For the last eighteen months or so, I’ve felt my grasp on eventing journalism slacken in favour of something else – something I’d never planned. These days, I feel, I need to engage less and less in in-depth analysis of horse and rider performance; less, too, in unpacking the intricacies of courses. Probably, at this point, I don’t even need to bother revisiting the FEI record database on the daily. Because since the advent of the 2023 season, all I am, really, is a bit of a crap weather lady.
Now, frankly, my career is mostly just this.
“It rained again today,” is the summation of basically every event report I’ve written in that time period. Badminton 2023? All about the rain. Last year’s European Championships? Similarly, an event that gets referenced time and time again, purely because we talk about its weather and, as a result, its footing. Pau last year? Rained so hard it killed my camera. May it rest in peace in the big hard drive in the sky.
And so, once again, here I am, talking to you about – what else! – weather, and the part it played in this morning’s CCI5* cross-country at Luhmühlen.
The day started early, at 8.45 a.m., in order to account for a stacked entry list in this afternoon’s Meßmer Trophy CCI4*-S (more on that, soon), and although we only had 41 starters to work through after the last-minute withdrawal of Great Britain’s Will Rawlin and The Partner, we somehow saw just as many weather fronts move over the Lower Saxony region. We started with a foreboding overcast sky; by the time our third starters, Sweden’s Christoffer Forsberg and Hippo’s Sapporo, got underway, the wet stuff had begun to fall, though in a non-committal sort of way.
Well, you can call me a commitmentphobe all you like now, because when it decided it was all in, it was all in. For the next hour or so, the rain hammered down with such force that it became tricky to make out who you were actually looking at on course, so thank god for Luhmühlen’s penchant for bright fence decorations, because otherwise, the riders themselves may not have even been able to find their way through the course’s numerous bends and loops.
Lauren Lillywhite and Hacien in the midst of the first storm of the day. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Then, just as abruptly as it had started, having had its fill of torturing everyone and topping up the water jumps, the dark cloud passed and an unrecognisably sunny spell kicked into play.
How nice, we all thought – how delightful! A real return to the Luhmühlen we all know and love, where we pull our shorts out and get a bit of a tan and drink Pimms by the arena and sweat, gently or quite ferociously, all week. A little treat! A touch of nostalgia.
‘lol u thought’, typed the weather, having at this point morphed into nothing better or more fulfilling than a troll in a comment section. ‘sike!’ it continued, giving no regard at all to the fact that that’s actually probably meant to be spelled ‘psych’.
A big sad. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
So then it gave us the big one, just to put us back in our place. I’ve since seen the whole thing slightly overexaggerated on the internet by livestream viewers, who have referred to it as a ‘hurricane’ that shut the show down and sent fences flying, and, look, it wasn’t quite that. But it was bad; not only did the rain return, but it brought with it black skies, extraordinary wind that sent umbrellas and marquees and advertising boards flying and had small children clinging onto the nearest solid object for dear life, and thunder and lightning that struck a tree on site and forced the local fire brigade, who’d been busy trying to have their annual summer party, to come out and attempt to safely dismantle it.
Hunkered under a tree at the final water complex, with a pack-a-mac wetly slapping me in the face, I did briefly consider that I might be about to have a very bad time indeed. Would I be skewered by a flying umbrella? Struck by lightning, which would only be fair since I’d chosen to hide under a tree while holding a long metal monopod? Would the sausage van sadly sizzling away downwind come loose from its moorings and pork me to death, but not in, like, a fun way?
I reckon a few of the riders, who’d been unlucky enough to draw late start times in this class, and found themselves held while we all waited for the storm to pass, probably felt much the same way. Tom McEwen and his second ride, overnight runner up Brookfield Quality, were held in an avenue of trees just after the second water, and Tom describes the experience as “being like one of those polytunnels that cyclists train in against the wind. I mean, literally, I was lying on his neck and we were getting smashed by acorns. I think the trees were coming down, and I did think for the first ever time in my life, ‘should I just stop and tell them it’s dangerous, and I’ll start from here again?’”
Red on right, white on left, ‘no thanks’ in the middle.
But all this chat is so relevant to the broader business of reporting on horse form at events, and not just as a scene-setting bit of frippery. Tom and Brookfield Quality were restarted once the storm passed, but retired just a couple of fences from home when the horse started to have a nosebleed. Whether that’s in any way connected to the storm and the hold is something we’ll never really know – but Ireland’s Susie Berry and her second ride, Kilcandra Capitol, also ended up retiring on course after being caught up in it all, and Sweden’s Christoffer Forsberg and Con Classic, whose final preparations were disrupted and their start time was prolonged due to the hold, ended up picking up 51.2 time penalties when they did make it out on course.
It’s easy enough to judge a horse and rider by numbers on a page, especially when you’re looking back over an FEI record, which loses so much of the context of the day itself – but when you factor in the realities of eventing, and all its strange variables (I once saw a good five-star horse pick up about a minute’s worth of time penalties, because it got caught up in the roping on course, and who can forget Kevin McNab picking up about the same when trying to reattach a broken rein to his horse’s bit at Pratoni?) you often find that it all gets a bit hard to quantify.
Ros Canter and Izilot DHI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
But, I suppose, if the numbers were going to say anything about today’s competition before it started, it was that last year’s Pau winners, Ros Canter and her quirky Izilot DHI, were the most likely to find themselves still in the top spot on the leaderboard after today’s competition, despite an early retirement at Badminton when the 11-year-old got overfaced by the buzzy atmosphere of the lake.
And they’d be absolutely right. The pair, who put a 24.9 on the board in yesterday’s dressage, added just 2 time penalties during one of the day’s dry spells and will head into tomorrow’s showjumping with an 8.6 penalty lead. That’s two rails AND a second of time in hand – which isn’t too shabby for a horse who’s only ever had one rail in his international career, and that was at his first ever CCI2*-S five years ago.
Ros Canter and Izilot DHI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
That’s tomorrow, and tomorrow’s story, though, and today’s all about cross-country, and also sock-wringing, a little bit.
“He’s an incredible horse – he’s so athletic and he has such a careful but scopey jump,” says Ros. “So if he’s settled and concentrating, then he often gives me the most amazing feeling and makes my life very easy.”
Ros, who also won Blenheim CCI4*-L with the gelding last year after a tricky summer saw them lose Bramham thanks to a spook and run-out at fence three, was delighted with her horse’s brain today, but very slightly frustrated with herself.
“To be quite honest, there were a couple of places where I felt I could have ridden a little bit better, but that was more of the plain fences than the complicated ones,” she says. “But he was just amazing to sit on today.”
Producing Isaac to temper his quick reactions has been a steady process, but one that Ros is reaping the rewards of now.
“It’s the time we put in every day at home with them. Eventing is all about the partnership you have with an animal, and Izilot is a fine example of that,” she says. “He’s quite a sensitive horse, and so it’s all about reading and understanding his personality. They’re just like humans, they’re all different. As much as we are trainers and riders, we’re probably also psychologists as much as anything else, so I think it’s all about trying to understand their personalities, and it’s our job to interpret that and to learn from it and get the best out of them.”
Having two rails in hand on a very good showjumping horse doesn’t mean that Ros is feeling complacent going into the finale tomorrow, which will begin with the final horse inspection at 7.30 a.m. (6.30 a.m. BST/1.30 a.m. EST).
“I think if anything, its puts the pressure on me really to try and get the job done,” she laughs. “He can be spooky at any moment. But, I think after today’s test that he’s done, he’ll probably be quite settled, and he’s super careful at the jumps. It’s a privilege, really, to sit on him, and hopefully I can do him justice tomorrow.”
Jennifer Kuehnle, pictured riding twelfth-placed Sammy Davis Junior. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
We’re making great headway on the fourth CCI5* of the year, and already, we’re starting to see a theme for the year – and that is the inexorable rise of young Irish talent. At Badminton, second place went the way of one-horse rider Lucy Latta, who was making her five-star debut and logged the quickest round of the day in the process. Tonight, second place at Luhmühlen is held by 22-year-old Jennifer Kuehnle, also making her five-star debut. She rode two horses here today, but it was her first ride, the sharp, clever Polly Blue Eyes, who partnered her to the first clear round inside the time of the day, boosting them from 22nd after dressage to overnight runners-up on a two-phase score of 35.5.
“If someone actually told me I’d be sitting second after cross-country at my first 5*, I think I would be laughing at them,” says Jennifer, who also holds 12th place with Sammy Davis Junior after adding 14 time penalties in his end-of-class round.
“Polly’s very good in the dressage, and she does all the movements very well, but she’s just sometimes not rewarded as she should be – but in the cross country I knew she’d catch up,” continues the former Irish Junior and Young Rider team member, who made her Senior debut at last year’s European Championships with the sixteen-year-old. “She’s an amazing little mare across country, and no matter what or where you put her, she’s always trying to get to the far side of it. I’m just so proud of her today.”
It’s particularly nice to see Jennifer make this major career step in Germany: her father, Hans Kuehnle, was born and raised in Germany, and while he was the first horseman in his family, he’s created a special legacy in his new homeland of Ireland, where he runs Tullibards Stud. Polly Blue Eyes isn’t Irish-bred, though – she was born in Germany too, not far from Luhmühlen.
“We were in Germany looking at jumping horses, and dad said that we should try a friend’s horse that she had up for sale,” says Jennifer. “When I tried her she was very spooky, and she was actually annoying me a little bit. Then Dad made me take her and since she came home, I just absolutely loved her. She was very good to ride and the way she was brought up into eventing, she was just so well-trained and schooled that it made my life very easy.”
Since then, they’ve made the move together from Juniors to Young Riders to Senior level, and now onto five-star, with the help of Hans and Irish Olympian Cathal Daniels, who is Jennifer’s boyfriend.
“He’s been by my side now for a few years, and he helps me a lot on cross country,” she says. “In Millstreet two weeks ago was actually my first time to make the time in a 4*, so coming here I didn’t think I’d make the time in the 5*, but I’ve been going from strength to strength. I have a lot of people helping me, and I’m just so thankful for that. Hopefully we can go a bit more strength by strength and we will be at the top soon.”
Making a five-star debut is a big enough task, as is riding two horses at this level – but doing both at the same time is a formidable challenge.
“They are two completely different horses,” adds Jennifer. “Polly is a Thoroughbred, so she’s very quick across the ground and she’s very easy to set up for me, whereas Sammy, he’d be double the horse. He’s a big, rangy horse, and he takes a bit more setting up to do, but they’re both equally as honest and good across country. They both had two completely different rounds, but they were both very nice rounds, I think. I couldn’t be prouder — two horses in the top 12, and I’m so thankful that they’re both healthy in their stables this evening. Tomorrow is another day, and hopefully it all works out well.”
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville jump the last. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Belgium’s crown jewel, Lara de Liedekerke-Meier, is making her return to five-star a very, very good one indeed. She last rode at the level here in 2017 with Alpaga d’Arville, but in the years since, her focus has been on team pathways and the steady, impressive rise of the Belgian front.
But this summer, with five horses qualified for Paris and everything coming up roses for Belgium, Lara wanted to keep herself sharp and push for a new challenge – or, more precisely, the revisiting of an old one. And so she decided to aim her homebred Hooney d’Arville, the daughter of her former Junior, Young Rider, and then World Championships and five-star ride, Nooney Blue, at a step up to the top level.
They began their week in sixth place after dressage on a score of 35.6, and today, headed out of the start box in the rain – not the really heavy stuff, but the noncommittal stuff – to deliver a quick, capable round that added just 4 time penalties to their scoresheet.
Now, they’ll head into tomorrow’s competition in third place – an extraordinary honour that’s the culmination of plenty of hard work, both over Hooney’s ridden career and in their round today.
“I had a lot of doubts coming to fence one,” admits Lara. “Then I took a forward shot to fence 2, and then finally, I did all the mistakes I needed to do by fence 3, and then it was good! She was fantastic.”
“I rode her mother, and we bred her, and the last show I did with her mother was here where she had a [career-ending] injury, so it was quite something for me to bring this one here,” she continues. “When I crossed the finish line, I was just relieved that I paid justice to her mother, and to this one. Hooney has been a rocky road to our run here, but a lot of fellow riders told me how special she was. A couple of times, I maybe wanted to give up, but I kept thinking it would work one day. But I never expected her to be third overnight after cross country!”
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
What made Hooney tricky for so long was twofold: partly, it was a lack of focus, but also, more deeply-felt, it was an emotional pressure that cycled back and forth between horse and rider, Lara says.
“She wasn’t always logging the fences, and she was a bit spooky, so I don’t think she understood the rules of the game very easily. I was pregnant in the beginning of her career then afterwards a lot of things changed – she changed riders, from my groom, to [my husband] Kai here and there, to me,” she explains. “I think none of us were riding quite the same way. I also think I expected so much from her, because she was the daughter of Nooney Blue, and that wasn’t fair, maybe, in her development. I didn’t take her just as one of the horses I had in my yard – it needed to be this horse who needed to step up. So I think maybe [her being tricky], it was more my mistake.”
“But now I accept that she cannot be under too much pressure. I accept that she’s sometimes a bit spooky. I accept that she jogs in the walk, and I think because she feels I’m not getting upset she tries harder, while before it was just like, she thought, ‘anyway, she’s never happy with me!’ I don’t think I was ever not happy with her, but I think she disappointed me. I was much more emotional about her. The other horses, they’d jog, and I’d say, ‘okay, they jog. I go do the job, I finish, it’s fine’. I’ve got all the time in the world for them, whereas with her it was always like, ‘why didn’t she do it right?’”
Now, though, Lara has learned to manage her own emotions and expectations, and together, the pair have forged a new level of trust and confidence in one another, which came well into play today when they powered through their slightly off-kilter start.
“Last year a rider fell off here at fence 2, and I did exactly the same mistake he did today and I was like ‘no, you’re not going to do this!’,” she laughs. “But then I think maybe it helped her, because fence 1 I’d overprotected her, maybe, and fence 2 I was like, now we’re going to go for it, and she went for it too much. But then, I thought she was just really paying attention to every question and also to my body language. She was excellent.”
Whatever happens tomorrow, Lara, who jumped the final fence in happy tears, says she’s “living her dream”, and has rediscovered her love for this level of the sport. Now, she’s eyeing up the next challenge – which, she says, she’d love to undertake at Maryland, but for the tricky scheduling clash with the Young Horse World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers.
“Right now, I really think I want to do five-stars again,” she says. “It took me a couple of years to really want to do it, and I enjoyed doing it today. This morning in the warm-up. I was so pale. I saw Julia Krajewski and I said, wwhy are we doing this?’ With the accident of Georgie [Campbell], and… I have two children, and I’m just wondering why I always put myself under so much pressure. But then you do this, and those emotions are just worth so much.”
Tom McEwen and CFH Cooliser. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom McEwen is down to one horse in this class after Brookfield Quality’s retirement, but his remaining ride, pathfinder CHF Cooliser, is in a very good place indeed: she sits fourth going into the final day, having added just 5.2 time penalties across the country to retain the place she held after dressage.
“Eliza started off really well – I know her pacing well and where she’s at, and actually, she just needed some bigger fences to help me roll on home a little bit. But she was smooth, she’s great, and she’s come home fantastic,” says Tom.
Setting off first today might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Tom found it a useful asset for sharp Eliza, who benefited from the calm start.
“Sometimes it really helps with her actually – it keeps her really relaxed,” he says. “No one has started, the tannoys haven’t revved up. I actually managed to get on her and start the course without having to mount up in the start box!”
Burghley runners-up David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed delivered a characteristic masterclass across the country, looking smooth and rhythmic en route to delivering the fastest round of the day, some seventeen seconds inside the time. That’s moved them from first-phase 25th to fifth, while last year’s third-place finishers, Yasmin Ingham and Rehy DJ, also came home inside the time to leap up from 28th to sixth. Young British rising star Alice Casburn and her homebred, Topspin, moved up from 32nd to seventh with their clear inside the time, too, and go into tomorrow’s finale laughing: they’re among the strongest jumpers in the field and have even tackled puissance classes together, so Luhmühlen’s notoriously big and tough showjumping track should be right in their wheelhouse.
It’s been a heck of a day for the Brits across the board in this class: eighth place is held overnight by Kirsty Chabert and Opposition Heraldik Girl, who added 4.8 time penalties to move from 26th place after dressage.
Samantha Lissington and Lord Seekonig. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
British-based Kiwi Samantha Lissington and her five-star debutant Lord Seekonig were particularly impressive in the heavy rain, adding 8.8 time penalties to step up from 18th to ninth, while Ireland’s Ian Cassells and Master Point round out the top ten, having added 10 time penalties and moved up four places.
Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Both US competitors completed the course: Emily Hamel and Corvett stepped up from 35th to 16th after adding 14.8 time penalties, while Katherine Coleman and Monbeg Senna slipped from 16th to 31st after picking up 20 penalties at the broad brush corner at 5C, and added 43.2 time penalties while battling some of the worst of the day’s weather.
Katherine Coleman and Monbeg Senna, somewhere in this rain cloud. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
There were plenty of surprises on Mike Etherington-Smith’s track today, which saw problems scattered evenly across the course and no one fence causing more than three issues. The most prominent drop was that of overnight runners-up Tom McEwen and Brookfield Quality, who didn’t complete, but problems popped up on course for several riders in contention: Laura Collett and Hester, third after dressage, dropped to 23rd after picking up 20 penalties at fence 14A, the first of two angled brushes in the LeMieux water, as well as 20.8 time penalties, while local rider and overnight fifth-placed Nicolai Aldinger and Timmo were desperately unlucky to add 20 penalties to their tally at fence 26B, the final element of the last water complex and just moments from the finish line. They now sit 21st. Compatriots Libussa Lübbeke and Caramia 34 dropped from 7th to 19th after activating a safety device at fence 10A, the upright rail at the coffin complex, and France’s Julie Simonet and Sursumcord’Or slipped from tenth to 19th after adding 26 time penalties. Former Luhmühlen winner Mollie Summerland also dropped out of the top ten with her debutant Flow 7 when the leggy gelding had a green run-out in the main arena, but there was still much to celebrate: just three years into his eventing career, he looked every inch a five-star horse.
And so, we move into the tension of the final day, which will begin early doors tomorrow morning with the final horse inspection at 7.30 a.m. (6.30 a.m. BST/1.30 a.m. EST). Then, we’ll head into the five-star showjumping from 9.25 a.m. (8.25 a.m. BST/3.25 a.m. EST). There are 33 competitors left in the hunt, down from 42 who started the competition.
Keep it locked on EN for a full report coming soon from this afternoon’s CCI4*-S, which serves as an important final selection trial for the Olympics and was actually sunny. I promise not to write more than one sentence about that.
The top ten following cross-country in an influential – and deeply, deeply soggy – day of competition in Luhmühlen’s CCI5*.
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