Anna Lena Schaaf and Fairytale 39. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Just one year ago, then-21-year-old Anna Lena Schaaf made her debut in Luhmühlen’s CCI4*-S – a class which, as the host of the German National Championships, is one of the most prestigious in the country.
And when she did so, with her longtime partner Fairytale 39, it was to be a week that culminated in a swell of emotion: they finished fourth, and as bronze medallists in the German Championships, and not only is that an exceptional feat for a rider so young among the titans of the sport, but it’s also, fittingly, a bit of a Fairytale. The now-17-year-old mare was bred by Anna Lena’s grandfather, and was born when Anna Lena herself was just five years old. When former Pony European Champion Anna Lena stepped up to horses, Fairytale was her first ride; they’d spent the prior seasons getting to know one another from the 80cm jumping classes onwards, but much, much more was yet to come. They’ve been to two Junior European Championships, winning individual gold in 2019, and they were individual silver medallists at the Young Rider Europeans, too, before stepping up to four-star and winning on their debut.
Anna Lena Schaaf and Fairytale 39. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
All in all, then, really, the sort of thing that dreams are made of – but even the best stories come to an end one day. And that’s exactly what Anna Lena has in mind with every start she makes with the mare these days.
“Maybe this will be my last year with her, so I really want to enjoy it – she’s seventeen, and so she might be ready to retire soon,” says the Warendorf-based young rider, who was recently crowned the German Under-25 National Champion with the mare in the first-ever awarding of the title.
Anna Lena Schaaf and Fairytale 39. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Today, in the first day of dressage in Luhmühlen’s CCI4*-S, both horse and rider certainly achieved the enjoyment objective – and in doing so, produced a fluid, expressive test that earned them a 26 and the overnight lead.
“I think the first part, the trot work, was really good – she was really in front of me, and I could really ride her,” says Anna Lena. The one section where the pair’s scores dropped to 5.5, awarded by Xavier le Sauce, was in the middle of the lengthy walk segment within the test. There, they lost some of their established rhythm in the half-pirouettes.
“I don’t really know what happened there, but she was a bit in a hurry,” laughs Anna Lena.
But, she says, the subsequent canter work was “really good, though I think I could have ridden the flying changes a bit more – in training, they were maybe a point better, but they were good today.”
The changes received quite decidedly split marks from the judges at C and E, which has proven to be a common theme in this morning’s competition: their first, from right to left, earned them an 8 from Edith Schless-Störtenbacker at E and a 6.5 from Le Sauce at C, while their second, from left to right, earned them another 8 from E and a 5 from C.
Michael Jung and Kilcandra Ocean Power. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Anna Lena’s closest competitor is another German, but one much further along in his storied career. Michael Jung’s big ride, Tokyo Olympics ride fischerChipmunk FRH, is set to come forward in tomorrow’s CCI4*-S lineup, but today, he got his week off to a smart start with the eleven-year-old Kilcandra Ocean Power, who put a 27.1 on the board to lead for much of the morning.
“He’s a really, really nice horse – he’s very nice to ride in the dressage, he’s a super jumper, and he’s very, very, very easy in the cross country,” says Michael of the gelding, who is making his Luhmühlen debut in his tenth four-star start, and does so as a CCI4*-L victor – he won on his first start at the level in Strzegom last June, though he didn’t compete for the rest of the season thereafter.
Today, he says, “I think the canter work was the best part from him. He’s doing really nice flying changes, but everything’s not at the top at the moment, so there’s still a lot to improve. But it’s very nice when you when you have a good test, but you still feel there’s something to improve, to get better and that’s very good to know.”
This CCI4*-S is serving as a crucial step on the pathway to the Paris Olympics, as well as an important championship in its own right, and though Chipmunk is once again Michael’s first choice for the Games, Kilcandra Ocean Power will, he hopes, be his back-up ride.
But with the Olympics as the top priority in the season, he won’t necessarily ride either of his mounts in this class with a view to try to win here.
“I think nearly everyone wants to win this week. But for me, it’s still a little bit of preparation, in the end, for Paris, so we will have a few percent more control,” he says.
Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Former Luhmühlen CCI5* winner Tim Price sits third overnight with his 2022 Maryland winner Coup de Coeur Dudevin, who put a 28.1 on the board in this tough-scoring section.
For Tim, the test felt like a significant improvement on recent work, even if the numbers didn’t quite tell the same story.
“Wiesbaden was his last test, and it was the same test and whilst the Wiesbaden test scored better [they received a 25.4], I thought this was a better test,” he says. “But he’s a proper authentic eventing horse, so he’s not a top dressage horse, but he tries his hardest, and he’s just a great cross country horse and jumper.”
One of the major improvements, he continues, was in the walk work, which represents a huge chunk of today’s test.
The walk was much better. He has this little toe flick thing; like, when he’s going down a hill, he goes really slow and some horses do that sort of thing” – he demonstrates a Spanish walk with his arms – “and he’s one of them. But I think he just relaxed a little bit more through his body and was able to swing, and he didn’t peek out the sides at what was going on around him. I could just feel him concentrating really hard everywhere, so I’m very happy with him.”
Like Michael before him, Tim is using this class as a way to firm up his A-team for Paris – alongside Coup de Coeur Dudevin, he also has an entry in his World Championships bronze medallist Falco. But before he can even think about which of the two he’d most like to ride in Paris, “they have to qualify. So that’s great fun, isn’t it, trying to show off horses and not do anything stupid at the same time!” he laughs.
Tom Carlile and Darmagnac de Beliard. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
A “really awkward season” spent trying to get Darmagnac de Beliard back to top-level competition after nearly a year out of action means that Tom Carlile’s World Championships ride won’t be vying for Paris selection this year – he was eliminated at the first horse inspection in Kronenberg’s CCI3*-L in March, which put paid to Tom’s longer-term plan of securing the qualifying results he’d need to try to make a bid for selection.
But although that’ll no doubt be an enormous disappointment to the Manchester-born Frenchman, he’s still forging forward with his efforts to bring the talented eleven-year-old back to his peak.
Those efforts have, most recently, seen him take second place in Fontainebleau’s CCI3*-S, and today, they came good again as the pair took overnight fourth place on a 28.3 in this class. That mark was reached after an excellent trot tour, which had them trending well in the lead on a low-20s score, but some lost marks in the walk work meant that even a plethora of 8s and 8.5s in the canter couldn’t quite push them back into the top spot.
But, as Tom points out, he’s still a relatively inexperienced horse.
“He’s a horse that’s starting to come into collection,” he says. “He is a really, really serious horse — he does have a lot of emotion, but he puts a lot of trust into me and even in an atmosphere, I know I can rely on him being serious. You can really ride your test and get him moving.”
“He’d be one I’d always be a bit cautious with in atmospheres, and I probably warmed him up ten minutes too much today, because he just started to shut down a little bit in the arena,” he continues. “He was very good, but the walk’s always something – because he’s quite flighty, you always want to have him nice and calm in the walk. But I probably had him a bit too switched off and missed the two pirouettes, which costs you.”
Tom has produced the French-bred gelding throughout his career, and has learned how to work with his inherent quirks.
“He’s always been a very shy horse; and he was always a bit spooky with the rider,” he says. “It’s always an issue trying to get on him. You have to be very careful – he’s quite flighty like that. He’d be one to shy away from the subject , from the conflict. He’s very brave with what you put in front of him, but it’s in the relationship – he’s quite a submissive horse, and he was as a foal in the pack, too. He was always the one that followed the others. He didn’t have much of an initiative.”
But that means that Tom has been able to inject his own quiet confidence into him and build a relationship off the back of it: “he’s one that, if you grab him by the hand firmly, he listens and you can get him to do it. When he’s made confident like that, he really puts a lot of effort into that; it reassures him and then he can express himself.”
Emma Brüssau and Dark Desire GS. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Fittingly, the top five in this class is completed by another young German rider who is part of the Warendorf training system for the next generation of top-level competitors. And, like Anna Lena Schaaf, Emma Brüssau, who scored a 29.4, is mounted today aboard a mare that’s been her partner through some of the biggest milestones of her career so far in Dark Desire GS.
“I think this is our seventh or eighth season. I started Juniors with her when she was seven and I was seventeen, and now she’s 15 and I’m 25,” she says with a smile. “We grew up together, and that’s really nice.”
That means, she continues, that “I think we both know each other inside out. It’s just fun to ride her cross country and like getting into old shoes, you know? I don’t know for how long she will be with me because she’s already fifteen, and she’s had a long time now in the competition life, and so I just enjoy all the big competitions I can ride with her. I’m happy and grateful that I can ride at competitions like this, and I’m just happy that I have her.”
Today’s success, Emma says, came down to the mare’s rideability – something that was helped along, she says, by some well-time physio sessions for Dark Desire this week.
“She was so relaxed and so calm – sometimes she is a little bit uptight. But when she’s like today, and she feels that happy, then I can actually ride her in the test and then it works out better,” she says. “When she’s that little bit strong and tight, the changes are the most difficult ones. Today, I felt she was with me, and I actually could ride them, and that was really nice. When I did the second one, I was like, ‘wow! Both changes were alright today!’, and that’s a nice feeling, because a few years ago when I started at 4*, always just one was good, or both were bad. But now this season, both changes are working, so that’s really nice.”
Last year, the pair opted to make their five-star debut here rather than joining the majority of their compatriots in this class – and that experience, Emma explains, taught both of them a huge amount.
“When we walked the course last year, [the coaches] said, ‘you have to fight’. lt’s not like [an equitation class], where we try to go really nice, and get graded for that,” she laughs. “So I think I learned that I really have to fight sometimes, and it won’t always look nice, but you have to be brave. Sure, four-star is high and big, but 5* is a different level. You can’t pull and push – and I’m the kind of rider who sometimes wants to add a stride in now and then! – because that’s not possible at 5*. When there are four strides, you have to do four strides, because the jumps are too high!”
But, she continues, “it’s not only that – now I also know that she can do it, and that I can ride like this. I mean, it was not the perfect round, but we learned so much from it.”
Marten Boon and Gravin van Cantos. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
A duo of Belgians hold sixth and seventh place, giving the small, determined nation an excellent starting point for their big week ahead. Marten Boon and Gravin van Cantos scored a 29.8 to take sixth, while Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and the diminutive but powerful Formidable 62 posted a 30 for seventh.
“We had a fantastic year last year winning the Nation’s Cup,” says Marten, remarking on the Belgian team’s upswing of the last eighteen months, which saw them qualify a team outright for Paris at the European Championships. “I was at four of the Nation’s Cups, not always in the team, sometimes as reserve but it was really fun. We have a very good team spirit and that’s fantastic. Now, we need to continue it in Paris!”
Antonia Baumgart and Lamango. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Germany’s Antonia Baumgart is in eighth place overnight with Lamango, who was bred by fellow up-and-coming German rider Arne Bergendahl’s family. They posted 30.9 to put them ahead of France’s Benjamin Massie and Figaro Fonroy, ninth on 31.3, and Italy’s Giovanni Ugolotti and Florencina R, tenth on 31.6.
“It was incredible,” says the 24-year-old, who won a prep run at Strzegom’s CCI3*-S with the 14-year-old this spring en route to this big mid-season goal. “He just felt so concentrated – it’s always so difficult to ride in such an arena, and I’m so pleased with how he did his job. I’m so happy — normally we all hope for under 30, but it was a super good mark, and I think we can easily work with that. There’s two more phases to come, and I can really trust him there. So I’m really looking forward to the next three days.”
Antonia, too, has a long and storied partnership with her horse: “I’ve had him since he was four, so ten years now! He’s like our family member, definitely. I have such a strong partnership with him, and I’ve got through so many things with him – two German championships with the Juniors and Young Riders, and the Young Rider Europeans, so really, it’s a long journey with him, and I’m so pleased to start with him here.”
The second half of this class’s first phase kicks off tomorrow morning at 8.15 a.m. (7.15 a.m. BST/2.15 a.m. EST), starting with Ireland’s Stephan Dubsky and Karla. We’ll see some serious heavy-hitters come forward tomorrow to fight for spots on their respective Olympic teams, including Sandra Auffarth and Viamant du Matz, Laura Collett and London 52, Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir, Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, Olympic gold medallist Julia Krajewski and up-and-comer Nickel 21, Astier Nicolas and Alertamalib’or, Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH, and plenty more besides – so tune in via Horse & Country TV to watch it all unfold, and join us tomorrow for our unpacking of the stories you need to know. We’ll be back soon with a report from this afternoon’s five-star; until then, Go Eventing!
The top ten on day one of dressage in the CCI4*-S.
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