Their record in the FEI European Pony Jumping Championships is formidable - 15 team titles and 11 individual gold medals later, the British showjumpers return to Arezzo (Italy) this year as defending champions and with their trademark determination to stand on the top step of the winner’s podium still very much intact.  And while individual success is important, Chef d’Equipe, Katrina Moore, says that it’s really “all about the team”. Moore has led the British success story for the last 18 years, first filling the team manager’s role at Barthahus in Denmark back in 1996 where her side claimed team silver. She has hardly looked back ever since. “Individual medals are a bonus as far as we are concerned - our main focus is on the team effort. We have a good Selection Committee and a great team behind us who pull together in order to help our riders focus on achieving good, solid performances” Moore explains. She has arrived in Arezzo with British team veterans Amy Inglis and Millie Allen along with Emily Ward, Alex Gill and Faye Adams. Inglis and Allen were on her 2012 winning side at Fontainebleau in France where Allen also clinched individual gold. And Inglis was also part of the 2011 winning side at Jaszkowo in Poland where another team-mate, Beth Vernon, took the individual honours. Her success-rate may be awesome, but for Moore the formula is simple enough - it comes down to hard work and the dedication of everyone involved. Interference with the team plan is never tolerated and even the competitor’s parents have to toe the line - “we expect the parents to be part of the team, and we don’t stand for any nonsense” Moore says. “There is no “I” in team!” she insists. She ensures all her team members are as well-prepared as possible. “This year we took them to two Nations Cups, and Emily (Gill) did the Children on Horses Championship last year. We try to get as much experience into them as possible before they travel”. Her riders also compete in the Home Pony Internationals staged regularly between sides from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. “The children are competing from the age of 11 upwards at these Home Pony events so they already know about pressure and everything else that goes with team competition” she points out. Any suggestion of over-confidence about this year’s fixture is dismissed however when she says “the winning margin at FEI European Pony Championships is often very narrow. It can be a very tough battle and so very close between the top teams, there is often very little in it, the tiniest mistake can make all the difference” she points out. She is, however, hopeful for her side this year. “We won the Nations Cups at both Hagen (GER) and Fontainebleau (FRA) with different mixtures of riders from the team we have taken here to Arezzo” she explains. However she points out that “you need luck, and for everything to go to plan, you never know what’s going to happen!” She says the weather could be influential this week. Today in Arezzo the temperature is 33 degrees and humidity is almost 50 percent. And the forecast is for even higher temperatures later in the week. “We will know better later today after the Warm-Up Class how the ponies are coping. We will be sure not to do too much today because we don’t want flat ponies tomorrow. And because of the heat, the draw may play a significant role” she added. Tomorrow brings the first Individual Qualifier, with the Team medals decided in a two-round Nations Cup on Friday. The Individual Jumping Final will bring the FEI European Pony Jumping Championships 2013 to a close on Sunday evening.