all the most relevant organisational aspects of the championship, which will be staged at the centre of the racetracks. It's a strong team that will be in charge of the different aspects at San Siro with Uliano Vezzani as course designer, Patrick Borg as stable manager and Pedro Cebulka as ring master. 

A large part of the meeting focused on the work carried out on the 108 x 75 metre grass ring, which has been constantly monitored by the three agronomists in charge of the racing tracks. 

The turf at San Siro was already upgraded three years ago to meet the technical requirements for jumping arenas, in conjunction with the CSI3* Milano Jumping Cup debut. Since then, it has been painstakingly maintained – first for the CSI4*-edition in 2022 and over the last year towards the European Championship. 

On June 8, inspections were carried out by Lars Roepstorff, a professor in Functional Anatomy of Domestic Animals at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, who also confirmed that the San Siro competition ring is in line with the quality specifications required for a championship. 

The meeting was followed by a visit to the competition arena. There, under the watchful eye of the guests, Giulia Martinengo Marquet and Omar Bonomelli – two top Italian riders summoned for the occasion by the Italian national coach Marco Porro – did a jumping work-out session.