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Las Vegas horse wedding marks two-month countdown to equestrian FEI World Cup Finals

Xinhua, February 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

A symbolic horse wedding in Las Vegas at the most romantic time of the year marks two months to the Finals for the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping and Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage, when the world's best athletes will battle it out from 15-19 April in the entertainment capital of the world.

The horses, beautiful red-headed bride Romy and her bridegroom Rocky, are besotted with each other in real life. The pair were married by the King himself at The Little Church of the West in Las Vegas, setting for more celebrity marriages than any other wedding chapel in the world.

Las Vegas, as the first venue to combine Jumping and Dressage Finals in 2005, is this year celebrating its 10th anniversary of hosting the joint Finals.

American athletes dominated the FEI World Cup Jumping in the early years, winning seven of the first nine Finals, but there was a 24-year drought before Olympians Rich Fellers and Beezie Madden scored back-to-back US wins in 2012 and 2013.

When the 2015 Finals open in Las Vegas, the home side won't just be looking for a Jumping victory, they'll be bidding for the first FEI World Cup Dressage Final win on home soil since Steffen Peters and his legendary Ravel stole the show in 2009. Endi