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“25 Years of Work, And I’ve Finally Won a Big B”: Gemma Stevens Claims Burghley Victory with Chilli Knight

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 6, 2026 2:59 pm -

25 years and finally, a Big B for Gemma Stevens with Chilli Knight. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

How do you measure a Burghley win?

You can do it in starts: 539 internationally over the course of a career.

You can do it in career years: 24 and a month, give or take, since an FEI debut in the CCI1* at Hartpury in 2002.

You can do it in dreaming years, too, mind you: 40, since the first time a tiny toddler was first hoisted onto a pony at her mother’s riding school, and the seed that would germinate into a fierce, unshakeable goal was first sown.

You can do it in the first phase: a 29.6, the second-best in the field by a tenth of a penalty.

You can do it in the sum total of points added to that over a long weekend: a big goose-egg zero.

You could do it in triumphs: the Olympic call-up at Rio in 2026; the World Championships team gold in 2018; the two top-ten finishes at European Championships in 2015 and 2017; the Bicton pop-up five-star victory in 2021; the fearsome early championships as a junior and young rider, where grit became something of a benchmark.

Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Or you could do it in disasters: most recently, most potently and most painfully a shock early end to the day as pathfinder for the British team at the World Championships, where a potential bid for an individual medal became a long walk home and the strange brutality of having to rally as a grounded support system for the rest of the team while fighting heartbreak the whole time.

But if you can, to paraphrase Kipling, meet with those triumphs and those disasters and treat the two imposters just the same – keep getting out of bed before the sun, keep putting a foot in the stirrup despite the aches, both physical and mental, keep pushing for something bigger and better without being cowed by hard times or sent completely out of one’s own head by the victories, then yours is the Burghley trophy and everything that’s in it, and – which is more! – you’ll be a champion, Gemma Stevens.

“I think I might be having an out-of-body experience,” admitted a beaming Gemma, moments after the first flood of tears and air-punches and screams of joy and relief; moments after a faultless showjumping round with the sixteen-year-old Chilli Knight that didn’t even need to happen, because there was a truly deranged three-fence margin at that point between them and their nearest competitors.

But when you win, you want to do it without leaving anything on the table, right?

Already, they’d carved themselves out a safe gap before showjumping even began: they’d begun their week in a very close second place, just a tenth of a penalty behind Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and Toblerone on 29.6 after being deservedly rewarded for a very correct, not at all flashy bit of “shuffling” between the boards. On yesterday’s cross-country, Nadja’s smattering of time penalties was their gain, and they were the second of just two clears inside the time to finish the day with a rail and change in hand.

Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Today, after a very short morning session where the track rode, actually, pretty well – a couple of clears, a couple of one-railers and just the one surprise fall in seven rounds – it all rather unravelled in the first part of the afternoon session. Round after round, rails on rails on rails; rails that didn’t stop falling vociferously until Jesse Campbell and Cooley Lafitte delivered the first classy clear of the afternoon and then everyone suddenly realised it was jumpable and started to follow suit.

Okay, not everyone: for overnight third-placed Holly Richardson and Ballyneety Silver Service it was a tough five-rail round and a drop to 15^th; for overnight runner-up Tim Price and Global Quest it was three and a shift down to 11^th.

That’s what ultimately gave Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight the breathing room to have three rails down, if they fancied it. They did not. Instead, they opted to win by closing the book on their dressage score, as the only pair to FOD all weekend in the world’s toughest five-star.

“I cannot believe it – 25 years of work, and I’ve finally won a Big B,” says Gemma. “It’s always a dream, and I knew he had it in him – he’d so nearly won Badminton a couple of years ago [the pair had a contentious flag penalty on that occasion], and I’ve just known in my heart of heart that there’s a big win in this horse. But we just needed our stars to align, and it’s all aligned this week.”

Chilli Knight – Alfie, at home – “means the whole world to me, literally. He hasn’t got a clue he’s won; he’s the most unarrogant horse – he’s just amazing. That’s what makes him so rideable.”

Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Though Gemma also competes in top-level showjumping, and can be seen sprinting from ring to ring at her local venue, West Sussex’s All-England Jumping Ground at Hickstead, on any given week, jumping on the final day of a five-star is “a completely different sport – they’ve galloped up and down all those hills and jumping Alfie is very different to riding the big jumping stallions I compete. This is all about horsemanship on the final day – about just keeping your cool and helping them as much as you can, staying in balance, being square on every turn, and leaving no stone unturned. That’s what I tried to do.”

One of her tactics? Disassociation, kind of.

“I said to Dicky [Waygood] and [husband] Gary before I went in, ‘I’m just at Hickstead, aren’t I?’ and Dicky said, ‘yep, you’re just at Hickstead, and you’re going to go in and do what you do and jump clear.’ I tried to really put it all out of my mind and remember that he’s a great jumper.”

Every step of the way, Gemma has leant on her partnership with Alfie – a partnership that began when he was just an embryo some seventeen years ago.

“His mother, King’s Gem, was my second-ever five-star horse – I won the under-25 National Championships on her, and when [owners] the Stones bought her, the plan was always to take embryos and breed from her with [Badminton winner] Chilli Morning,” says Gemma. “She actually produced eight full brothers and sisters, and I’m competing four of them at the moment. It’s an amazing dynasty she’s created, and it really means the world.”

Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

The Stones aren’t just peripheral observers in their role as owners – they also provide Gemma’s base, and have become more like family than business associates.

“They’re unbelievable, honestly,” says Gemma. “I’ve been based with them for nearly 20 years, and it’s a wonderful, wonderful place. I’m grateful every day when I drive down the drive. They’ve been so supportive of me – Chris sent me the most amazing message on the Saturday night of Aachen and he basically said, ‘this is a really shit day, and now we’re going to go and win Burghley.’”

Instructions clear; mission accomplished.

Katie Magee and Treworra. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

As a journalist battling through the age of ChatGPT-generated content, I’ve had to make peace with saying goodbye to the word ‘quietly’, one of generative AI’s hallmarks. But it’s nearly impossible to write about Katie Magee without using it, because her career trajectory has been nothing but an example of an athlete quietly getting on with things, with no pomp and circumstance but just a dogged, resilient, and ineffably humble dedication to improving herself and her horses.

Over the last couple of seasons, though, the quiet part is being said out loud – if not by Katie herself, who remains almost unfathomably down-to-earth, but by the results she’s been delivering with the exceptional Treworra. So far, she and the twelve-year-old British-bred gelding – a son of Jaguar Mail, bred by the Preci Spark stud – have been top fifteen at a Pau and a Badminton, top twenty at a Burghley, fifth at this year’s Badminton, have become British Open Champions and now, wholly deservedly, are runners-up at Burghley on their second attempt.

It is, as commentator John Kyle puts it, “an overnight success story, thirty years in the making.” Like Gemma’s, Katie’s FEI record goes all the way back to 2002; along the way, she trained as a physiotherapist and had a son, Peter; she’s also had some excellent horses, including the stalwart Enceladus, who retired in 2024. But getting to the top level only came once Treworra entered the picture; that life-long goal was achieved in 2024 and the pair have been on an incredible roll ever since.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” says Katie. “It’s, let’s say, taken me a long time to get to this point, so I am absolutely over the moon to have managed to do our best for our team and everyone who has helped us get here.”

Treworra was perhaps the most eye-catching horse in the showjumping warm-up today, looking so fit and well that he might have just trucked in from home after an easy lead-up week just to jump a round today. Though the pair did have a rail down, it cost them nothing on the leaderboard, and they completed their week-long climb from 19^th place in fine style.

“Somebody very wisely once said to me, when you get to the top level, if you can keep them sound, they just mentally and physically get better and better,” she says. “So it’s just managing them and keeping them healthy and happy, really. And it’s a privilege to have a horse like that to do that with.”

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Like Gemma, Caroline Pamukcu came to Burghley this week – her first, somehow – still raw from an Aachen that had slipped through her fingers. Like Gemma, too, she dug her heels in and let it fuel a week that ultimately spelled redemption.

“In a way, Burghley was always a Plan A for me, because Leslie Law and Karyn Schuter thought it was a really good idea for me to come here with at least one horse – and that was always going to be HSH Tolan King,” she says. “As soon as I fell off [HSH Blake] at the Worlds on the Saturday, obviously I was gutted – particularly for my team, becaue I put a lot of pressure on them – but I knew I could reroute here.”

It was, she admits, “a hard few weeks leading up to it – I went to Pippa Funnell’s, where I’ve been based before, and just tried to regroup myself.”

As she headed into Saturday, she was 14^th with HSH Tolan King – the pathfinder of the competition – and fifth with HSH Blake, who she had “Aachen fit – which isn’t the same thing as Burghley fit.” But Tolan King was Burghley fit, and she discovered in the midst of it all that perhaps she’d prepared him a little too well: he began to gallop through the bridle, ultimately neatly popping out over the course roping, after which she sensibly opted to put her hand up.

HSH Blake, though, rose to the occasion, adding just 8 time penalties on a day when the time was seldom even flirted with.

“I was a little bit slow – I was 20 seconds down by my third minute because I didn’t want him to get away from me like my first horse did. I didn’t want to be that American, where everyone’s like, ‘oh, she was a little too wild!’,” she laughs. “So I was a little conservative, and then at the double of gates after Winners’ Avenue I was like, ‘ah, fuck it, I’ll just go faster.’ Then I was like, ‘okay, right, let’s do five here or Karyn’s going to be fucking mad at me right now!’ She was like, ‘Caroline, do not fucking go in six!’ So I was like, ‘oh, shit, alright, let’s go!’”

Pardon you, Caroline.

At three-and-a-half minutes, then, “I was like, ‘alright, I’ll put the gas on.’ Then I made the time up as much as I could.”

Today, she was frustrated to have a beautiful rest-of-the-round clear after tipping the first fence “like a bit of a rookie, so there’s some things this weekend that I’m kicking myself over, but at the end of the day I had to mentally overcome quite a bit [to get here], and it’s been a lot of pressure coming into here – but I quite enjoy that.”

Their efforts this weekend earn Caroline and Blake third place overall, and the best Burghley rookie title – a return to form that was cheered on every step of the way by husband Denisz and daughter Blake.

Caroline Pamukcu accepts her third place trophy from HRH Princess Anne. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Tom Jackson had started the week double-handed, and as one of the favourites for victory with the ten-year-old wunderkind United 36. By Sunday, though, he was down to just one horse, the slightly more under-the-radar Hawk Eye, who he’d inherited from Nicola Wilson.

“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, and my squidgy boots today are a reminder of that,” he laughs, referring to his uninjurious but enormously surprising tumble in the Trout Hatchery water complex with United 36 yesterday. “But that’s sport, isn’t it: you can have a good day, and I’d had an amazing morning with Hawk Eye, and then I ended up rather soggy.”

Today, though, as Ice Cube so famously said, was a good day. As one of the first horses out on cross-country yesterday, Hawk Eye had added 12 time penalties in his clear, tidy round, propelling the pair from 13^th place into 9^th. This afternoon, they delivered one of the scant six clears inside the time to climb again, this time to a final fourth.

“It’s brilliant – I’ve said for a while that he’s got a big result in him,” says Tom.

Nadja Minder and Toblerone. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Though she was no longer sitting in the lead – a position she held after the first phase and relinquished when adding 13.2 time penalties yesterday, which dropped her to sixth – Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and her nineteen-year-old Toblerone brought the media mixed zone to a rare near-silence as they tackled their showjumping round.

It has not, historically, been the friendliest phase for the evergreen gelding: across his four prior five-star runs, he has amassed nine total rails. But hope springs eternal, and his solitary clear at the level had come at Burghley two years ago, en route to a top twenty finish – and from where we stood at the sidelines, one sentiment reigned supreme. Would this be the last time we’d ever see the 26-year-old rider and her heart horse tackle a course together?

“I mean, twenty is a big number, but I don’t want to say it was his last one because I think the decision would be made because of the number of his age, and not because of what the horse would like to do, so I don’t know,” says Nadja, moments after a stats-defying classy round that saw the pair just lower the back rail of the final fence to claim fifth place.

“Having the last down is always the rider’s fault, but it’s amazing, really,” she beams. “I was quite relaxed, I think, regarding the circumstances – I knew whatever happened today wouldn’t take away from what he’s achieved and done. Of course I wanted the best for him to shine in this arena, and I think we did.”

Yasmin Ingham and Goliath du Loir. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

In sixth place, we go from one end of the career spectrum to the other: Yasmin Ingham’s ten-year-old Goliath du Loir hadn’t even done a five-star before this week, but what might have begun as something of a fact-finding mission – particularly as Yas herself has never previously ridden at Burghley – ended up being a very competitive week.

The pair hasn’t been outside the top ten in any phase: the first, where they earned a 32.7, put them in seventh place; yesterday’s cross-country dropped them marginally to tenth with their 14 time faults; today’s faultless round propelled them back up to sixth.

“It just feels so surreal to come here and drive to a clear at my first Burghley, the horse’s first five-star, and he’s just such a young horse still, and just shown that he’s just a real trier,” says the former World Champion. “He’s got a heart of gold and just wants to do his best, so it makes me feel very proud.

Will Coleman and Very Dignified. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

“I was excited about her before I came here, but I’m very excited now,” grins Will Coleman, who finished his excellent week with the five-star debutant Very Dignified by delivering a foot-perfect clear round for seventh place. “She’s given me a great spin all weekend. She’s kind of risen to the occasion. I don’t know if I really had a whole lot of expectations: I had some inklings of maybe what I know what she’s capable of, but the first time coming across the pond, it’s a lot of variables. You can’t always know for sure how they’re going to perform under all those circumstances. But I think she likes it — that’s the thing you need in a good horse, and I think she’s a really good one.”

Ben Massie and Filao de Perle. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

France’s Ben Massie is yet another rider who came to Burghley hoping for a redemption arc after Aachen, where he, too, suffered an elimination while in a pathfinder role for his time. With Filao de Perle this week he began in 22^nd place, climbed to 14^th after adding 10.4 time penalties across the country, and then was one of those six faultless jumpers today to take a final eighth place, ahead of Jonelle Price and the twelve-year-old Chilli’s Midnight Star – the second Chilli Morning son in the field – who took ninth place after climbing from first-phase 21^st.

“He’s been pretty consistent on the last day for the last twelve months or so, but in some ways that sort of starts mounting the pressure,” says Jonelle of the gelding, who was ninth at Maryland on his five-star debut a year ago.

Harry Meade and Cavalier Crystal. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Harry Meade – another rider touted as a potential and long-awaited winner here this week – finishes Burghley with just one of his two horses left in the hunt: the exceptional Cavalier Crystal, with whom he rallied for a smart tenth-place finish after a topsy-turvy day in the office yesterday. They began the week in 31^st place on a 38.4, added just 6 time penalties across the country to move into seventh – a welcome climb after a retirement after a smattering of problems for first ride Et Hop du Matz – and then tipped just one fence, the sixth, today to settle on tenth.

“We had the one rub, and I think that’s the first fence she’s had down in a three-day event in six years,” says Harry. “Every time I get on her I think, ‘don’t think about protecting a record, just ride a nice positive up-on-the-clock round and put the pressures on the others. She jumped beautifully and I’m very happy.”

US-based Aussie Ema Klugman closed out her first Burghley with two very early fences – the first and the second – to secure a completion on her debut with the exciting thirteen-year-old Chiraz, taking 26^th place in the process.

And so we come to the close of another Defender Burghley, with all its associated surprises and excitements. For us, for now, that’s all she wrote – but as always, Go Eventing.

Defender Burghley: [Website] [Scoring] [EN’s Coverage]

US Partnership Bows Out of Defender Burghley at Final Horse Inspection

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 6, 2026 5:40 am -

Jennie Brannigan’s FE Lifestyle, presented by Leslie Law. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

28 horses came forward for this morning’s final horse inspection at the Defender Burghley CCI5* following an enormously influential cross-country day yesterday, and just 27 will remain in the competition as we had into today’s showjumping finale.

Jennie Brannigan’s very experienced FE Lifestyle, who was trotted up by US chef d’equip Leslie Law owing to an ankle injury Jennie sustained last year, was sent to the holding box and ultimately spun upon reinspection. In a post on Instagram Jennie, who had climbed to overnight twelfth place after adding just 11.2 time penalties, said that the sixteen-year-old gelding pulled off an overreach boot in the Trout Hatchery and subsequently overreached on the inside and outside of his right fore, but is absolutely fine.

That was the only action the hold box saw all morning, and there were no overnight withdrawals — thanks, in no small part, to the very good ground on course yesterday.

Will Coleman and Very Dignified. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

The Spillers grooms’ prize for the best cared-for horse in the competition went to Paige Watson, groom for Max Warburton’s Deerpairc Revelry, while Erin Jarboe was runner-up for her work with Will Coleman’s Very Dignified. Very Dignified also earned Russell Deering the Worshipful Company of Farriers prize for the best-shod horse.

The morning’s petite showjumping section is already underway and we will return at 14.35 BST (9.35 a.m. EST) for the top twenty. Overnight leaders Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight will be last to jump and currently enjoy a healthy margin of seven penalties — a rail and plenty of time in hand over Tim Price and Global Quest before any jumping has happened. We’ll be back with a full report on the flip side. Go Eventing!

Defender Burghley: [Website] [Tickets] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Preview] [EN’s Burghley Field Wiki] [EN’s Ultimate GuideBurghley TV] [EN’s Coverage]

An Early Hill and Corners for Days: What to Expect from the Burghley Course

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 5, 2026 4:43 am -

The final fence — everyone’s favourite.

We’re just a couple of hours away from the start of cross-country here at the 2026 Defender Burghley Horse Trials, where designer Derek di Grazia will once again be our shepherd over the inimitable hills and valleys of the Lincolnshire venue. We’ve already caught up with several of this year’s riders to get their take on the challenge to come — now, let’s dive into the course as a whole.

The essentials are:

Length: 6455m

Optimum time: 11:20

Fences: 28

Jumping efforts: 46, if you go all the direct routes

And here’s a guided virtual course walk, thanks to the CrossCountry App:

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This year’s course goes in the same direction as 2025’s, which makes it effectively counterclockwise. Last year’s direction change was the first time the course had been run in this direction since 2017, and what it does in real-world terms is front-loads the heftiest of the terrain into roughly the first three-and-a-half minutes of the course.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that the back eight minutes are an easy cruise downhill. It’s just a different kind of ebb and flow: riders will need to support their horses straight out of the start box, establish rideability, and then let their horses travel up the long pull towards the Cottesmore Leap (fence 11) without too much fiddling, which will allow them to conserve energy for the long challenge ahead of them.

Along the way, they’ll meet significant questions such as the Defender Dairy Mound at 9ABCD, with its three fences on a snaking bend over a knoll, and will need to make sure they have enough adjustability despite that long, head-down, uphill trajectory.

This direction also means that the back half of the course is heavy on questions, and between minutes seven and ten, roughly, there’s a huge amount of mental work to do.

Is it, perhaps, a touch less technical than last year’s track, and a smidgeon more flowing? Yes, probably. Does it still feature question after question that could create a significant influence on the competition? Absolutely.

Spot the line: the tough corner question at the Trout Hatchery.

One of the recurring motifs on this year’s course is the curved line approach to a corner. It appears no fewer than five times: at the Defender Dairy Mound at 9ABCD, where the straight route comes down a slope to finish up over a right-handed corner on a steep angle; at the Pedigree Ditches at 14ABC, where there’s a bending right-handed line to a left-handed open corner; at the always-influential Joules at the Maltings at 16ABC, which features a left-handed bend to a wide, open, right-handed corner; at the Trout Hatchery water complex at 19ABCDEF (!! Yes! Really!) where the F element is a left-handed corner in the water on a right-handed bend, small-ish but significant; AND, fill your lungs with air if you can, as the final element of the Holland Cooper Leaf Pit at 24ABCDEF, where there’s a very light bend to the line to a left-handed closed timber corner.

“What the curve does,” says Ireland’s Sam Watson, “is it allows you to make mistakes. It allows you to fall in [on the line]. It allows you to move the shoulder to the outside.”

Some of those bending-line-to-corner questions, he says, “walk lovely – if you built it in your arena, it would walk and ride lovely. But when you’re five minutes around Burghley and getting going, you can forget how blind you can come into them. It’s a very fair question, but Derek is just allowing riders to make mistakes there.”

The great thing about rider errors at corner questions? They tend to be runouts – expensive, yes; frustrating, absolutely; dangerous, rarely.

As always, the time here looks set to be tough: 11.20 might seem like a very long time to be on course, but most riders reckon only one or two horses will catch the clock. But playing in everybody’s favour this year is a superb set of ground conditions – arguably the best we’ve seen in the UK all season long. Despite the country’s yawningly long heatwave summer, which has turned England into some kind of desert utopia, except utopias probably have air conditioning and, like, hay, the Burghley grounds team have managed to conjure up not just cushiony grass cover across the whole track, but also a buoyant, supportive ground beneath it. It will be reasonably top-of-the-ground conditions today, but with a bit of spring and a touch of a cut in the ground from Friday morning’s rainfall, and that will help horses to sustain a higher cruising speed and conserve more energy as they travel.

Looking down off the colossal Leaf Pit drop.

Today’s cross-country challenge begins at 11.30 a.m. (6.30 a.m. EST), and our pathfinders on course today will be Caroline Pamukcu and her first ride, the eleven-year-old HSH Tolan King (14^th after dressage on 34.4). Following the withdrawal of New Zealand’s Tayla Mason and Centennial from 20^th place, we now have 47 competitors left in the hunt in a day of sport that’ll wrap up, all being well, around 16.00 BST/11.00 a.m. EST.

In true Burghley fashion, expect major shakeups and huge leaderboard climbs: in this compact field, there’s just 16.3 penalties spanning the entire class which is, of course, less than the penalty for a run-out from one of those innumerable corners.r

Our first-phase leader, Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and the nineteen-year-old Toblerone, will head out of the startbox at 12.40 BST/7.40 a.m. EST on a score of 29.5; they’ll already know by that point how much pressure runner-up Gemma Stevens and her five-star winner Chilli Knight, who are on 29.6, will have put on them, as that pair heads out at 12.15 BST/7.15 a.m. EST.

Joules at the Maltings once again features plenty of airy timber and tough lines.

If you’re following along bright and early from the US and need to plan party naps around your favourite riders’ rounds, here are their start times barring any holds or delays:

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Tolan King (14^th on 34.4) – 11.30 a.m. BST/6.30 a.m. EST
Cassie Sanger and Redfield Fyre (26^th on 38.2) – 12.00 p.m. BST/7.00 a.m. EST
Jennie Brannigan and FE Lifestyle (17^th on 36) – 14.55 BST/9.55 a.m. EST
Ema Klugman and Chiraz (32^nd on 38.5) – 15.00 BST/10.00 a.m. EST
Tiana Coudray and D’Artagnan (11^th on 33.8) – 15.10 BST/10.10 a.m. EST
Will Coleman and Very Dignified (9^th on 33.2) – 15.20 BST/10.20 a.m. EST
Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake (5^th on 32) – 15.35 BST/10.35 a.m. EST

We’ll be bringing you wall-to-wall coverage all day long thanks to Cheg’s bumper live updates blog – plus, stick around later for a full report from Gemma Redrup on all the day’s biggest stories. Go Eventing!

Defender Burghley: [Website] [Tickets] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Preview] [EN’s Burghley Field Wiki] [EN’s Ultimate GuideBurghley TV] [EN’s Coverage]

A Reward for Work Well Done: The Defender Burghley Friday Debrief

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 4, 2026 4:13 pm -

Tim Price and Falco are the best of day two at Defender Burghley, sitting third on a 30.5. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Defender Burghley has always felt like the event at which a horse who might not excel on the flat can triumph – so fiercely influential is the cross-country test, and so complete the stamina challenge, that sea changes are inevitable. That’s not to diminish, of course, the very good dressage that frequently happens here: the records set and broken (18.7 from Tim Price and Vitali back in 2023, in case you need a refresher); the season-long marginal and sometimes maximal gains made in training.

But this week’s field doesn’t necessarily have any of those dressage outlier types; there is no Lordships Graffalo; Ballaghmor Class is only here this week to retire in the main arena; Vitali is sitting this week out and letting his stablemates have a go in the spotlight instead. There are plenty of very capable, very competitive first-phase pairs, but nothing that would have leapt off the page as an out-and-out, barring-acts-of-god sort of leader type.

Which is why it’s actually really quite lovely, and ineffably heartening, to see two horses in the top spots who aren’t flashy; horses who haven’t, necessarily, historically found this phase the easiest; horses who, yesterday, cantered up the centre line and committed to giving the test everything they had. Riders, too, who put their faith in training, and in correct, accurate, sympathetic riding. The things that should win out, really.

After the second day of competition, our dressage leader is still Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and her former Young Rider mount, the nineteen-year-old Toblerone, who posted a 29.5 that proved impassable today. Just behind them on a score of 29.6 is Gemma Stevens, the only other rider to go sub-30, aboard the 2021 Bicton CCI5* winner Chilli Knight, himself a spritely sixteen years old.

“I’m genuinely in shock – like, really in shock,” laughs Gemma. “I feel really happy that the horse has been rewarded for being such a good boy, because he always tries really hard and it’s always been so hard to get any marks out of the judges. We’ve always been just outside the top ten, never really there or thereabouts, and this week I feel like his good training and his good brain has been rewarded.”

For Nadja, the feeling is much the same.

“He’s very special, but explaining dressage to him wasn’t always very easy. I saw his nostrils a couple of times when I started riding him, and he was cheeky, but he showed me the right way to train him and the right way to go. There were no shortcuts with him because he wouldn’t allow it and he could be quite naughty. I owe a lot to this horse, really.”

Tim Price and Falco. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

For our best-placed pair today, it’s also been something of a long game to get the best work, even if today’s score is a touch above their usual mid-to-high-20s results. Tim Price and his 2021 Pau winner Falco last did a test just over three weeks ago, at the FEI World Championships in Aachen, and on that occasion it slightly fell apart at the seams – today, though, despite the bluster, the sometimes mercurial seventeen-year-old was back on form.

“We had a couple of mistakes, which was frustrating, but I was very happy because in Germany he was basically unrideable,” says Tim, who sits third overnight on a score of 30.5. “He was so fresh and on his ear in the dressage, and I pledged not to make that mistake again.”

To burn through some of the excess energy, Tim gave the gelding a cross-country schooling session yesterday, rather than drilling the flatwork.

“It was just to alleviate a bit of energy, and so he was very rideable, and therefore it was just down to me to do as good a job as possible, which I didn’t do to the right degree, really. A couple of flying changes could have been better and cleaner, but other than that, he was really good.”

Though Falco has a wealth of five-star and championship experience, he’s never yet tackled a Burghley.

“I do believe in him a lot, but he’s been a long time in developing at the top level,” says Tim, who rides him for London Olympics course designer Sue Benson. “This year was his first Badminton [he was second]; prior to that, he’d done a Pau and a Maryland, and prior to that we made a lot of mistakes as we came up to Advanced. But he was always a good learner, and we’d go home and do our homework and we’d never make the same mistake again.”

It has been, he says, “a funny old journey, but he’s a super intelligent, overgrown-pony-type-mentality horse, and he’s impressed me at Maryland and Badminton. This is uncharted territory, really, but I want to go out of the start box and have him having fun, and then see if we can take the course on in its entirety.”

It’s not, perhaps, the most conventional approach to complete a World Championships and then come to a five-star just three weeks later, but Tim made the call to do so for several reasons.

“It’s not what we tend to do, but when you look at the plan with these horses over a five-year period, there’s often seasons when they don’t do anything in the spring and then just aim for a team commitment in the autumn,” he says. “So if you look at that bigger picture, he’s actually got very low mileage on his legs, and he’s very easy on his body – he does everything for enjoyment. He’s also seventeen now, and while it would be great if he was back next year, he does need to have some more teeth out, and that might be a reason for us to pull back on his top-level career, so we do just want to have some fun with him. All the stars need to align; he’s only 27% Thoroughbred, so if the ground was soft, I wouldn’t ask an exponent of jumping like him to do it out of that sort of ground for twelve minutes. But he’s in good form, the going is good for him, and often, the preparation for an event is where you put the most wear and tear on their bodies – in this situation, we’re using one preparation twice, especially as I didn’t go fast at Aachen.”

Falco’s good result today now gives Tim two strong competitive shouts tomorrow: he also sits sixth after dressage with the former Georgie Campbell ride Global Quest, who posted a 32.1 yesterday morning.

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Great Britain’s Max Warburton and Deerpairc Revelry, third yesterday on their score of 31.2, now sit fourth at the end of the first phase, while Caroline Pamukcu slots into fourth on the eleven-year-old HSH Blake with a 32.

This gives her, too, two horses well in contention in her Burghley debut; her first ride, HSH Tolan King, who will be tomorrow’s pathfinder, sits 14^th on 34.4.

“He’s a lovely creature – he’s so professional,” says Caroline of Blake. “It doesn’t matter where in the world you go, he gives me 200%. I’m so proud to ride him and so lucky to ride him. Anything I wanted to do in the arena today, he was giving to me; if I wanted to go a little more forward here or a little more shoulders-in there, he was like, ‘okay, yes mom, no problem!’ I love that sort of feeling, and I couldn’t really have asked for more.”

This is a reroute for Blake, who Caroline rode at the Paris Olympics, after a shock early rider fall on cross-country at last month’s World Championships – and already, Caroline is working on blazing the pathway to redemption.

“It was heartbreaking for me,” she says. “I hate to let me country down, especially my teammates, and I put a lot of pressure on Boyd [Martin] and [Will] Coleman. I felt absolutely gutted. My job at the end of the day as second out was to do a good, consistent round and give them feedback, and so silly me to fall in minute five. Hopefully I’ll put that behind myself and make my country proud, and redeem myself in a way.”

Tom Jackson and United 36. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Tom Jackson and his second ride, the exciting ten-year-old United 36, take eighth place overnight on a score of 33.1, behind Tim Price and Global Quest in sixth and Burghley debutant Yasmin Ingham and Goliath du Loir in seventh (32.7).

United 36 comes into the competition as one of the most hotly-tipped horses in the field after an excellent five-star debut at Badminton this spring saw him finish fourth in a strong line-up, and though Tom may have hoped to shave a mark or two off the score they received on that occasion, they’re not far off the pace of that competition’s 32.2.

“I thought the trot and canter work was some of the best he’s ever done,” says Tom, who also sits 13^th on 34.1 with Hawk Eye. “He can be quite a hot-headed horse, and he’s been quite feral this whole week, but he actually really stayed with me and focused on what I was asking.”

He is, continues Tom, “into everything – he notices if a leaf has fallen off a tree four miles away, so he’s been sort of swinging his head around all over the place for the past two days, but he’s knuckled down this morning. Luckily, when I got on to ride I thought, ‘oh, good, we’ve got there.’ He just takes a while; he loves doing his job and loves being at these places, and he just takes a little while to settle. But he’s no different at home, to be fair – he’s quite spooky, and I trot him every day in the arena and he’s spooking across the side and shying away from everything. It’s just who he is.”

With one five-star run – and its associated success – under his belt, United 36 has come into Burghley week very aware of the sort of occasion he’s entering into.

“He definitely turned up here on Tuesday and thought, ‘right, I know what we’re doing,’” laughs Tom. “It’s amazing how they know; they go to short formats and one-days all the time, but once they’ve done a bit more and a few of these big ones, they really do know when they turn up.”

Will Coleman and Very Dignified. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

A touch of inexperience in the flying changes was the only blot on the copybook of Will Coleman’s exciting mare Very Dignified, who earned a 33.2 for ninth place in her first five-star test today.

“She’s a greener horse at this sort of event and at this level, and I’m thrilled with her,” says Will, who took the ride on the now-eleven-year-old from Ireland’s Robbie Kearns last year. “I thought she tried her heart out for me in there, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Burghley isn’t every horse’s ideal first five-star, and Will admits that he “thought about submitting myself for a psychiatric evaluation upon arriving here,” but he also believes she’s a horse well-suited to this kind of track.

“She’s a horse that has five-star qualities and we felt like she’s ready to contest one,” he says. “This season it was either Burghley or Pau, and I think in some ways Burghley will suit her better. It’s a big ask and a big challenge, but we do feel like she at least is worthy of giving her a shot, and it’s my job to look after her out there tomorrow and make sure she leaves a better horse than she arrived. That’s maybe not so result-driven, but I want to give her the best ride I can and see how she copes, and we’ll learn a lot about each other in the process.”

Those five-star qualities? She is, he says, “an aggressive fighter mentality; sort of an alpha female with a lot of spirit and a lot of blood. I’m hoping she brings that to the course tomorrow. She’s going to have to – it’s a big track and 11:20 over the toughest terrain in the world.”

Will Coleman and Very Dignified. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Will was part of the bronze medal-winning US team at last month’s FEI World Championships, which has meant his preparation with Very Dignified hasn’t been as straightforward as he’d have otherwise hoped.

“It’s been less than ideal. I have a good team at home, led by my wife and a good couple riders at home that have helped me keep her going. Morgan Booth, Meg Pellegrini, to name a couple, and they’ve helped us kind of keep the whole yard going while I’ve been gone. But it’s been difficult. It’s hard to be away from your horses. I do everything with them, really. But in her case, we trained really hard all summer. She was on the long list for WEG, so she was kind of going through all the same sort of galloping and training that my other two horses were going through. I was basically gone from her for about ten days, and in some ways, I think that was maybe a good thing, just for her to kind of get a chance to take a breath and relax, and sort of settle her brain a little bit before she made the trip over here. I don’t know how the preparation is going to turn out – we’re going to find out at the end of the weekend. But I think she’s in good condition, and she’s as ready as I could make her, given everything that’s been going on, and sometimes that just has to be good enough.”

Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Great Britain’s Sarah Bullimore and her homebred Corimiro – another stable star out of her former championship ride, Lilly Corinne – came into this week’s competition as EquiRatings’ favourites in the wide open field, and for the first half of their dressage test, it looked as though they might be about to put themselves a country mile ahead of the rest of the class. Certainly, the ten-year-old gelding looked a cut above the rest in his warm-up work, and in that trot section, which saw him trending in the mid-20s.

But a touch of tension – a whisper, really – crept into the walk work, and he broke into a jog for a step or two in its final seconds, and that little bit of hindend tension never quite dissipated through the subsequent canter tour, slipping them down occasionally to mid-table marks.

Still, their final score of 33.6, while not quite what Sarah might have been aiming for today, is competitive enough to keep them in a close tenth place – and, to broaden the context, is just a mark and a half higher than the 32.1 they scored at Badminton this season en route to tenth place. (They did, on that occasion and on the gelding’s debut at the level at Pau last year, romp home inside the time on Saturday, which is an enviable run of form to bring into the weekend.)

“I’m chuffed with him – he stayed with me and rideable and he did everything in the right places, but things can always be a little bit better,” says Sarah. “His changes were good, but the first one wasn’t quite as good as the others, but it wasn’t a bad change or anything. For a young horse, though, he doesn’t give a monkey’s about the atmosphere, and the way he walks out of the arena on a loose rein and just chills… he’s just a fabulous horse, even if the judging was a little bit mean.”

He is, she says with a smile, “my baby, basically, and so sometimes I’m maybe a bit soft on him and don’t ask for as much – I have to remember to actually keep going. And the trouble is, on him it feels so beautiful regardless, so you have to still say, ‘there’s more, there’s more!’ But it’s so special having bred him, even if it does make you a little bit soft.”

Tiana Coudray and D’Artagnan. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

British-based US rider Tiana Coudray and D’Artagnan earned the only 10 of the week, an honour bestowed upon them by Ground Jury President Xavier le Sauce for their mid-test halt. That was one of many good marks that offset a few lower ones in the final changes and helped them to earn a smart 33.8 and overnight eleventh place.

“I’m thrilled,” beams Tiana. “He’s been really tricky. He’s such a good boy, but he has an incredible vigour for life, and to get up here, you have to ride through the middle of the Leaf Pit and the middle of Discovery Valley, and that’s game over because he is just like a spaniel on speed at that point. And so trying to get a dressage test out of him was not looking promising. I didn’t have high hopes; we just sort of thought we’re going to have to get through this. But he was such a good boy in there. If anything, he was maybe a little bit too quiet, which meant he missed some changes, which on another day he wouldn’t have. But look, we will take it! He was obedient. He was listening. He’s just perfect.”

Tiana had a unique coterie of supporters on her way up to the warm-up: she was flanked on either side by helpers, who each had a lead rope on D’Artagnan and a fistful of Polo mints to keep his attention off those en-route obstacles.

“We had a bit of a disaster getting up here yesterday,” she laughs. “And I thought ‘this is it, our weekend’s over.’ After he walked past those jumps I was three strides up the hill and into the warm-up at about 700 metres a minute. I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ So we thought, ‘right, we should put a fly mask on,’ and we thought that might slightly block out the noise, and we led him each side, and we’re just like, force-feeding him Polos, like, ‘look here, look here, look here!’ and every time he’d start to look — Polos! I will try anything. And actually, to be fair, it did work!”

Jennie Brannigan and FE Lifestyle. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Jennie Brannigan sits 17^th on a score of 36 with the sixteen-year-old FE Lifestyle, with whom she’s twice jumped clear around Burghley and has nine five-star completions, including two fifth place finishes at Maryland and one at Kentucky.

As for many partnerships, today’s potent combination of tricky conditions and tight-lipped scoring meant that they hovered around the higher end of their five-star average in this first phase.

“It’s kind of a windy, blustery day, and I’ve been working on keeping the lid on in the canter, so I think maybe the trot work lacked some brilliance – but he was the best behaved he’s ever been in the canter,” says Jennie.

FE Lifestyle, though, is a consummate cross-country horse, and it’s tomorrow’s fierce battle that Jennie has come here for, rerouting from her role as travelling reserve for the US team at last month’s World Championships.

“Derek [di Grazia] was my Young Rider coach, and he’s such a great designer. I’ve ridden a lot of his courses; he does a great job,” she says. “I’ve never run Burghley in this direction, though, so that’s new for me, and we’ll see how it goes. It’s my third trip here, so it’s pretty awesome, and I couldn’t be on a better cross-country horse. So I’m looking forward to it.”

Ema Klugman and Chiraz. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

US-based Australian representative Ema Klugman made the long trip over for 13-year-old Chiraz’s sophomore five-star, after an educational trip around Kentucky this spring saw them finish in 23^rd.

It’s not the first trip abroad for the pair, who go into tomorrow’s cross-country in 33^rd place on a 38.5, and who came to this side of the Atlantic a year ago to tackle the CCIO4*-L at Boekelo.

“We’d done the travel overseas once already, which actually made this trip seem a lot less daunting just because we’ve gone through the motions of the flight before,” says Ema. “But it’s a little more complex getting to Europe and then having to ship over to the UK. My wife and I actually rented a lorry ourselves and drove him, and went on the ferry and the whole nine yards. So we felt pretty crazy that day in particular, just because it was a very long trip!”

Being at Burghley, she says, is “better, in some ways, than I expected. I’ve watched it on TV for a long time, but [when you’re here] it’s an event that feels very friendly, which is nice. The stables are laid-back and peaceful, which is great because they’re a ways away from the arena, and everyone’s been really friendly, from the stewards to the staff to the other riders. It’s been a great experience, and I haven’t even done that much at the event yet, but I already know I’d love to come back.”

The substantial US contingent here this year has also been a normaliser in an event that’s anything but normal.

“We have a great almost team atmosphere here,” she says. “I was warming up and starting to freak out a bit, and then I looked over and Jennie Brannigan was there and I was like, ‘well, I ride next to her all the time at events at home, so it’s just normal.’ I’ve known them all for many years, and I know their grooms, and we’re all helping each other out and giving each other braiding bands and advice on studs and all that kind of stuff. It’s been great – hopefully they don’t worry too much that I’m not actually running for their country!”

There are 47 left in the hunt as we look ahead to tomorrow’s cross-country, which starts at 11.30 BST (6.30 a.m. EST), following the post-dressage withdrawal of New Zealand’s Tayla Mason and Centennial, who had sat in 20^th at the end of the first phase. It’s hard to imagine a more tightly-packed field, either: with just two in the 20s and 11 in the 40s, the room for movement is colossal, and just 16.3 penalties cover the entire field.

The incredibly influential bluster and gustiness of today – certainly a factor, thanks to the malleable roof and tarpaulin-ed cameras, in the higher-than-expected scores across the board – is set to give way to a sensible amount of sunshine on arguably the best going we’ve seen on this side of the pond this season. That, plus a suitably tough Derek di Grazia course and a typically tight time, mean much could change – climbs, no doubt, for Harry Meade from 31^st and 35^th into the business end; an open door for the field’s selection of Thoroughbreds; and all the surprises and plot twists we look forward to over a Burghley weekend.

We’ll be bringing you wall-to-wall coverage all day, thanks to Cheg Darlington and her excellent live updates blog, as well as a full report at the end of the day from Gemma Redrup, who will be taking over the mantel as lead reporter for the day while I escape to a really badly-timed but undoubtedly lovely wedding. From me, it’s goodbye until Sunday morning; from EN, we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow for one of the very best days of the year. Go Eventing!

Defender Burghley: [Website] [Tickets] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Preview] [EN’s Burghley Field Wiki] [EN’s Ultimate GuideBurghley TV] [EN’s Coverage]

“Today He Believed He Could do Dressage”: Nadja Minder Takes Thursday Burghley Lead with 19-Year-Old Wonderhorse

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 3, 2026 1:39 pm -

Nadja Minder and Toblerone. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

What does it take to get a nineteen-year-old horse to a five-star in peak condition and at the top of his game?

Turns out it’s pretty simple, actually.

“He’s turned out in a group of ten horses,” says 26-year-old Nadja Minder, who holds the overnight lead at the end of day one of Defender Burghley with the evergreen Toblerone.

All her horses are “very natural”, something that she believes is the keystone to keeping her partner not just thriving but constantly improving season after season.

“We take a lot of care that the horses move most of the day, because if they were living in the wild on the steppe, that’s what they’d do. It’s natural for them and has worked well for us in terms of avoiding injuries, too, because they’re not locked in and then going crazy in small paddocks.”

Also a likely factor?

“He’s a horse who doesn’t use himself up very much – he’s not a flashy mover, so I think that definitely helps. And he started late; he did his first two-star when he was eleven, so that’s also there. He truly only started his eventing career with me, and even though it feels like forever, I’ve only had him since 2020. But also, he’s just a special character.”

That ‘special character’ has been Nadja’s partner for some of her biggest career milestones: an eleventh place finish at the Young Rider European Championships in 2021, a Nations Cup debut the same year; a senior World Championships debut the next. There was the European Eventing Championships in 2023, Nadja’s first, where they jumped clear in merciless conditions; a five-star debut at Pau the same year; a first Burghley the next year and a top-twenty finish. At last year’s European Championships, they finished nineteenth, and are about as emblematic of the Swiss team as Toblerone’s namesake chocolate bar is of the country they hail from.

He seems like the sort of horse who’ll stick around at the big ones forever, but ‘Schöggeli’ – that’s Choccy, basically, if you’re Swiss or know how to do an umlaut on your laptop keyboard – might be on his last hurrah, even if he doesn’t feel a day over ten.

Nadja Minder and Toblerone. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

It was, as such, about as poignant as it gets when Nadja and her ‘chocolate legend’ – her words, not ours – sailed straight to the top of the leaderboard in Thursday afternoon’s dressage at Defender Burghley, earning a score of 29.5 and a position they will hold overnight. Someone get the girl a beer.

“I don’t know how many tests we have left – probably none,” says Nadja. “But he’s so cool – he never lets me down. He’s always just there, and he delivers on the day.”

Sharing such a formative partnership means that she can trust in him entirely – a lightning-in-a-bottle feeling at this topmost level.

“I’m 100% relaxed in every phase – well, maybe not showjumping,” she laughs. “But on cross-country, when I’m walking a course with him in mind, I really have no worries. I just need to ride him well and present it well to him, and it’s the same in the dressage. I don’t really practice before the test now because he knows the movements, and I know how to ride him because we know each other inside out.”

So the difference comes down not to rote repetition, but to mindset.

“I just need to get him moving before a test and make him believe in his abilities, because that was what he struggled with most when I started with him,” she says. “He was just maybe tightening a bit because he didn’t believe. But Piggy March really helped me with that – and today he believed he can actually do good dressage, and he believed me, and he believed in himself, and we were able to deliver.”

Nadja Minder and Toblerone. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Though Nadja trains primarily with her mother, Therese, who also acts as her travelling groom, she also teams up with Piggy at the British five-stars – a tuning-up sort of relationship that works marvellously after Nadja spent six weeks based with the British rider ahead of her Burghley debut in 2024. Also by her side at events is Swiss team cross-country coach Andrew Nicholson, who helped warm her up today.

“It doesn’t get much better than these two,” she grins.

While many five-star riders might enjoy the spoils of a serious set of facilities at home, Nadja has humbler training grounds: “I ride more on grass at home than I do on a surface, because I just don’t have the setup. I have a little 20×40 arena, but really, I work my horses more on the grass, and actually, I think it’s very healthy for them and for their balance.”

There’s no doubt that that played to their benefit in Burghley’s uniquely terrain-y main arena today; for the busy weekend to come, it will be an asset they rely on, too.

Second place overnight is held by morning leaders Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight, who ‘shuffled’ their way to a 29.6 – just a tenth of a penalty off the lead as we close out the day. You can read the full report on their test here.

Max Warburton and Deerpairc Revelry. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Great Britain’s Max Warburton was a firm fixture at the collecting ring today: this morning, he was ringside in support of girlfriend Susie Berry, who rode first horse Clever Trick to a 40.5 – “she’d win a speed dressage, anyway,” quipped Susie, wryly – and this afternoon, he was neatly steering the rangy Deerpairc Revelry to a 31.2 and overnight third place.

“He was super – it was a real clear round test,” says Max. “He tried very hard; his brain was great, and I was absolutely thrilled with him.”

Max, who recorded a top twenty finish here with the twelve-year-old in 2024, was also helped in the warm-up by Piggy March: “My normal trainer, David Trott, has been moving house this week, so it’s been a little bit of a stressful thing not having him here,” he says. “So actually, Piggy helped me as well. I went to see her on Tuesday for the first time, and she was a big help, just having an extra pair of eyes on the ground and a bit of a kick up the arse. She was very good.”

Yasmin Ingham and Goliath du Loir. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Tim Price and Global Quest, second at the lunchbreak, now occupy fourth place on their score of 32.1, while Burghley debutant and former World Champion Yasmin Ingham rounds out the top five on 32.7 with the ten-year-old Goliath du Loir.

“I honestly couldn’t have asked for any more from him,” says Yas. “It’s a massive atmosphere here at Burghley and we’re so excited to be here to start with, but for him to go out there and be so relaxed in the arena and work with me was all I could ask for.”

It’s not just a Burghley debut – somehow; inexplicably – for Yas, but also a level debut for the exciting Goliath.

“Burghley’s renowned for its tough cross-country course, and he’s an out-and-out cross-country horse – he’s brave and he’s got a huge stride, so I decided to bring him here for my first Burghley and his first five-star and give it a go. He’s had a great preparation so far this year; he went really well at Bramham and we’re ready to tackle this week.”

Caroline Powell and High Time. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

New Zealand’s Caroline Powell and the 14-year-old High Time go into sixth place on their score of 33.9 – a score that doesn’t quite rival their 31.1 here twelve months ago, en route to eighth place, but considerably betters their marks across the 2026 season.

“I’m absolutely thrilled with him,” says Caroline, a winner here in 2010 with Lenamore. “I kind of forgot about the Thursday atmosphere here and he’s a pretty hot horse anyway, but he’s just getting nicer and nicer. If it’s not his year this year, it’ll be coming up soon.”

High Time’s Burghley campaign comes after an uncharacteristic fall at Badminton – his only mistake at the level.

“We’ve changed a few things but it’s such minute details – we’re at the level where if one thing goes wrong, it ends up being quite a huge mistake. We’ve made a few changes, looked at the videos over and over again, and hopefully this time he’ll be absolutely amazing.”

Much of the rest of the top ten is populated by morning competitors: Tom Jackson and Hawk Eye now sit seventh on their 34.1; Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Tolan King are eighth on 34.3; and Clarke Johnstone and Domasco are ninth on 34.5.

Alex Bragg and Jaeger Master. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

A new entrant, though, rounds out the best ten of day one. Alex Bragg and his five-star debutant Jaeger Master posted a 35.6 to put themselves in the hunt at this early stage, in what is just their second season together after Alex took the ride on from fellow Brit Tom Woodward.

“For his first five-star, especially in the big atmosphere of Burghley, I was pleased,” says Alex. “It wasn’t perfect; he went into the main arena and got quite lit up, not naughty but just nerves, and then he becomes hypersensitive. So I tried to get into canter and then he stopped dead because he spooked at the scoreboard that’s next to the arena, and I really thought, ‘oh, I could be in trouble here!’”

But, he continues, “we got up the centre line and I stuck to my plan and didn’t get tense myself, and he tried so hard to stay with me and listening, so although it wasn’t the best work he can do, I was pleased. I think there’s a future there for a really magic test at this level in this atmosphere, and so that’s the positive I’m taking.”

Tomorrow’s second day of dressage will see the final 24 horses and riders in our field take to the white boards from 10.00 a.m. BST (5.00 a.m. EST), with Ireland’s Sam Watson and Ballyneety Rocketman first up to bat. Harry Meade and Cavalier Crystal will be the final pair of the day, starting their test at 15.50 (10.50 a.m. EST), and in between, we’ll see an exciting array of competitors from this wide open field. If you’re following along from the USA and hoping to cheer on the American riders in the field, you’re in luck: all four are scheduled to ride after the lunchbreak, with Jennie Brannigan first in on FE Lifestyle (14.00 BST/9.00 a.m. EST); US-based Aussie Ema Klugman and Chiraz following on at 14.08 BST/9.08 a.m. EST; Tiana Coudray and D’Artagnan coming forward at 14.24 BST/9.24 a.m. EST; Will Coleman and Very Dignified just after at 14.40 BST/9.40 a.m. EST; and Caroline Pamukcu and second horse HSH Blake closing out the North American effort at 15.26 BST/10.26 a.m. EST.

You can follow all the action on Burghley TV, and join us for two more packed reports (and plenty more coverage besides). Go Eventing.

The top ten at the end of Thursday’s competition at Defender Burghley.

Defender Burghley: [Website] [Tickets] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Preview] [EN’s Burghley Field Wiki] [EN’s Ultimate Guide] [Burghley TV] [EN’s Coverage]

Every Day She’s Shuffling: Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight Take Thursday Morning Burghley Lead

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 3, 2026 8:50 am -

Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

When it comes to sixteen-year-old Chilli Knight, winner of the ‘pop-up’ pandemic five-star at Bicton in 2021, dressage isn’t about flash or fandango – instead, says rider Gemma Stevens, he just has to do “his best shuffling.”

“He can’t trot at all,” laughs Gemma. “It’s just not his forte. But the one thing that makes up for the fact that he can’t trot is his heart – he’s always trying his best.”

If any event requires heart beyond the average, it’s Defender Burghley. And today, that deep well of ‘try’ made all the difference, propelling Gemma and Chilli Knight straight to the top of the leaderboard in this morning’s inaugural session as the only sub-30 scorers of the class so far.

Their 29.7 isn’t quite their best result between the boards – that came at that fateful Bicton, where they posted a 27.9 – but it does represent both a very competitive score in this field, as well as the just reward for a bit of risk-taking moments before the test.

“At Badminton [this spring] he was a bit behind my leg, and we made some really stupid mistakes and had the worst score we’d ever had,” says Gemma. “So here, for the first time, we actually tried to razz him up a bit before he went in. It’s not a normal thing for a five-star horse, but this morning Ian [Woodhead] was like, ‘come on, let’s do it – what can it hurt?’ He’s so reliable in the arena, and he’s an old boy now so he knows his job. He goes in there; he does his thing; he only does what he has to do.”

So, she continues, “I started him off like normal [in the warm-up] and then started saying, ‘come on, come on,’ and really razzing him up, and then I gave him a pat and went in.”

Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

It worked. In the arena, the five-star stalwart “didn’t drop off my leg – he stayed lovely and in front of me, kept his frame up in front of me, and was really nice to ride. He’s a horse I can really trust not to run off with me in there; the worst he’d do is spook at a flowerpot, and he’s not going to get whizzy on me, so it was something I could afford to try with him.”

‘Alfie’ is probably best known for his serious turns of speed on cross-country, but in the first phase, finding the ‘oomph’ has been a long game.

“He’s so full of go on cross-country, but to him, dressage is dull,” says Gemma with a laugh. “Jumping jumps is much more fun, and galloping fast is what he loves to do. He loves it when we come to these big ones, because he knows that I’m not going to have the handbrake on, and that’s the best thing ever – at the other events he knows I’ll have the handbrake on and he gets a bit cross with me, to be honest!”

It’s that inherent joie de vivre that Gemma hopes will be the pair’s driver for a sea-change in fortunes on Saturday, after a lost shoe at Badminton forced them to pull up while in a strong position – and after a tough World Championships run for Gemma, who is still mystified by an uncharacteristic couple of refusals from Flash Cooley, her ride in Germany.

“As long as we’ve got a bit of luck on our side, and we keep our wheels on and keep galloping, there’s no reason [Chilli Knight] won’t gallop to the end,” she says. “He’s fit, he’s blood, and he’s done it before – we just have to have that bit of luck to not stand on ourselves and pull a shoe off like we did at Badminton, because he’s got such flat feet that we’re not very good when we haven’t got our wheels on. It’s like being on an ice rink – not very nice going around Burghley!”

Tim Price and Global Quest. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

The margin at the top of this early stage is a reasonably comfortable one: second-placed Tim Price and Global Quest sit 2.5 penalties behind Gemma and Alfie on a 32.1 after a conservative but workmanlike test.

“You sometimes forget how long a partnership takes to really cement,” says Tim, who inherited the ride from the late Georgie Campbell in the latter half of 2024. “I’ve had him for a couple of years, and we’re just starting to feel like we’re really a team.”

Something that Tim has learned over those two seasons is the balance in how much he asks and how much he supports.

“For a big fella, he actually has quite a high level of anxiety,” he says. “With me being bigger and stronger than Georgie, it’s perhaps a bit more like, ‘it’s like this, mate’, but that’s not always been to his benefit. He can just get a little bit upset, and then he goes in his shell and everything’s a bit forced, and you lose the balance and the impulsion and things like that. So as we’ve gone on I have, for a start, got him a lot fitter and a lot lighter and his body a lot stronger, and then I really try not to come in and say, ‘it’s like this.’ I want him to show himself off, not me to say ‘this is what you need to do’, so I try to just achieve more softness and cadence and things that aren’t that natural to him.”

Today, he says, “I tried to ride smoothly, which comes at the cost of a few crisp transitions, and I ride for changes that are small, but clean. In the past I’d really go for the change and he’d throw his head down and go, ‘why did you do that?!’ So now, I just try to show him the way, and I hope that over the next couple of seasons that’ll mean he actually gets much better.”

Already, the progression is evident: “it was a nice, smooth, flowing test, and while he doesn’t have the flamboyance of the ones that’ll be at the front of the pack in this phase, it’s a great baseline to move on from. He tried his hardest in there and didn’t get distracted, even when things like the flowers caught his eye.”

Tom Jackson and Hawk Eye. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Tom Jackson and the first of his two rides, the former Nicola Wilson ride Hawk Eye, step into third place at this early stage on a 34.1 – nearly bang-on their average at this level in their third start.

“Overall I’m really pleased with him – obviously there’s bits to polish up, and he just slightly dropped behind me on a couple of the halts, but he doesn’t find this phase the easiest and it actually felt a big improvement from the last couple of five-star tests he’s done,” says Tom.

Tomorrow will see both Tim and Tom return with second rides: for Tim, it’ll be the evergreen Falco, 21^st at the World Championships last month, and for Tom it will be five-star sophomore United 36 who, at just ten years old, is one of the favourites in this year’s field after taking fourth place at Badminton on his debut this spring.

“They’re extremely different horses to ride, and it takes a slightly different riding style for both of them,” says Tom. “But they’ve done quite a lot together this year and the back end of last year, so hopefully I’m used to changing between the two now!”

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Tolan King. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Pathfinder Caroline Pamukcu is also double-handed in her long-awaited Burghley debut, and while her top horse, Aachen-rerouter HSH Blake, will come forward tomorrow, a steady test from HSH Tolan King was good enough to put the pair into provisional fourth place this morning on a score of 34.4.

“He was fantastic,” says Caroline. “He’s a funny story – he was a failed sale horse of mine, and so I took over the ride three or four years ago and he’s just exceeded all of our expectations.”

HSH Tolan King arrived on Caroline’s yard in the States in 2021, and the following year, Caroline relocated to the UK for a season to base herself with Pippa Funnell.

“We didn’t bring him, because we were just trying to sell him – and only for $20,000. He went to three separate professionals and we were like, ‘you should take this one – he’ll be nice!’ But he was just one of the ones I couldn’t sell. I’d produced him up to Training level at that point, and I went to the investor and said, ‘look, we’ve put so much money into him – why don’t we just kick on and take him up the levels and see what we have?’”

That call, she says, has been “so worthwhile. He’s a bit of a quirky horse, a bit of an underdog, and that’s for sure why he didn’t sell – he’s not an American type of horse. He’s blood, he’s a little small, and for me he’s very fancy, but he’s not the Dutch stamp of a horse that [the market] really like – the big flash, the big jump. But he digs so, so deep, and he’s the ideal type for me – I like the smaller ones that are a little bit rogue.”

Being pathfinder at Burghley on a debut visit might not be many riders’ ideal draw, but Caroline has plenty of trust in the little gelding, who jumped clear around Kentucky this year for fourteenth place.

“He was first out at Kentucky for me this year and first out at Maryland [last year], and I’d say Maryland was pretty beefy,” she says. “So I appreciate him; he just does a really great job and handles it all in his stride, and he couldn’t care less about an atmosphere.”

And, she continues, “I’m so honoured to be here. It’s been a bucket list show of mine, but I’ve been a big believer in supporting our American five-stars, so I try to have a horse for Kentucky and for Maryland every year. Sadly, Maryland is a no-go this year, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to come overseas and finally do Burghley.”

Clarke Johnstone and Domasco. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Rounding out the top five at this stage is British-based Kiwi Clarke Johnstone, who piloted the ex-racehorse Domasco to a 34.5 – a smart score for a horse who has often tipped into the high-30s at four-star, though proved at three-star that he has the raw material for some very smart scores in the future.

“I’m really pleased with him,” says Clarke. “He’s a Thoroughbred horse and he does tend to get quite hot, but he stayed really calm and really with me in the arena. I thought his trot work was super nice; he walked really calmly; and while his canter work is his weakness – he doesn’t do a good flying change, so they bring the score down – there must have been some high marks as well to finish on a 34, which I’m pleased with.”

A happy little surprise for Clarke was the ring announcer’s request for the crowd to keep the applause to a minimum when he came into the ring: “That actually wasn’t my doing, but I was quite happy to hear the announcement,” he laughs. “I don’t know who asked for it, but it certainly helped – at the trot-up, after the crowd clapped, he shot off with me!”

Thirteen-year-old Domasco comes into the top levels of the sport with an enviable amount of frequent flyer miles on his roster already from his former career: he was bred in the UK, then sold to New Zealand to race, and after starting his FEI career in the Southern Hemisphere, he relocated back to England at the tail end of 2021 when Clarke moved his business across the world.

It wasn’t Clarke, though, who originally found him after racing: “Helen Tompkins got him off the track, and she rode him for a couple of months. But he’s very big, and so she sent him to me to ride for her. I did one lap of the arena at a trot and then I rang her and said, ‘Helen, how much money do I need to pay you to have this horse?’ I just loved him from those first steps – it was like, ‘wow, this is my horse.’ It took eighteen months or so to convince her to sell him to me, and although it’s taken a bit longer to get him to this level than I’d hoped – he’s so accident prone that his mascot is Melman the giraffe from Madagascar – he’s still just as beautiful as I thought he was.”

This is the start of a long-awaited return to Burghley for Clarke, who competed here in 2011 with Incognito, finishing 17^th.

“It’s taken a long time to feel like I’ve got the right horse to come back with,” he says. “It takes a special type of horse, and I’m hoping he’s that. He’s a fantastic jumper; he’s very clever and careful, and while I wouldn’t say he’s overly brave, and I have to keep him sweet and be very accurate the whole way around, it’s always nice to be sitting on a Thoroughbred once you get north of nine minutes.”

Cassie Sanger and Redfield Fyre. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Our second US representative of the morning, British-based Cassie Sanger and Redfield Fyre, slot into seventh on a score of 38.2, just behind British pair Jack Pinkney and Claragh Olala, sixth on 38.

“The marks are never easy for him, especially in a five-star test, but the changes are slowly coming along and we kind of have three out of four now not late behind, which is a big improvement for him,” says Cassie, who balances training her string of horses with Ros Canter with working through a journalism degree.

“We have a really good system with Ros, who I train with all the time at home, and with Ian Woodhead at the events,” she continues. “We kind of go with how he’s feeling in the lead-up – we’ll work hard on the flat, and then take him to the gallops the next day, and he’s actually become quite good at flatting the day after he does his fitness work, which you wouldn’t always think would be the case with a horse who struggles with strength and balance.”

But, she says, “he just needs his brain to switch on and off with it. So we keep him really happy – he’s only had one big session here this week, and otherwise we’ve toned [the schooling] right down. I rode him this morning in the dressage saddle, but just stretching him and making sure he was loose and feeling good, and then we just did a fifteen minute warm-up for the test so we can get the best out of him in the ring.”

We’ll be heading back to the white boards shortly for this afternoon’s dressage session, which will see another twelve horses and riders deliver their tests from 14.00 BST/9.00 a.m. EST. As always, you can follow along live on Burghley TV, and keep it locked onto EN for another full report at the end of the day’s sport. Until then: Go Eventing!

The top ten at lunchtime on Thursday at Defender Burghley.

Defender Burghley: [Website] [Tickets] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Preview] [EN’s Burghley Field Wiki] [EN’s Ultimate Guide] [Burghley TV] [EN’s Coverage]

Major Withdrawal Shakes up Defender Burghley First Horse Inspection

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 2, 2026 1:08 pm -

Will Coleman and Very Dignified. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Before the first horse inspection at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials even got underway, two hugely surprising things happened: David Doel withdrew, and it rained. Quite a lot, actually.

Okay, okay, so over the last few days England and its scorched earth have actually seen a bit of the wet stuff, but still: it’s incredible how a summer of intense heatwaves and drought conditions rendered so many of us totally unprepared for the reality of weather. Mostly those of us who work at EN. Mostly me, really, who had to blow-dry my hair in the media centre (thank you to Yesterday Tilly, who was too lazy to unpack the car) and unearth a rain coat from… where, really? I didn’t even know I owned any anymore.

Serious boots for serious business: Emma Thomas presents Icarus. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

So yes, ultimately the bigger shock wasn’t my entry into a wet t-shirt contest (default win; no other entries; still counts) but that French exit by David. We found out, in fact, once the trot-up had begun; suddenly it was his turn, and there he wasn’t. In this wide-open field, which could see the win go in one of many directions, David and the evergreen Galileo Nieuwmoed were certainly a firm feature in many fans’ dream podiums and Eventing Manager teams (we know this because we heard them all gasp like they’d just been punched) – and now, it feels very odd to have a Burghley without them. We’re sending them both all the best possible vibes for a quick bounce back to top form and, perhaps, a retributive victory at Pau.

Jack Pinkney and Claragh Olala. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

That withdrawal took our compact but very strong field down to 48 starters, which feels rather European but is, as I keep telling anyone who will listen, the perfect amount of five-star entries. There is no dressage fatigue when you have 24 tests a day! There is only joy and novelty and time for gin breaks! Perfect. Splendid. Still want David back in the mix, though.

Sarah Bullimore’s Corimiro – the favourite for the win by a slim margin in this year’s wide-open field – watches the action unfold on the big screen. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Fortunately, there was no further shortening of the list as we drip-drip-dripped our way through the inspection, which was presided over by Xavier le Sauce of France and fellow ground jury members Joanne Jarden of Ireland and Sandy Phillips of Great Britain.

Just two horses were sent to the holding box: New Zealand’s Tayla Mason and Centennial paid a short visit for further inspection, as did Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and Toblerone, who is our sole 19-year-old horse in this year’s field – but both, happily, were readily accepted into the competition upon re-presentation.

Clarke Johnstone and Domasco. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The best-dressed awards both went to New Zealand: Clarke Johnstone, who presented the thirteen-year-old Domasco for the Thoroughbred’s five-star debut, and Jonelle Price, who pilots Chilli’s Midnight Star in his third five-star start this week, each began their week in the prizes.

Jonelle Price and Chilli’s Midnight Star. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tomorrow sees the start of the first phase from 10.00 a.m. local time (5.00 a.m. EST). Our pathfinder for the week, and first in the ring, will be the USA’s Caroline Martin, who steps into the role after the late withdrawal of Harry Meade’s Superstition, who was intended to be the first of his three rides this week. Caroline, for her part, is double-handed for Burghley: we’ll see her tomorrow with HSH Tolan King, 14^th at Kentucky this spring and 11^th on his level debut at Maryland last year, and on Friday with HSH Blake, who reroutes here from the World Championships at Aachen, where Caroline took a surprise early tumble.

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Tolan King. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Thursday’s competition is studded with highlights: Tim Price will be second in the ring (10.08/5.08 a.m. EST) with the first of his two horses, the former Georgie Campbell ride Global Quest; Gemma Stevens will bring forward her Bicton ‘pop-up’ CCI5* winner Chilli Knight at 11.34 (6.34 a.m. EST); crowd favourite Simon Grieve and Autograf, top twenty here twelve months ago, will enter at A at 14.40 (9.40 a.m. EST); Harry Meade will begin his fight for a first five-star victory at 15.34 (10.34 a.m. EST) with Et Hop du Matz; and former World Champion Yasmin Ingham will begin her Burghley debut at 15.42 (10.42 a.m.) with Goliath du Loir. We’ll also see our second US representative tomorrow, before a proliferation of stars and stripes on Friday – that’ll be Cassie Sanger and Redfield Fyre, who come forward at 11.10 a.m. (6.10. a.m. EST).

Burghley debutante Yasmin Ingham and Goliath du Loir. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We’ll be back tomorrow with two jam-packed reports – one at the lunch break, and one at the close of play – so you don’t miss a single story you need to know from Burghley. In the meantime, you can also get to know the field in full with Cheg’s form guide; Cheg will also be handling EN’s live updates again this week, so you can count on in-depth play-by-plays for each ride. You can also watch along via the excellent Burghley TV. Until next time: Go Eventing!

Defender Burghley: [Website] [Tickets] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Preview] [EN’s Burghley Field Wiki] [EN’s Ultimate Guide] [Burghley TV] [EN’s Coverage]

Double-Double, Pole’s No Trouble for 2026 World Champions Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 16, 2026 5:36 pm -

Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It’s hard to say what was louder: the pole, or the crowd.

It was midway through Michael Jung’s round when it happened. Ros Canter, seconds before, had jumped a faultless clear round with her five-time five-star winner, Lordships Graffalo, which meant that Michi had nothing in hand: if he so much as tipped over the time allowed by a fraction of a second, he’d find himself on the same score as her.

Six championships to date, with Michi in the irons at least. Five previous showjumping rounds that would see the eighteen-year-old Hanoverian and the most-medalled rider of all time fight for podium places. Just one clear – at the FEI European Championships last year – to his name, when it ultimately ended up being cross-country time penalties that cost them the win. A victory gained, of course, on the final day of the Paris Olympics, despite a pole down; several lost, including the 2022 World Championships at Pratoni, where they had one in hand but took two, forgoing the podium entirely.

So when that midway moment happened, and Chipmunk’s front hooves hit the back rail of the out element of the double-double at 5B – boof, boof, one gunfire clang right after another – it felt a bit like a foregone conclusion. For the third consecutive World Championship, a German would hand the win to a Brit on the basis of a rail. Yet again, and this time at the twilight of his storied career, Chipmunk would sacrifice a medal in the final phase.

The gasp and the groan from the 25,000 or so people in Aachen’s main stadium engulfed the space. But as Michi and Chipmunk moved away from the fence, the pole – milliseconds before airborne over the cups – settled back into its original position. The fence, inexplicably, was still up. And then the subsequent reaction was even louder: the mein Gotts, the clutching of neighbours’ arms, the “I really, really thought that was coming down!” rippling through the place; the frenetic murmurings of relief; the great crescendo of shushing as they realised one after another that they really ought not to distract their hero now that he’d clawed back a chance at the win. Distracted, perhaps, if just marginally, the pair tapped 6, too. It stayed up.

The round improved thereafter, and the occasionally lackadaisical Chipmunk settled into both a positive rhythm and a degree of caution that allowed him to navigate the remainder of Frank Rothenberger’s course without any further incident.

Even the GOAT gets emotional: Michael Jung secures the championship with fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

When they crossed the finish line, they did so as the newly-minted World Champions.

This isn’t, of course, the first time that Michi has held this title – nor, indeed, the first time he’s been both the World and Olympic champion concurrently. He’s just the second person to manage it: New Zealand’s Blyth Tait did it when winning gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 1998 World Championships at Rome with Ready Teddy; Michi did it the first time in 2010 when he won the World Championships in Lexington and the London Olympics in 2012. If anything, he probably feels like a bit of an underachiever: last time he held these two titles, he also had the European Championship title to his name, having won it at Luhmühlen in 2011. He is, famously, the only person to have managed that hattrick.

Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“I feel very lucky to have these amazing horses and be the rider for them,” says Michi, who collects his eighth senior individual gold medal today. “Standing in the prizegiving between these amazing horses, it makes the job for the rider that much easier.”

It’s easy, now that the former Julia Krajewski ride Chipmunk is a multi-medallist himself, to fish for comparisons between him and Michi’s previous bay stalwart, the incredible La Biosthetique Sam FBW. But, he says, they’re very different horses who came to him in very different epochs of his career.

“Sam was my horse in the beginning, and I grew up with him together. He was a very powerful horse, and not so easy in the dressage, and he had not so much scope in the jumping but he was always a super cross-country machine. I had the feeling he could jump everything so easily, he could run every hill, if necessary he could do it for half an hour – it didn’t matter for him. He was super fast in hard ground, deep ground; he was such a strong and sound horse and in that time, that was really amazing. Chipmunk is a super dressage horse, with such good balance and such a super temperament – every day, he’s a joy to ride. Then in the cross-country he’s powerful, and he can run so fast. Today, he showed he can jump so carefully and in a super style, too, a completely different style of jump to yesterday.”

Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Today’s showjumping round was “tough – with the time, too,” he continues. “He started out very, very good; he was super calm, super to ride, really listening when I started to gallop and to the first jump he gave me a very good feeling directly. But I took a bit more of a gallop to the first combination and ended up a bit closer than I wished on the oxer – so that was a scary moment, but the rest was amazing.”

The individual podium: World Champion Michael Jung, silver medallist Ros Canter, and bronze medallist Laura Collett. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Ros Canter, too, has been the World Champion previously – she won the title at Tryon in 2018 with the late Allstar B, and came into this week’s competition as one of the three firm favourites to battle it out for the gold.

But when you’re in second place after cross-country, all you can do is what you can do; namely, a clear, quick showjumping round to put the pressure on the leader. That’s exactly what she and Lordships Graffalo delivered, in ‘Walter’s’ charmingly laid-back sort of way that saw them pick their way around the colossus of the arena as though it was a working hunter class.

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The beauty of this podium, which features European Champions Laura Collett and London 52 in bronze after a surprise rail down, is that any of the three could have won the gold and it would have seemed like exactly the right result. But where it’s the last hurrah on the world stage for 18-year-old Chipmunk and 17-year-old London 52, a return – and a win – seems about as inevitable for the 14-year-old Walter as any result can be in this sport. He has been fourth and now second at World Championships; he has been a team gold medallist at the Olympics; he has been a double gold medallist at the European Championships; he has won Badminton thrice and Burghley twice and this, somehow, remarkably, still feels like the beginning of the story.

“I think part of [our success] is that we’ve been together from the word go,” says Ros. “I’ve been riding Lordships Graffalo since he was three years old, and from the word go, I absolutely loved him, and I think we complement each other well. The things he’s really fantastic at, like going fast, are my weakness; the other bits like dressage, which he wouldn’t have particularly loved, is one of my strengths. But I think the big thing as well is that he has the most fantastic and supportive owners behind him. Michelle and Archie Saul have been in the sport for many, many years with lots of different horses, and they’re just fully behind what we do, and they always allow me to give Walter the best opportunities in life.”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

His position as Vice World Champion further cements the British-bred gelding’s status as arguably the greatest event horse of all time.

“We all know that Walter loves Badminton and Burghley and he’s got an endless gallop around those big tracks,” says Ros. “So to be able to prove that he can do these three phases in a competition like this, I think that makes it the ultimate event horse.”

Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

For Laura Collett, riding into a highly pressurised showjumping arena on the consummate stylist London 52 is a privilege: he’s one of the most reliable showjumpers in our sport, and no doubt one of the most fun to sit on, too. But even the greats can have mistakes, and today they drew one of the biggest gasps from the crowd when, on the approach to the oxer at fence 12, ‘Dan’ spooked at the water tray and disrupted the stride pattern, ultimately taking the front rail down with his knees.

Fortunately, though, that mistake lost them no ground on the leaderboard, and a clear wouldn’t have raised them up, either.

“He jumped absolutely incredible in there, and I have no idea why he did what he did – he hadn’t done it before Tokyo, and he hasn’t done it since Tokyo, but it was basically a replica [of that rail],” says Laura. “He’s been faultless all week, and I’m just delighted that it didn’t change the standings.”

If gold was the goal for Ros and Laura, they won’t be going home disappointed: the British team has been on superb form this week, rallying robustly after a disastrous result at last year’s European Championships to show the world exactly what they’re made of. They came into today’s showjumping finale with just shy of 15 penalties in hand, and ended the day still sitting on a margin of 11.6 penalties, unusurpable in gold.

“We came here to win a team gold, and we’ve done that and added a couple of extras just for a bonus,” laughs Laura. “All the horses and all the people and all the team have been phenomenal all week, and we’re just very lucky to be part of one hell of a team.”

Team GB returns to form with a decisive gold medal victory. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin also laid down a smart round with a rail down at fence 12 to contribute to that team result, which saw the Brits down to just three after the shock elimination of Gemma Stevens and Flash Cooley on yesterday’s cross-country. But for Tom, that single rail did spell a slip down the individual standings, and he and ‘Dubs’ had to settle for seventh place in the final order.

Tom McEwen and Laura Collett. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“It’s a bit of a shame but honestly it hasn’t cost us anything, because I’ve finished fourth so many times before that I’m rather pleased not to have done it again,” he laughs. “And more importantly, we’ve done what we came to achieve, which was team gold. I couldn’t be happier!”

British chef d’equipe Dicky Waygood will finally be able to exhale (in the bar next door, with his madcap group of riders, no doubt): there’s the redemption arc from Blenheim to now, of course, but there’s also the matter of the 2028 LA Olympics that’s been dealt with today. This week’s competition represents the first chance that nations have to qualify teams for the Games; from here on out, everyone as-yet-unqualified will have some serious work on their hands to get the job done.

“It’s really easy to sit here now and say our first target was Olympic qualification, but as you know, we came here with a lot of weight and expectation on the top of our shoulders,” says Dicky. “So for these guys to deal with that weight and pressure and the expectation is absolutely incredible. And of course, there is a bit of relief afterwards as well. We’ve all worked together so often. We know when someone might be a little bit hyped or not hyped or in a good place, and it just takes one glance — and that’s the same with me as well. They know when they need to give me a kick up the backside as well, which is great.”

Team GB’s supporters were among the most vocal of the week. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It is, he says, “a really, really lovely group to work with, and it just — it’s really hard to explain. But when you say team spirit, we are, in essence, quite an individual sport. 350-odd days a year, everybody’s competing against each other. But eventing has such a family feeling, and there’s very few sports where, in individual competitions, athletes from different nations will say, ‘be careful when you go around that corner, it might be slippery’ or ‘look after yourself,’ because there is a great spirit within the sport. And then when we come together as a team, these guys have kept [that spirit].”

Team Germany dedicates silver to coach Peter Thomsen, who’s recovering from a riding accident. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Germany might have missed the chance to take gold on home soil, but their silver medal finish was met with no shortage of support from the tens of thousands of fans who’d filled out the stadium this afternoon. There was, at the helm, that excellent effort from Michi and Chipmunk, which was bolstered by a clear round with 1.2 time penalties for Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K (9^th) and a one-rail round for first-phase leaders Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel (17^th). Team pathfinders Libussa Lübbeke and Caramia FRH closed out their week with a single rail, too, for 41^st place.

Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

They, too, secure an LA Olympic ticket with their result – and perhaps more pertinently, they pay homage to chef d’equipe Peter Thomsen, in absentia after a riding accident earlier this year.

“Aachen’s always special, and then having the World Championship at home is something you really want to be part of,” says Julia. “Peter has been working towards it more or less since Paris. A couple of weeks ago Peter couldn’t be part of it anymore, it somehow brought us all even closer together, and we really think we had to make it happen for him because a lot of work and thought and effort and planning came from him. I personally thought a lot of him and words he would say [throughout the week].”

She also shared some heartening news: “we’ve had some phone calls with him, and I’m happy to share that he’s absolutely on the up. This is as much his medal as everyone’s on our team. Everybody says it’s a team effort, but I think we should rent out the experience to be a part of an eventing week at a championship – it’s crazy, I think everybody is lacking hours of sleep and it’s very intense! But everybody, the farrier, the vet, the physio, the grooms, everybody around cross country put so much effort into it. And if you can then bring home a team medal, it’s very emotional. I’ve been crying a lot today. I mean, I didn’t win an individual medal or anything, but all this effort coming into result is just very, very special and something you can give back to everybody who’s behind you the rest of the year.”

“I think we were all riding a bit for Peter,” agrees Libussa. “He was the one who got us here, I would say.”

Malin, who grew up riding at Peter’s stables, particularly relished the daily phone calls the team had with their coach, for whom Andreas Dibowski is deputising.

“It was special, even when he was not here, to have him every day on the phone,” she says.

(Peter was also, it should be said, well represented beyond Germany: Laura sourced a young London 52 from his stables.)

Will Coleman and Diabolo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Will Coleman and Diabolo jumped a faultless clear round to climb two places up to fourth – probably the most frustrating position to finish in, with its close proximity to the podium. But it’s hard to imagine that that’ll be at the forefront of his mind, because that excellent effort also helped to secure a bronze medal for the US team, who climbed through the week from first-phase sixth.

“I think it’s a testament sitting here,” says Will. “We didn’t get off to the greatest start, but everybody kept a really cool head and I think we just sort of kept chipping away throughout the course of the weekend. Our management, Leslie [Law] and Karyn [Schuter], exude a certain amount of confidence and I think we fed off that and just kept trying to make each day count as best we could. That’s all you can really control, and I just thought all four of us did a good job at that, and we’re fortunate and very blessed to be sitting here because of it. We’ve also had a lot of fun – I can’t remember laughing so much at an event as we did this week. It felt the way it’s supposed to feel, like we were all rooting for each other, and we didn’t really care who came out on top.”

Will Coleman and Diabolo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Of his Kentucky-winning mount, Diabolo, he continues, “He’s just a star. He was incredible. He’s never jumped in an atmosphere quite like that. Kentucky is one thing, but Aachen is kind of another, and he was a little on his toes when he went in there, but he just knows the job. I just knew he was going to do everything in his power to leave the rails up, and he did. I can’t say enough about him.”

The time was characteristically influential today, and Will and Dab delivered one of the thirteen clears inside the time – something that Will puts down to the time he’s been spending in the pure showjumping ring.

“I think you can’t get in the ring enough,” he says. “The show jumping now is becoming such a critical element. There’s hardly an event now where you can go and have a rail and hold any kind of position in the top 10, so I do think it’s a phase you have to get really, really comfortable in. I just happen to really love the phase; I love show jumping, and for me, it’s a passion, so I love studying it and working at it. And I’m lucky that I have a few pure jumpers that allow me to go and get practice at some bigger courses. And I do think it helps me when it comes to these kind of pressure rounds. You feel like you’ve been there and done it a bunch.”

The US, too, was down to a three-berth team after the shock elimination of Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake on cross-country, and they began their day in fifth place narrowly behind the Irish. That meant that there was an enormous amount of pressure on all three to secure clear rounds, after which they would simply have to wait and see.

Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

For Boyd Martin, the result was a fault-free clear with the former Liz Halliday ride Cooley Nutcracker, which bolstered their claim to a leaderboard climb and secured an individual thirteenth place finish, too.

“Oh, I was nervous as hell,” says Boyd. “I thought we had an outside chance of getting a medal if we all jumped clear. And you know, we were lucky with the Americans — we had three really good jumping horses. Bali’s been in phenomenal form jumping and had a great warm-up and went in and was fantastic.”

“Deep down,” he continues, “you don’t really have control over the other teams. But Denim, Cooley Nutcracker, and Diabolo are just very, very good show jumping horses, and both Will, myself, and Philip all had very good coaching, with Lauren Hough with Philip, and Peter [Wylde] with me, and [Grant Wilson] with Will, and I sort of thought we could all jump clear and see where it all unfolded.”

Phillip Dutton and Denim. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

For Phillip Dutton and Denim it was also a clear, but with a scant 1.2 time penalties, which earned them individual 27^th.

“It’s rewarding because it was a bit of a tough week for us,” he says. “We were left behind a bit in the first couple of days and to be able to come back today and be sitting up here with all these great other teams is something for us all to remember and something to be proud of.”

As the 2028 Olympics host nation, the USA earns a team qualification by default, which means that the seven berths available this week skip over them and go down to eighth place on the national leaderboard.

Fourth-placed Ireland might have missed out on a medal chance by a couple of rails, but will be making the trip to the west coast in two years’ time; likewise Switzerland, who were in bronze medal position before the start of this phase, earned their ticket with a fifth place finish. Their upward trajectory continues on apace, and after this week’s result and last year’s European Championship it’s clear that the next piece of the puzzle is consolidating the final phase – then, they will end up on the podium they deserve.

New Zealand had a mixed bag of a week, beginning in fourth place, dropping to eighth yesterday, and rising again to a final sixth today, but although the sting of losing out on a medal they seemed nearly assured of this year will be a sharp one, they, too, know that they have an Olympics on the horizon to regroup for. Seventh-placed Sweden will be in LA, and in a huge moment for the sport and the fledgling eventing nation, Belgium secured eighth place in the first session of jumping today, booking their ticket.

Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It’s important to contextualise Belgium’s qualification history, because this really is a colossal day for the country. They were able to field a team at the Paris Olympics in 2024, which was the first time since London 2012 that they even qualified; on that occasion, they earned their spot through the European Championships pathway, which is one of the nearly-but-not-quite-last-chance-saloons of the qualification process. In the years prior, they had battled it out at the bitter end of the Nations Cup finale in Boekelo, so often tasting disappointment when doing so.

But Belgium has been putting in the work, and their performances as a nation and as individuals have been improving commensurately. At Paris, that resulting in an incredible fourth place finish; some time after, a positive dope test for Tine Magnus’s Dia van het Lichterveld Z that was traced back to a supplement meant that they lost it all, even though Tine was deemed innocent by a tribunal. They had proven themselves as competitors in Paris, which nobody can take away from them; that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

“It has not been that easy, with the story of Tine [Magnus], and then having this result, not having the result, her proving that she’s innocent – it broke a little bit some team spirit, and we didn’t know who to believe,” says Lara de Liedekerke-Meier, who was best-placed of the team in 25^th with Kiarado d’Arville. “The cohesion in the team really took a shake from it. But I think we regroup here. I think we can count on Karin [Donckers’] experience, and now — I’m not that old, and I don’t have as many championships — but my experience too. So I think it’s really promising. I think the group is getting stronger. The team is getting quite experienced and also really specializing in the task they need to do.”

It has been, she continues, “a roller coaster this weekend — from dreaming, to not believing anymore, to giving up and then to finally getting it. I think that’s the pure emotions and why we do high-level sport. I’m over the moon, obviously. We have next year to really build up for LA, give time for younger horses, or even go five-star instead of running shows that maybe would have not suited the horses [in order to chase qualification]. So this changes, fundamentally, my program and my way of seeing the next years, and it excites me so much.”

It’s an interesting catch-22 that presents itself for developing nations: if they have to create their seasons around the fight for qualification, the specific pathways of that fight become more important than bespoke planning to fit each horse. That means that even if they do ultimately get the qualification through one of the last-gasp options, their preparation has been irreparably impacted, and they go into the championship even more on the back foot against established, early-qualified countries who’ve been able to focus on horse-specific programs ever since. Now that Belgium has obtained an early qualification for the first time in this modern iteration of the team, it opens the door for them to truly level up into the next phase of their identity – a phase in which they can finetune their focus immeasurably.

Alexis Goury and Je’Vall. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

There are a couple of major nations who didn’t manage to secure their qualifications this week, despite being expected to: France dropped out of the team race entirely this morning after the withdrawal of Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe, which left just two riders in the hunt, and Australia, too, was benched when just two of their competitors completed cross-country. Both nations are well-represented individually, though: for France, Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza followed up their 2022 sixth-place finish with a fifth-place result, individual competitor Astier Nicolas clinched eighth place behind Tom McEwen with Alertamalib’or, and team rider Alexis Goury closed out the top ten with the ten-year-old Je’Vall, giving the young horse two top ten finishes in as many championship appearances.

Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Australia went home with a sixth place finish in the individual standings thanks to the ministrations of Andrew Hoy, returning for his umpteenth championship after winning a bronze team medal here twenty years ago, this time riding the evergreen Vassily de Lassos.

Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Also unqualified are Japan, whose remaining two riders withdrew before the final horse inspection this morning; Italy, Austria, and Brazil, who were down to two riders apiece today. Very close but just off the pace were the ninth-placed Dutch team and the tenth-placed Czech Republic team, which should still serve as a heartening result for each as they begin to tackle alternative routes to Paris. Those options, broadly, include two spots at the European Championships next year, one spot at the Nations Cup finale at Boekelo next October, two at the Pan-American Games next July, and as-yet-unallocated qualifiers for Groups C, G, and F, which cover Asia, Africa, and Oceania.

We’ll be looking at those qualification routes in full a little further down the line as we count down to the LA Olympics, but for now, the road to 2028 truly has begun as we close the book on the 2026 FEI World Championships here at Aachen. It’s been an exceptional week of sport and an incredible line-up of talent, and we’ll be back soon with plenty of post-show analysis to further whet your whistle. But for now, it’s time to raise a glass to our champions and all the ways in which they won their week, and it’s also very much time to claw back a night of sleep that goes on for more than like, four hours, ideally. Until next time – Go Eventing!

A huge thank you to Kentucky Performance Products, who are supporting this week’s coverage. You can learn more about Kentucky Performance Products’ science-backed nutritional solutions here.

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Aachen, but Make It a Double: Michael Jung Tops Individual Leaderboard After Influential World Championships Cross Country Day

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 15, 2026 6:26 pm -

If you’ve never been to Aachen before, allow us to set the scene. There are 35,000 people crammed into a space the size of a singular loop of Badminton’s cross-country course; they are packed in like sardines, sweating and screaming and excited and so, so multilingual as they patronise their pretzel stands and quaff their morning Radlers. The German team supporters are, inexplicably, wearing t-shirts that have been typeset in Comic Sans, which somehow seems like the worst possible font choice for a sport that’s effectively the X Games with hooves – next year, we fear, they may have discovered webdings or, ugh, Papyrus.

Somehow, everywhere you look there is always an Australian, and the thing with Australians is that if you can see one, there’s definitely at least eight hiding nearby that you just haven’t found yet. To lure them out, you just need to use their mating call, heard time and time and time again over the course of the day:

“AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!” shouts one of them, somewhere, because maybe an Australian rider is coming by or maybe they’re just having a nice time.

“OY OY OY!” shout all the others, their curly-accented cries floating up through the trees.

The Germans do not know what to make of this, and more than once, I overhear one trying to get involved.

“Genau,” they murmur, eyes sparkling with wonderment. “Oy, oy, oy – genau.”

Photo by Tilly Berendt.

There is a fervent sense of barely-tempered chaos to it all. There’s a lone tampon hanging out just to the side of the course, which someone has unwrapped and left to expand in the little smattering of rain like a little white rat with a hormonal bloat; there’s a group of tipsy Germans who’ve sacked off the genau-ing and have instead taken up the fun and good hobby of screaming their heads off as their riders attempt to battle through the course’s toughest combinations. Stride, jump, scream, stride, scream, scream, jump, scream. It’s a lot, actually.

So is the wildfire that’s raging about fifty minutes away, which makes itself known halfway through the day’s cross-country when a thick plume of smoke settles itself into the atmosphere and turns the air an ashy yellow. My lungs do not feel so good right now! Nor does my increasing awareness of the very concept of cognitive dissonance!

I write this both in the middle of an existential crisis – uh oh, we’re focusing on horse sport when the world is literally on fire and this show contentiously used generative AI to promote itself and oh my god we really do dump so much water on cross-country courses when most of Europe is locked into water usage bans – but also in the middle of eavesdropping on a conversation between two Dutch journalists who are currently debating whether Tim and Jonelle Price are siblings. Aachen! You’ve gotta try it.

Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Anyway, the World Championships’ cross-country day. Let’s talk about that before the doom sets in or the ash settles in my alveoli.

Broadly, the consensus was that Giuseppe della Chiesa’s course had walked as fair but very, very exacting, with a trapped-in-the-tumble-dryer sort of twistiness that felt as though it could quickly become enormously mentally fatiguing.

That wasn’t necessarily disproven throughout the day, but the throughline of sentiment was a very positive one: rider after rider came back to the finish on fit, fresh, happy horses, and when they came to the mixed zone, it was to sing the praises of the course design.

It had, they agreed, had a flow and rhythm to it that hadn’t been totally apparent in their walks, and while it certainly caused its fair share of influence, it also offered such a wide array of options that it became a Choose Your Own Adventure to suit all comers.

From the earliest part of the day, though, it was plainly evident that little would remain the same on the leaderboard. While team pathfinders are chosen for their reliability – their role, of course, is to get home with a clear round and vital intel on the course’s tricks and traps for their teammates – many countries had to bid adieu to their first combinations after a series of mishaps.

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For New Zealand pathfinder and second-on-course Clarke Johnstone and Rocket Man it was a surprise nosebleed (for horse, not rider), which saw the pair pulled up by the ground jury just after fence 11 in an otherwise very good round. For France’s first-out Benjamin Massie and Figaro Fonroy it was a shock runout at the skinny A element of the Turkish Airlines quarry complex at 9ABC, which subsequently saw the gelding overbalance on the changing terrain and fall on the flat. For British pathfinders Gemma Stevens and Flash Cooley it was a stop, and then another two, at the influential white birch coffin combination at 8ABCDE, before hacking home. Belgium’s Senne Vervaecke and Google van Alsingen, like Gemma Stevens and indeed just moments before her, ran into trouble at the coffin complex too, picking up three refusals and ending their round at 9A.

And then there were the first-round riders that completed, but with expensive errors on their score sheets: Germany’s Libussa Lübbeke and Caramia FRH, who picked up 9 penalties for a flag at 11C; and Sweden’s ordinarily very consistent Sofia Sjoborg and Bryjamolga van het Marienshof Z, who lost a front shoe at just fence 6 and had a subsequent rare 20 penalties at 9B.

But amongst the orgy of gasping and sighing and gnashing of teeth from 35,000 people shoved into a square kilometre or so, there was also the chance to glimpse the sort of heroics that weave their way into a day of cross-country.

We’d wondered if perhaps the time would prove uncatchable today – at the CCIO4*-S that’s held here every summer, it’s a huge factor, and just a handful of competitors have ever caught it. A CCI4*-L ordinarily offers a different sort of speed test, opening the door for a galloping type with plenty of stamina to catch up on the clock, but that doesn’t really fly for a CCI4*-L track that barely travels outside the already tight confines of the CCIO4*-S course. This, instead, felt like two of the ‘normal’ Aachens shoved together. If nobody had caught the 9:50 optimum time, nobody would have been at all surprised.

But just five starts into our day, somebody did it. That was Australia’s pathfinder Sophia Hill, who’s known for her blistering speed with the ex-racehorse Humble Glory – but while they’ve racked up plenty of five-star miles together, both horse and rider were as-yet-untested in the unique intensity of a championship.

When they crossed the finish line with five seconds to spare, it felt as though the game could truly begin.

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

And so the day progressed: for every five shocks and leaderboard plummets there’d be another couple of extraordinary career highs. There was the gutting moment when US second-out Caroline Pamukcu tumbled from HSH Blake at the Longines bank complex at 17ABCDE where they, like most of the rest of the US team, opted to go long, but left a leg and pitched on landing, ending an important round for the team and forcing Will Coleman and Boyd Martin to leave nothing on the table later in the day.

Kortawat Samran and B. Grimm Carouzo Bois Marotin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

But on the other side of the coin, there was an impeccable effort from Thailand’s Korntawat Samran, who demonstrated that he’s one of the sport’s most underrated riders when he added just 1.2 time penalties with B. Grimm Carouzo Bois Marotin.

There was the moment when Jonelle Price was stopped on course so the building team could fix a frangible device, but something went wrong in the communication of that stop and she was barely strides away from the fence when she had to pull out of it; there was the knock-on effect of that oddity when, just two fences from home, her mount Senor Crocodillo picked up 20 penalties after never quite regaining his flow and focus. But conversely, there was Switzerland’s Mélody Johner and the still inexperienced Erin blitzing their way to a clear inside the time, driving the developing nation to an overnight bronze medal position. Push and pull, back and forth, gasp and cheer all day long. It was, in short, a rather good day of sport.

Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

At its climax, we also have a new leader in Michael Jung and the eighteen-year-old fischerChipmunk FRH, who finished five seconds inside the optimum time in the gelding’s swansong championship to step up from overnight third, after dressage leaders and teammates Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel added 13.6 time penalties to slip to twentieth.

“I have no words,” says Michi, who pushed through a bad case of the Aachen lurgy to make his round today happen. “He’s an unbelievable horse. He’s full of energy, he’s galloping, he’s jumping. He was so well listening today, and was so lovely to ride. He has all the experience. It’s such an honor to have this horse.”

Although Michi’s late draw – he was, predictably, the German team anchor and went in the final group of the day – meant he was aware of many of the course’s quirks, he left the start box firmly sticking to plan A.

“There were no changes to the plan, because the ground was perfect and the conditions were perfect, so it wasn’t like we said, ‘oh, the ground is shit in this place and we need to have another strategy,’” he says, proving once again that other people’s problems are evidently none of his business.

“I watched many other riders, and we all had conversations about our strategy and the course and the horses, and then we all fought together and had a really good cross-country day,” says Michi.

Part of his strategy was to do as little as possible.

“My horse is an older horse now, so I don’t do so many warm-up jumps because he also knows everything. I just need a good warm-up. At home he also doesn’t need cross-country or jumping training like a younger horse, but this is a bit the same with every horse. I think he’s an incredible horse; sometimes he can be a bit over-motivated, but today he was so nice to gallop at the start. I could loosen the reins and let the power out and have a super first jump into the cross-country, and that was a super start and a super feeling from the beginning.”

Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.

Michi was one of several riders who had voiced some questions around the course yesterday but found himself convinced by it today – but even so, he maintained that besting the clock didn’t come easily at all.

“The time was quite difficult to plan,” he says. “In the beginning, I was good from the time. Then I was thinking, ‘ah, maybe I’m a bit too slow,’ and then ‘okay, the time was good,’ and then ‘I’m not sure.’ The time is not everything; you need to see the whole course, and that’s the difficult thing. If you go too fast in the beginning and you have no energy in the end, the last jumps get so difficult. Nearly everywhere you can have a mistake if you take too much risk or you’re going too fast. So the time is not everything, but the feeling into the horse and how he’s galloping, how he’s breathing, how he’s confident on the jumps, how much you can try. Sometimes it’s better to give the horse a few seconds to stay in a good balance, in a good feeling. Then in the end, I was fighting a bit more, and he was absolutely with me, and that’s a great feeling.”

Just one second swifter than Michi and Chipmunk were five-time five-star winners Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, who won the European Championships in 2023 and come into this competition as one of three titans of the sport – all of which find themselves in podium positions going into Sunday.

That speedy, confident clear moves them into overnight silver medal position, up from the fourth place spot they occupied after putting a 23.4 on the board yesterday.

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“I’m quite relieved, to be honest,” says Ros, who was the day’s final finisher on cross-country. “It’s been a long wait today, and it’s a very, very intense track to ride. The Badmintons and the Burghleys feel a little bit easier for Walter because you can cruise along in between the fences, whereas today you have to go so fast in between and there doesn’t seem to be any space to go, because all of a sudden you’ve got another jump to jump.”

But, she continues, “what an amazing horse he is. He just absolutely loves it, doesn’t he? His ears are pricked and he just gives me the utmost confidence.”

Ros’s fast round came down, in part, to some last-minute self-discipline.

“I saw Tom [McEwen] kind of go the long route at the last corners and I had that in my mind – even coming out of the last water I was really, really tempted to go long because he just felt like he’d gone a little bit strung out. But then I was like, ‘for goodness’ sake, you haven’t come to the World Championships to wimp out of it! Get on with it; you’re on a good horse.’ I’m really pleased I made that decision.”

This is Walter’s first spin around Aachen; Ros, for her part, hasn’t been here since coming several years ago with her 2018 World Champion Allstar B. This time, she returns as the sport’s consummate multitasker: second child Seneh, who was born in late January, even took part in the show’s opening ceremony earlier this week.

“I’m still breastfeeding, and it’s [a lot to juggle], but I wouldn’t change it for the world,” says Ros. “I’m absolutely loving being able to combine the two, and I think it’s actually amazing just looking around the stables this week at how many children are involved in everybody’s teams now. It’s a proper family affair across all sports, and I’m not the only that’s just had a baby that’s going around the eventing. It’s fantastic to see that we can do both.”

Ros’s older daughter, seven-year-old Ziggy, is notable only by her (planned) absence this week.

“She’s stayed at home, because she’s a bit of a shopaholic and I think she’d have gone a bit mad in the shops here,” says Ros wryly. “She’s got a very packed itinerary, though, and she’s having a wonderful time. She had Pony Club camp yesterday and was very disappointed because she was in last place after dressage. She thought it was the judge’s fault, not hers, so she’s got a little bit to learn!”

Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The third of those sporting titan pairings, Laura Collett and her European champion London 52, move from silver to bronze position after adding just 0.8 time penalties for two additional seconds on the clock – an addition that still puts them just six-tenths of a penalty behind our overnight leaders.

“That horse is just unbelievable,” she says. “He felt like he’d walked the course and knew what I was wanting him to do before I even got there. He gave me so much confidence from start to finish and never wavered off the line.”

They did, she admits, have “a bit of a scary moment, because he pulled a shoe and turning to the last water, he literally nearly was on his side. And I don’t know how he jumped quite a big fence into water, but he is just the most amazing horse. The ground looked very close at one stage, and I was like, ‘not on a turn!’”

Like Ros, Laura had to battle the urge to add an alternative route after teammate Tom did it so successfully earlier in the day.

“Obviously Tom went long at the last combination, and it was very tempting to play it safe. But I just thought, ‘you know what, this horse is on fire.’ He was reading everything, and he felt so with me that I could just trust him 100%, and I’m glad I did. I was always going long off the bank [at 17ABCDE, where most competitors opted for the long route] and then, having watched a few this morning, the three strides in that route just looked so short. Then Tom [went straight and] made it look so easy, and he said he felt like he had loads of time. So Chris [Bartle] grabbed hold of me and said, ‘go straight. I believe in you.’ The feeling I was getting, there was no reason to doubt him.”

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tom, for his part, sits in fourth place after that speedy round with JL Dublin, despite taking the long route at the final combination. They added 2 time penalties to climb up one position, though their overnight score of 28.6 does leave a broad margin of five penalties between his current placing and a spot on the podium.

“I couldn’t be happier,” he says. “Dubs knows what he’s doing, but with the crowds and the people they all get excited, and it walks a decent track. It needs a lot of riding; you’ve got flags everywhere; the corners are skinny. But Dubs, for me, went brilliantly, and I just let him sail – never at one point did I think I was rushing.”

As he approached that late combination, “I was hoping to feel enough on top to go the direct route, but for me, he felt a bit like we were going away from home again, so I made the quick decision to go a bit lower and speed as quick as I could round the long route. With three in the team, the team comes first, and I thought I’d better just get that done and sorted.”

That sensible decision helps confirm the British hold on team gold overnight on a combined score of 75.6 – just shy of 15 penalties ahead of Germany in silver. The surprise decision to put the experienced Christoph Wahler and D’Accord FRH into Germany’s individual spot, rather than the team, might now feel rather frustrating; Christoph and the rangy gelding once again caught the time, crossing the finish line in a time of 9:41 to move up from 19^th to fifth place.

Christoph Wahler and D’Accord FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“That’s his big talent: he’s the fastest horse I’ve ever been on,” says Christoph. “And if you can manage to jump the fences, and if the rider manages to find all the right ways, then he’s always going to make the time.”

But, he says, they nearly lost it at the eleventh hour when approaching the final water fence at the same time as another rider approached neighbouring fence three.

“I was a bit surprised with having a rider coming the opposite way, approaching fence three, when I was approaching the last water, directly when I was turning to the left to jump in. Then D’Accord looked to the right [at the horse] and lost sight of the fence. Unfortunately, I lost my focus because of that, and then we had a very bad jump going in, lost our line, had to wiggle our way over the last skinny — that was a bit surprising. He was brilliant, though. He’s very big, but he’s got very fast footwork.”

Will Coleman and Diabolo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

US team anchor Will Coleman and his Kentucky five-star winner Diabolo needed to execute a clear round in as swift a time as possible after the shock fall of Caroline Pamukcu earlier in the day, and after yesterday’s sweltering dressage day, when the gelding never seemed to truly come to work, there was plenty of pressure to turn it all around today.

But if Will felt it, you would never have guessed from his riding, which remained relaxed, nurturing, and positive without being pushy. That helped ‘Dab’ come home two seconds inside the time, one of just six horse-and-rider partnerships to catch it all day. That moved the pair up from 21^st to sixth, and moves the US team from sixth to fifth place going into the final day.

“He was amazing — he was better than the rider today,” says Will. “I give him all the credit; he’s an amazing horse. From the first jump out of the start box, I just felt like he was just totally on it and kind of felt like I couldn’t screw it up. I can’t say enough good things about him as a horse and as a partner. He’s just amazing.”

“I don’t know where [his energy] has been all week,” he continues. “He can be a pretty hot horse, but he’s been very quiet. It’s been driving my wife and [groom] Erin [Jarboe] pretty crazy, worrying about him, like ‘is something’s wrong with him? Do we think he’s all right?’”

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Today, in the slightly cooler temperatures, he was back at his best.

“He’s a really, really cool horse, and Aachen is a really intense cross country test. There’s places out there where I opened him up a little bit, and then I did sort of struggle to get him back the way I’m accustomed to. But it’s kind of that pace and that acceleration that I think he’ll get something out of doing this, and I think he’ll be better on these types of courses going forward. And so will I; I think I’ll have a better idea of how to ride him.”

Will holds the unique accolade of being the only US rider ever to win Aachen’s CCIO4*-L, which he did in 2022 with Off The Record. That, no doubt, played into the trust placed in his hands today, when the only option was excellence.

“There were no adjustments to the plan [after Caroline’s fall]. Karyn [Schuter] and Leslie [Law] trusted me to make good decisions out there. I told them I felt good about going the direct way off the bank, and they trusted me to do that so long as I felt like he was with me, and I did feel that. This is a team game, and I learned something from each and every one of those guys that went in front of me. Philip set us off on a great note with a fabulous round, and Caroline didn’t have the day that we all know she can have, but she still came back with a positive attitude and gave us all as much insight as she could give us, and has just been an excellent teammate every step of the way here. Tamie’s not with the squad, but doesn’t matter. She’s part of our team, and also has just been incredible all week. And Boyd kind of showed me the way to go. He gave our team a chance, and it’s kind of up to me to just try to bring us home a clear. And I was just really, really relieved that I did that.”

Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

France had been in bronze medal position after dressage but have slipped to overnight sixth after the elimination of Benjamin Massie and a surprise pin penalty for Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe, but they finish the day with two riders in the top ten: team member Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza sit seventh, up from 16^th after adding just 1.6 time penalties, while individuals Astier Nicolas and Alertamalib’or, like Christoph and D’Accord, made a point when adding just 0.8 time penalties to step up from 23^rd to eighth.

“She’s such a good mare — she’s a proper five-star horse,” says Gaspard, who was sixth and best of the French at Pratoni in 2022 with Zaragoza. “It just shows how consistent she is now, and we’ve allowed her to mature a bit to the best of her ability. Wejust grew together, and now it’s just pure pleasure to just enjoy having a horse at that level because she’s getting older, so we just enjoy every second of it.”

Astier Nicolas and Alertamalib’Or. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Astier’s accomplishment in moving into the top ten is also paired with a unique achievement: he’s responsible for having produced four horses competing here this week. Beyond his own mount, there’s the stalwart Vinci de la Vigne, ridden by Kento Nagura, Baladin de l’Ocean LA, ridden by Turkey’s Kumru Say, and Boyd Martin’s Cooley Nutcracker, too.

“I’m proud to have produced them and a bit gutted not to ride them,” he says. “But you can’t get it all. Our job is to produce and bring on sale horses, so that’s what I do. But I’m pretty proud they do so well, and not only they’ve been competitive with me, but they’re produced in a way that allow other riders to follow them and do the top level.”

Mélody Johner and Erin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Switzerland, thanks in large part to leading rider Mélody Johner, finds itself in bronze medal position going into the final phase – a bid for a medal on the world stage that has felt so long in the making for the country. That Mélody’s clear inside the time comes with the relatively inexperienced Erin, rather than her former championship ride Toubleu du Rueire, also shows the depth in horsepower that’s beginning to develop through these riders’ strings – a heartening prospect for the future of Swiss eventing.

“He’s always fast, but here it was really special because he was really good, but not so strong,” says Mélody, who moved from 32^nd place up to ninth. “I’m really little, and when he wants to go, sometimes I can’t slow down, but today he was really, really good. I don’t have to try to be fast; he has such a big canter stride, so even when we’re not pushing, he’s fast.”

Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Australia’s Andrew Hoy closes out the top ten after an excellent round with comeback king Vassily de Lassos saw them add just 4.8 time penalties, moving them from seventh to tenth but allowing Andrew to relive the rush of twenty years prior, when he was part of the team bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships here at Aachen.

“I think, in all honesty, could I have got the time? Yes. It’s about little things that I did that I could have done better,” muses Andrew, who carefully piloted Vassily home after the gelding lost a shoe around the seven-minute mark. “But Vassily is the most spectacular horse. I absolutely love my horse to bits. He makes me look really good, and to run round, I had to be on my A game all the way round. There was not one point, starting from when you leave the start line to when you get to the finish line, is there anywhere where you can say, ‘Oh, this is this is easy. I can now relax. ‘ It’s all the time, keeping the brain activated and really going.”

The team competition more broadly looks like quite a different landscape this evening: Great Britain in gold and Germany in silver is unchanged, but Switzerland’s climb to bronze feels like a huge moment, as does Australia’s drop to fourteenth after the non-completions of Oliver Barrett and Sam Woods. Japan, too, is out – they have no riders left in the competition at all after Toshiyuki Tanaka and Jefferson JRA’s non-completion and the post-cross-country withdrawal of both Kento Nagura and Ryuzo Kitajima. New Zealand, who were so close to a podium place in fourth last night, are now eighth with just three riders left in the hunt, while Sweden’s four completions allow them to climb from 12^th to a slightly more promising seventh. Ireland’s excellent day in the office, with four clear rounds, pushes them from seventh to overnight fourth, just 3.6 penalties – less than a rail – behind Switzerland.

Editor’s Note – August 16: We have an update on Zinny, who was pulled up by Italy’s Paolo Torlonia just before the final fence after coming up lame. Paolo noticed immediately after the final combination and smartly pulled up to get off and check on the mare. On Sunday morning, Paolo posted the following on social media:

“Yesterday was a really tough day for us. 💔

Zinny was jumping an incredible clear round around the cross-country here in Aachen and gave it her all, over a very tough track.

Unfortunately, just after the last combination and only a few strides from the final fence, she didn’t feel right, so I got off as quickly as I could.

She’s comfortable and being looked after in the best possible way with Megan Hodder.

It’s obviously very disappointing to get so close to the finish and not complete, but my horses’ welfare will always come first. 🫶🏼

Zinny absolutely loves cross-country, and we had a great time out there yesterday. I’m incredibly proud of her and the round she jumped.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out and shown their support. It really means a lot. We will be back.”

The North America Debrief

Phillip Dutton and Denim. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The pressure was on for the USA to elevate their position after starting in sixth after dressage. After some team members delivered dressage scores that weren’t as strong as they hoped, the focus shifted to cross country, where the possibility to make up some ground was strong.

Confident that the weekend would not be a dressage competition, the US riders took the bit in their teeth for the challenge ahead. Phillip Dutton was tapped as the pathfinder, being one of the most experienced on the team. He was, however, on the most inexperienced horse on the team, having never done a five-star. To add, Denim (owned by Annie Jones, Ann Lapides, Caroline Moran and Neill Sites), isn’t the most naturally quick-footed horse in the world. He’d jumped around here at Aachen’s CCIO4*-S last year with a small amount of time, but this four-and-a-half-to-five-star level challenge would be one of the most intense tracks he’s seen to date. Phillip knew he’d need to ride smart to put a clear in the bank for his team.

“He doesn’t have a good high top speed, so I was just trying to keep it as even as I could all the way around,” he said. “The main priority was for me to get a clear round and put that in the bank, and then hopefully everybody can build on it from there. I was trying to help him out as much as I can. There was making up for his inexperience, but he’s a gutsy little horse and a beautiful jumper. And it doesn’t matter where he jumps from; those knees come up around his ears, and so looking back on it, it was fun. It’s not fun out there. But thinking about it now, it’s really rewarding.”

Phillip added 12.4 time penalties, keeping near his EquiRatings average of 13.5 with this horse, to go onto a two-phase score of 45.0 and individual 33rd place. The clear round set the tone for the US riders, who next sent out Paris Olympian Caroline Pamukcu with Mollie Hoff and Sherrie Martin’s HSH Blake. But despite a solid round for the first two-thirds, everything changed at fence 17, the Longines Challenge.

It was a mixed bag of whether riders chose to jump left or right off of this drop; going right put them onto the direct route, going left gave them two alternate options. Caroline went long here, but ran out of power at the CD element and was jarred out of the saddle when Blake hung a leg and had to scramble to right himself on the landing side. It was a gutting result for Caroline, who’d come into this week on fire form.

This upped the pressure and put the US into an Olympic-like situation, in which only three team members remained with no drop score. Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker as well as Will Coleman and Diabolo needed clear rounds to stay in contention.

They delivered.

Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

In team competition, strategy is key. While every team operates a little differently, it remains constant that if a team member has an issue, plans and marching orders change accordingly. For Boyd, who was third in the rotation, this meant an adjustment of one plan in particular.

“I was actually all set to go the harder way [at the Longines Challenge bank], but with Caroline crashing before I started, we had a meeting, and they said it’s safer to go the long way, just because we need to go home clear,” Boyd said. “And you got to listen to coaches and very respectful of their decision. But I’d been visualizing the right side, and talking it through with Peter. It’s a little bit slower, but in the end of the day, I feel like we needed a clear around so Will could give it a good crack.”

When riding for themselves, the goal can change — you can chase the time, assume your own risks. But the team comes first in this format, and while Boyd could have gotten home a few seconds quicker had he gone straight at the bank, he also knew “Bali” wasn’t the easiest to turn left (which this question necessitated), and a more serious issue — one that would have effectively ended the US bid for the podium — could have been avoided here.

We wrote earlier about Will’s banner day with Diabolo, coming home clear inside the time to become the highest-placed US rider in the field. Just before him, it was the turn of individual rider Tamie Smith and Molly Duda’s Lillet 3. Tamie and Lillet could well have been on this team in the first place, but there was a bit of a question mark in terms of the mare’s experience.

Tamie Smith and Lillet 3. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

She answered that question in emphatic fashion today.

“It was fast and furious and I found out a lot about her – it felt incredible,” Tamie said. “It was the unknown. I rode her like she was a seasoned horse and she acted like one.”

Tamie noted that she opted for a couple of alternates out of care for her horse, and understanding where she was in her career at just 10 years old. “Once I got through the first water, she was just like ‘I got it,’” she said. “I took the long way at the bank and the option at the end just because we don’t know what she knows and I didn’t want to risk anything, but even still a fast round and she fought all the way to the end. What a horse.”

Tamie now sits on a score of 35.0 and is in 18th individually with potentially to move up significantly with a horse who’s a strong show jumper.

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For Canada, Jessie Phoenix enjoyed the ride of her life aboard the 18-year-old Fluorescent Adolescent (owned by Sharon Hall and Makayla Rydzik) — a “gangbusters” round, as she puts it. “She just fought so hard all the way around, had a beautiful easy gallop and just made it feel effortless. I really thought she was well-suited to this course. She’s so good on twisty terrain, when you don’t have a lot of strides to pick up the distances and see the flags, Lacey is the one you want to be on. She’s so quick-thinking and she really fights to get between the flags.”

With 12 time added, Jessie goes onto a two-phase score of 47.1 and will be in 36th overnight.

Now, we’ve just got one final hurrah between our field of 65 remaining competitors and the medals. First up will be the final horse inspection, set to take place at 9.30 a.m. local time (8.30 a.m. BST/3.30 a.m. EST) tomorrow morning, followed by showjumping from 1.00 p.m. (12.00 p.m. BST/7.00 a.m. EST). The final group will jump from 3.30 p.m. (2.30 p.m. BST/9.30 a.m. EST). We’ll be back with all the stories you need to know, so keep it locked on EN and as always, Go Eventing!

Nickel and Dimed: Julia Krajewski Takes World Championships Dressage Lead with Former Aachen Winner

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 14, 2026 4:54 pm -

Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It can sometimes feel like a bit of a foregone conclusion that the first phase will be a match race between Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH and Laura Collett and London 52, but in the twilight of both great horses’ careers, an heir apparent has taken over.

On the second day of dressage at the 2026 FEI World Championships, Germany’s Julia Krajewski and the 12-year-old Uelzener’s Nickel are at the top of the pack, having delivered a score of 22 that well eclipses their Paris Olympics score of 26.9 and marks a milestone step into the gelding’s prime.

Like so many horses and riders over both days of dressage, Julia and Nickel’s arrival into the arena was marked by a roar of support from the crowd – but Nickel, who was the yard’s ‘fun horse’ a few seasons ago and took part in plenty of raucous arena eventing competitions, isn’t easily muddled by a bit of noise.

“You do think, ‘okay, what will my horse think?’ The crowd was calm, and then just before I had to enter, [the commentator] finished announcing me and they started clapping,” says Julia. “I was like, ‘guys, that’s not the best moment!’ But Nickel, by now, knows what this square means, and even though he was a bit switched on 20 metres before, he went in and he’s okay.”

Then, she continues, “he’s concentrated, and supple, and with me, and I could really ride. Looking back, maybe I could have ridden even more, I don’t know, but he was so with me and correct and true, and I really had time to enjoy my dressage. I was even smiling a bit and thinking, ‘oh, he’s really nice!’ and smiling at the judges, hoping for half a point more. I don’t know if it worked, but he gave me a really nice feeling in there.”

Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Since Paris, where Nickel finished eleventh as a relatively green twelve-year-old, “he’s got a lot stronger. This test requires a lot of collection, and to stay supple in the collection is something you build over the years. Some horses find it easier and some more difficult, and it’s not the easiest for him to be really collected and quick with his hind legs but we’ve made that easier over the years.”

It is, she continues, “a balance between getting him stronger but also keeping him supple, because he’s quite a narrow horse, so he finds it difficult to bring the energy really through his back and he can be quick to get tense in his back. We always want to make sure he’s happy and supple in his body, so he’ll do one or two more intense schooling days and then a few easy days. It’s about going in waves – building up, taking a break, building up again, because that’s how his body works. His whole character is very genuine and he wants to do well and do what I ask him, so I make sure not to put too much pressure on him.”

Tokyo Olympic champion Julia goes into tomorrow’s cross-country with a unique accolade to her name: she’s won here at Aachen twice previously, yes, but she’s also done it with two thirds of today’s podium. She won the CHIO CCIO4*-S in 2024 with Nickel, just before their selection for Paris, and in 2018 with fischerChipmunk FRH, en route to that year’s World Equestrian Games, after which the horse was bought out from under her and sent to Michael Jung.

“I really like riding here, and I try not to think too much about the package of the World Championship – if I get a medal in the end, then I’ll know the difference,” she says. “The better you start, though, the better the base, and there’s a lot that can happen but in the end, for a medal, even a tenth of a penalty can make a difference. You really just want to get every point you can.”

Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Laura Collett and London 52 danced their way to overnight silver medal position with a score of 22.8 – a numerical value that proved that the ground jury wasn’t going to succumb to Friday afternoon marking, but also wouldn’t be averse to rewarding where reward was warranted. It might not be the lofty heights – or is that basement lows? – of the high teens, where both she and Michi have previously found themselves, but it’s also just 0.8 penalties off the lead. That’s just two seconds on the clock behind a horse who hasn’t made the time since two-star, and ahead of a cross-country day where the time might not even be catchable.

The extraordinary atmosphere of the grass dressage arena, which has been fashioned within the combined driving arena, even affected consummate showman ‘Dan’ today, and the pair had a step of jog in the walk work that wasn’t particularly influential in their scores.

“It was a shame, because he actually felt relaxed up until that point, but he kind of knows [the canter] is coming and just slightly anticipated,” says Laura. “But he felt really with me and rideable, and once he got into the canter he was lovely. He loves it here – he loves an atmosphere, and he loves lots of people, so he’s right at home when everyone’s clapping. He loves walking over here, with the vaulting arena and the main arena and this arena, where you can hear all the crowds clapping.”

Their effort leads the way for the British team, who sit in gold medal position overnight on a score of 72.8, just ahead of the Germans in silver on 73.6.

Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just behind Laura in bronze medal position is Michael Jung and his Paris Olympic champion fischerChipmunk FRH on a score of 23.

“I’m still very happy – Chipmunk is an amazing horse, and every day with him is to be enjoyed,” says Michi. “Today we’re not in the lead and maybe not everyone is so happy about that, but I’m still happy. We had a good test for sure; not everything went like we wished, but it’s not always like this.”

Though they led throughout much of the trot and walk work, it was a late mistake in the canter that saw them relinquish gold medal position.

“The third flying change was not our best. I tried to push him a little bit more forward and uphill, but then we lost a bit of the balance and had a little bit, maybe, of a misunderstanding for a part of a second. But I think that’s the only change I’ve ever ridden on him that hasn’t been good. This is [the reality of] horse and rider; this is connection – these five minutes are so important. Hopefully that was our last mistake.”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

2023 European Champions Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, too, sacrificed a mark or two in the canter work, though their mistake came at the second flying change.

“He decided he’d quite like to have a walk,” laughs Ros. “I think the changes are our trickiest thing, and always have been – and still now I wouldn’t say they’re 100% at home at all. So that’s a tricky test for him, because he really has to have a bouncy canter in order to have a clean change. I went for the bounce and got a walk instead. But you know what? I’m still pretty proud of the fact that he clawed it back and did the next two really well.”

Though ‘Walter’ is arguably the best event horse in the world right now – or perhaps ever – the first phase is the one that’s taken the most development. His score of 23.4 today is good enough for overnight fourth, and on a par with his last few years’ worth of top-level scores but, says Ros, “he’s quite a blood horse and he naturally wants to be a little bit on his forehand, which is why he gallops so well – but it’s taken time and lots of practice for him to start to really dance. He loves to drop his tummy, which is what he does when he gallops and which is what makes him such a streamlined galloper, so it’s been a lot of core work to make him strong. I think there’s more in him yet, and I feel very proud that he can be so close to the top of the leaderboard. He’s an amazing partner to have.”

The 2018 World Champion and her five-time five-star winner – the most-decorated event horse in history – head into their best phase just 1.4 penalties, or roughly four seconds, off the leading spot. On a day when the time will be potentially uncatchable, this is one horse who feels preordained to get as close as proves possible.

Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The top five after the first phase is completed by day one leaders Tom McEwen and JL Dublin on their score of 26.6, creating a surprisingly wide 3.2 penalty margin, while France’s evergreen Nicolas Touzaint and his Paris mount, Diabolo Menthe, are piggybacking into sixth place on a tight 26.7.

For them, too, the canter work was the biggest story of the test.

“I know the horse is technically spot on, and the test was really good, but we had a slight issue with one of the flying changes, and I’m annoyed with myself because he usually does them like clockwork,” laments Nicolas, who dropped down to marks of five for that third change. “I was the one rushing things a bit. The rest was really good, and I felt he was with me.”

By the time we reached this busy afternoon session, the Grand Prix Special in the main stadium had resumed after its siesta and that class, too, was heading into its zenith, creating a pressure-cooker atmosphere punctuated by uproarious screams and cheering with little warning. That was an anomaly that had popped up notably in the moments before Ros and Walter entered the ring, and its sudden intrustion was never far from Nicolas’s mind as he entered the arena a few tests prior.

“I was worried because there was a lot of noise coming from the stadium next door, but he stayed focused on me and was brilliant. I really felt like I was executing my plan, and it’s a great result for me and for the team. The points put us right in the mix – we’re not leading, but we aren’t trailing, either.”

France goes into cross-country in bronze medal position, though they’re being closely hunted: New Zealand is just three-tenths of a penalty behind them in fourth place at this stage of the competition.

Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos celebrate yet another milestone moment in a storied career. Photo by Haley Boothe/Impulsion Media.

Australia’s line-up of largely inexperienced horses and riders, who are being developed for the future, is sitting a touch further back in provisional eighth place in the team competition, but one of their own broke into the top ten late this afternoon.

Andrew Hoy isn’t the only rider to return to Aachen this year as a veteran of the 2006 World Equestrian Games – Belgium’s Karin Donckers, the USA’s Phillip Dutton (then an Aussie himself), France’s Nicolas Touzaint, Austria’s Harald Ambros, Brazil’s Carlos Parro, and Denmark’s Peter Flarup were all competing here twenty years ago, too. But nobody boasts quite the same championship resume as Andrew: this is his ninth World Championship start, having made his debut at Lexington in 1978, and he’s been to ten Olympics, too.

The 67-year-old has no intention of slowing down, though, and nor does the seventeen-year-old Vassily de Lassos, who looked back on his best form after a few seasons slightly set apart from the spotlight. The Tokyo individual bronze medallist put forward his best-ever international score at any level this afternoon, posting a 26.9 to sit seventh overnight.

“I have the easy part, because I’ve got a complete team around me that have set the horse up absolutely beautifully – all I had to do was focus on what I needed to do, and go and do it,” says Andrew. “I can’t take the credit myself. Vassily is an amazing horse – I’m getting emotional, but he’s just very, very special. Every day I learn a new way with him; I learn to understand him and his body and how to set him up for something like this.”

It’s not, he continues, “just about going in and riding the movements – it’s about preparing the horse in the correct way, so that he has the ability to do his best, and I think apart from one small mistake where he just tripped at the end of the medium trot, there was nothing to add today.”

But the writing wasn’t always on the wall for the best test of their partnership.

“This morning we were doing some gymnastic exercises and I said to [my trainer], ‘I’ve lost him – I’ve lost him mentally.’ It wasn’t that I couldn’t go and ride the movements, it was just that he was focused on other things,” explains Andrew. So, he continues, adaptability was key: “we relocated to another arena, did five minutes’ work, and left it at that. If I’m asked what’s the one thing I’ve learned in all my time in this industry, it’s that you’ve got to give the horses time.”

Tamie Smith and Lillet 3. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The best of the bunch for the strong US front is individual rider Tamie Smith, who posted a 27 with the ten-year-old former Andreas Dibowski ride Lillet 3 to step into eighth place overnight.

“You don’t know what they’re going to do in an atmosphere like that, but she was like a seasoned pro in there,” says Tamie of her Kentucky CCI4*-S winner. “She’s so young and wouldn’t have ever seen something like that, and so I’m so proud of her. Her trot work was just so fluid, and the highlight was that she stayed with me every stride. She was like, ‘like this? Like this?’ and I’m like, ‘yes! Like that! Keep going!’”

Tamie made a bold decision that paid off in the ring, opting to ride the mare in a double bridle for the first time.

“This is my first time competing in it, but we’ve been playing around a little bit,” says Tamie. “I’ve had a lot of time in the UK with her, so we’ve been experimenting and she really liked it.”

Tamie has been in the UK since the end of May, when she travelled over with a small string of horses, and daughter Kaylawna and student Molly Duda, who owns Lillet 3, to aim for a series of competitions. For Molly, that was the recent Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet, where she finished in the top ten; for Tamie, it was a visit to Bramham for Lillet, where a surprise fall ended their weekend early, and they’ve been on the up and up again ever since.

New Zealand’s Jonelle Price and Senor Crocodillo move into ninth place with yesterday’s score of 27.2, while Thursday’s best scorers for France, Alexis Goury and Je’Vall, round out the top ten on their 28.5.

Will Coleman and Diabolo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

For US team riders Will Coleman and Boyd Martin, the starting point of the week might not have been heralded in with fireworks, but their scores still see them sit in close contention for a climb. For Will and his Kentucky five-star winner Diabolo, it’s overnight 21^st place after a slightly surprising 30, a touch off the pace of the 27.3 that began their Kentucky campaign.

“There were some good things, but he just maybe had a hard time putting the whole test together today,” says Will, who rode in some of the worst of today’s weather, when temperatures soared over 100 degrees. “I kind of anticipated him going in there and responding to the crowd and the atmosphere, and he really just didn’t. He was almost a little lazy for bits of his test, and then the only place where he was a little bit crowd sensitive was during the walk, so that was a bit of a hairy walk tour. I was on eggshells for most of that, but we did the best we could.”

It is, he points out, “his first championship, and he’s a great horse who can hopefully have two more good days, and that’s all we’re going to focus on.”

Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

For Boyd and the former Liz Halliday ride Cooley Nutcracker, it was a 30.9 and overnight 25^th.

“I was pretty pleased with it,” says Boyd. “You always dream of like, this perfect test, and I felt like I got a lot of good work in there and one or two moments I wish I could redo. But all in all, I’m really pleased with him. He’s a quirky horse – he’s a very quiet, laid-back horse in the stable, and then when you’re riding him, people move. He’s so sharp and quick, and the best thing about him is that when you go into the competition ring, he’s really focused. I never worry about his shenanigans in the warm-up, and I’ve got immense belief in him that when it’s time to perform, he puts his head down and does a good job.”

This is Bali’s second time doing an Olympic short test: he contested the inaugural version in Paris two years ago, and Boyd did, too, with Fedarman B. Today, it became a test of their flourishing fledgling partnership.

“I underestimated how brilliant of a job Liz did on him, because I was at Paris with Bruno and Liz was there with this guy, and she made it look so easy,” says Boyd. “It’s been a humbling experience because I’ve been working and working and working and only just nearly got him back to where she had him. It’s still a work in progress.”

One way that Boyd prepared for today’s test was by riding through its movements with wife Silva and her dressage horses.

“Every two years we do this canter half-pass, flying change, canter half-pass [movement in a test]. You do it and then you sort of forget about it, and then a couple of months before a championship you’re like ‘holy moly, how do you actually do this?!’ So being able to ride Silva’s Grand Prix and Inter I horses and just get the feeling of how it’s supposed to feel is something I can then try and picture when I’m riding Bali.”

With 87 scores logged, we now look ahead to the week’s most pivotal challenge: Giuseppe della Chiesa’s 5600m, 28 fence cross-country course, which looks set to pair all of Aachen’s usual intensity into a longer, 9:50 effort. We’ll be bringing you a much deeper dive into the track, with insights from riders and course designer alike, so keep it locked on EN. Until then: Go Eventing!

The top ten individually after dressage.

The team leaderboard following cross-country.

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Highs, Lows, and Heatstroke: Day One at the 2026 FEI World Championships

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 13, 2026 4:31 pm -

Spain’s Esteban Benitez-Valle and Utrera AA. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It’s been a long, hot, and enormously competitive first day at the FEI World Championships at Aachen, where 43 horses and riders took to the stage to get the week’s sport underway.

There were the ecstasies: Spain’s Esteban Benitez-Valle, for example, who looked like he might never leave the thrall of the arena after a sweet test with Utrera AA, and instead rode circle after circle, alternately punching the air and uproariously goading the audience into ever-bigger cheers for his 33.3. And then, moments later, Canada’s Jessie Phoenix beaming and patting before a screaming Kiss-and-Cry podium, full of love for patchy crowd-pleaser Fluorescent Adolescent, who has previously struggled with tension in this phase. Apparently she just needed to enter the arena to a full-scale riot of joy en Española to find her own five-star personal best.

There were also, though, the agonies: a TV camera on the corner by C and M had been the primary spook-maker of yesterday’s arena familiarisation sessions, but even some of those horses who’d passed by it happily enough then had issues today. One of the biggest cheers of the day went to Hungary’s Noemi Doerfer, who tactfully piloted last-of-the-day Piltown Harry through his sudden horror of the thing; Dutch pathfinder Splinter Bergsma had an even more heart-stopping moment when Vigo Key SR Z shied violently on his first sighting of it, but managed to course-correct over the remainder of the test.

That sort of thing, of course, is part of the unique drama of a World Championships, even if it’s a championship that’s happening on such familiar territory as Aachen. We’ve relocated to a new dressage area for this year, trading the usual sand stadium for the capacious grass expanse of the combined driving field; we’ve got grandstands that are actually at least halfway full; we’ve got pressures and intensities somehow over and above even those of a ‘normal’ Aachen, if such a thing even exists. It’s a formula for uncertainty almost more than anything else.

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

That uncertainty, and that inescapable frisson of buzziness, could well have rewritten the story of the day for Great Britain’s Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, the most hotly-anticipated starters of the day. As they rode down the chute, the British supporters in the grandstand reached a sort of heat-and-Radler-induced delirium, screaming and bellowing as though they were already celebrating the end of the test. 15-year-old Dubs (Diarado – Canto B), who already wasn’t perhaps totally on side, then spooked at the flowers by A on his way into the ring after some rejigging of their planned final pre-entry route.

“I’m really pleased, and he always delivers, but there was actually a little bit more atmosphere than I expected to begin with,” says Tom. “He was a bit lit up straight away when I went in there, and I could feel it when I tried to trot and he kept trying to pop into canter. I thought, ‘right, we’re not quite where I want to be!’”

Once safely into the ring, though, “he delivered a really good test,” says Tom, ultimately earning a score of 26.6 to take the day one lead individually and steer Great Britain to equal gold medal position at this early stage.

“It’s a shame, because I know we can do a 21 or a 22 rather than a 26, but it’s great for the team and I’m really pleased with him,” he says.

Those loftier scores were precluded by a small lapse in communication on the final centreline, which features a flying change just after turning onto the line.

“He’s been annoyed by the flies all week, and I’ve been really struggling with that. I know he’s completely with me, because he doesn’t pay any attention to the flies, and I could feel him starting to go and I knew we’d lost all concentration, but it’s a tough test.”

Tom and Dubs’ score does leave the door open for day two’s major contenders. Chief among those, teammate Laura Collett with London 52 and German rivals Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH could reasonably have been expected to surpass them in any case, but now, there’s a broader entry point that could well be bested by the likes of Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo or Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel – or, indeed, partnerships such as Sweden’s Louise Romeike and Caspian 15, who have put mid-20s scores up at four-star.

Jonelle Price and Senor Crocodillo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

While much could change tomorrow, for tonight, there’ll be plenty to celebrate in the New Zealand camp: they’ve come into this competition hotly tipped to match or better their bronze medal from 2022, and at the end of day one, they’re sitting flush with the Brits on a score of 55.9.

The best of their two team riders today was Jonelle Price and the twelve-year-old Senor Crocodillo who, like JL Dublin before him, is a German-bred Holsteiner. They hold provisional silver on a score of 27.2, a career personal best for the former Sam Lissington ride at any international level.

“I think the highlight [today] was just really the evolution of this horse,” says Jonelle, who took the reins in 2022. “He’s not a fancy mover, and he hasn’t got a lot of high marks in him, so the aim over the last couple of years has been to produce a solid test, mistake-free. He can sort of do everything well enough and then pitch the odd high mark where we can, and we certainly managed to do that today. I’m delighted with him, and it’s really nice to get that phase out of the way.”

Both these leading horses have previously competed at Aachen in its ordinary CCIO4*-S iteration; both, too, had a mistake on cross-country when doing so, which their riders hope will have been formative educational moments that stop them from being caught by surprise by the venue’s quirks.

“This is a ten-minute Aachen on steroids,” laughs Jonelle. “There’s a lot of places where it can unravel, right to the very end. It’ll take a huge amount of accuracy, honesty, and bravery.”

Alexis Goury and Je’Vall. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.

France as a nation sits in the wings overnight in a close fifth place, just over eight penalties off the lead, but individually, they’re well in the hunt thanks to a super test from 30-year-old Alexis Goury and the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood Je’Vall, with whom he finished sixth and best of the French at last year’s European Championships.

On that occasion, the pair began their week on a score of 31.9. Today, they improved on that exponentially, delivering a 28.5 in this new version of the short, very intense FEI Olympic test. They have never previously broken the 30 barrier at four-star.

“I really felt that my horse was 100% focused on me,” says Alexis. “He’s making huge progress in the dressage; at first, he wasn’t at all sure of himself, but he’s gained a lot of confidence in me and now he allows me to ride him to his full potential.”

He is, continues Alexis, “a horse with real dressage aptitude – but when he gets a bit into his own bubble, he can become tricky, because he doesn’t have the easiest conformation for this phase. But in this test, he stayed with me and really gave his all, and I just tried to stay cool and enjoy it myself, which paid off.”

The pair’s personal best could well have been even punchier, but for a touch of anticipation coming out of the walk work into counter canter, which dropped them – barely – down to 6s from two of the judges.

“I really wanted to prepare him early carefully for the canter transition so as not to startle him, but then he thought it was time to go, so that was really my fault,” says Alexis. But, he counters, “I didn’t have any issues at all with the flying changes, so that’s one less source of stress for me – they used to be a real weak point.”

France’s tricky start – pathfinder Benjamin Massie and Figaro Fonroy posted an uncharacteristic 35.6, the worst score of the horse’s international career – was “definitely a motivation; it makes you want to push yourself to make up some ground. But I was certainly disappointed for Benjamin, who usually finishes ahead of me in France!”

Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.

Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp is no stranger to Aachen with her 14-year-old Carlitos Quidditch K – they’ve been here three times previously, never adding cross-country jumping penalties and always finishing in the top twenty. Nothing, though, quite compares to returning as part of the home team, particularly when that home team is also here to defend the gold medal they won four years ago. Germany also comes here as the European titleholders; Malin and Carlitos Quidditch K were part of that effort at Blenheim last year, finishing eleventh.

Pressure firmly on, then – and results decisively delivered. They sit fourth overnight, and in bronze medal position as a team, after earning a 28.6 as Germany’s second round pair this afternoon.

That excellent test, though, came after an inauspicious start: the son of Quiwi Dream was inspired by the electricity of the arena, and though Malin tried to signal the crowd to stay quiet, they were keen to welcome one of their own – and she had to sit deep and ride through a cavorting moment before entering the ring.

“In the moment I was just like, ‘oh my god!’” laughs Malin, who first took on the gelding as a resale project for a friend some nine years ago, and then gathered the funds to keep him in her yard.

Once they began their test, Malin used the extra impulsion to her advantage.

“He was really on [in there] but I could produce every movement so forward and how I wanted to. Even the walk was very good!”

But they were one of several pairs to have a mistake in the transition from walk to counter-canter at C, and they were nearly into the corner before they successfully stepped up in the canter.

“I can’t remember that he’s ever made a mistake when we’ve started to canter, but that’s life,” says Malin. “Afterwards, I really tried to make everything perfect so the marks wouldn’t go down and down after our failure, and I think we did that really well. It’s not a dressage competition, but I really enjoy that horse, and to be here is just awesome. We had a press conference with the German federation yesterday, and they asked Rodolphe [Scherer, interim team coach] what he thinks and how it works with his team, and he said ‘they’re all champions – Olympic champions and European champions.’ It’s just amazing to be in this kind of a team.”

Clarke Johnstone and Rocket Man. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

If it wasn’t for JL Dublin representing dark bays at the top of the leaderboard, we’d begin to suspect some sort of bias in today’s judging: places two through six are occupied by greys. The first of those to set a standard today was Rocket Man, who was second in the ring this morning under New Zealand pathfinder Clarke Johnstone, and whose 28.7 sees them sit fifth going into the second day of dressage.

“It was probably one notch down from what we could have done if it was as good as possible,” says Clarke, who has flirted with the low 20s at four-star with the eleven-year-old gelding, previously piloted by Eliza Bell. “I just thought the arena would have lit him up a little bit, but he was totally relaxed. Sometimes he’s better when he’s a fraction not so relaxed.”

But, he continues, “he did everything I asked, and everything more or less happened where it was supposed to, and I thought there were some real highlights. He’s a beautiful horse, and lovely to ride and train, but this is his first championship, and he took it all in like a pro.”

As second in the ring, Clarke was just the second person ever to ride this new championship test in a competition – Austria’s Daniel Dunst takes the unique privilege of having been the first.

“It’s pretty fast and furious, and while the Paris Olympics test was similar, this feels even more hectic in the canter section,” says Clarke. “But if your horse can do all the movements, then it’s actually a really fun test to ride – and it’s nice to get it over and done with nice and quickly, too.”

Gemma Stevens and Flash Cooley. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Great Britain’s Gemma Stevens holds sixth place overnight with the fourteen-year-old Flash Cooley on a score of 29.3 – a predictably competitive start for a pair who have so consistently been mid-20s scorers at four- and three-star.

This is a first five-star equivalent test for ‘Casper’, who won Royal Jump’s CCI4*-L in May, and though the pair had a slight misunderstanding on the tricky final centre line, which features a flying change on the mown straight line, there was much to like from the former Liz Halliday ride.

“I’m over the moon with all of [the test], apart from that last centre line, which was just such a shame and honestly, just a misunderstanding,” says Gemma. “He thought he were halting; it’s hot today, and I think he’d probably had enough today, and he just came up the centre line at the end and went to stop and I was like, ‘no, no, we’ve got to do a flying change!’”

Then, she says, “we were obviously completely muddled. It’s a real shame to lose that last mark because that’s actually been a real highlight in training, but the rest of it was so good and he was so relaxed and with me, and a real pleasure to ride.”

“This is a challenging test for an event horse,” she says. “He’s 14 and has got an amazing, amazing brain, so it’s fine, but I think with a hot horse of a more Thoroughbred type it would be a very tricky test. The difficulty of it is very high. But at the end of the day, it’s used for World Championships and Olympics – we do need to be at the top of our game.”

For Gemma, who last rode on a British championship team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, Aachen has long been the ultimate goal with this horse.

“We’ve been working towards this – to be honest, it’s been absolutely the plan set out since the beginning of 2025, and I literally worked out a plan for the whole of that year and then the whole of this year leading up to it, and we’ve pulled it off, so that’s cool,” she says.

In doing so, she doesn’t just make a long-awaited comeback – she also takes on the hugely pressurised pathfinder role, which is a job she relishes and has made sure to prepare for.

“I knew that if I was going to be on the team, that that’s where I’d be. I’ve done it before; they know that I can do it, and the other three aren’t going to go in the pathfinder role, so I’ve actually trained myself a few times this year to go out on course with no information at all on the course [from other riders and rounds]. I did it at Royal Jump with him, and I did it at Burgham with Chilli Knight, all just in the thought that that might happen. It’s just about training your mind.”

Sam Lissington and Lucas Stone. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

New Zealand’s individual rider Sam Lissington holds seventh place overnight on a score of 29.7 with ten-year-old Lucas Stone, the winner of October’s Strzegom CCI4*-L.

“I’m stoked with him,” she says. “He’s a little bit of an anxious person, and that’s definitely by far the biggest atmosphere he’s ever experienced – it’s about as big as it gets. So for him to stay with me as he did, as only a ten-year-old, and after only eighteen months together, is a big deal.”

Lucas Stone stepped into the game for Aachen after Sam had to withdraw her top ride, Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ, from contention in June due to an injury.

“He’s got big shoes to fill, and I’d have loved to be sitting here on a horse I’ve been riding for ten years, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, it was the young gun that had to come through, and come through he did.”

It has been, she continues, “a busy four months. We were on form last year with multiple horses, and then all of a sudden it feels like all of that gets thrown out the window, and it feels like every single event you do is going to be the one that your selection depends on. Then you do one well, and you’re like, ‘shit, okay, I can’t make a mistake at the next one, or the next one.’ So it’s been a lot of pressure event to event on every horse, including him in case he needed to step in. In the end he did.”

Phillip Dutton and Denim. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.

Switzerland’s enormously experienced Robin Godel and Grandeur de Lully CH once again demonstrated why they’ve been such lynchpins of championship teams, putting up a score of 30.1 for overnight eleventh and team fourth, while Australia’s Olivia Barton and her homebred APH Sodoku are ninth on a 30.6 – a huge personal best at four-star and above for the ten-year-old. Germany’s Libussa Lübbeke and Caramia FRH round out the top ten on a 31.3.

Olivia Barton and APH Sodoku. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Phillip Dutton got the US campaign started today as the fourth in the ring with Ann Lapides, Ann Jones, Neill Sites and Caroline Moran’s Denim. The score, a 32.6, was higher than what we’ve come to anticipate from Denim, who’s average a sub-30 consistently, according to EquiRatings. A better mark, Phillip said, comes down to needing more energy and power from Denim. But he remained positive and complimentary of his horse.

“He was pretty much mistake-free,” he said. “I got off the centerline a little bit at the entrance, but then the rest of it was good. I mean, he needs a little bit more power and energy to get a big score, I think, and but he was real professional in there. He was on the money for everything that I asked him to do, so I was really proud of him for that.”

Phillip is just behind Caroline Pamukcu in 15th overnight.

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Caroline Pamukcu was the second in the US order with her own and Deniz Pamucku, Sherrie Martin and Mollie Hoff’s HSH Blake. A 32.6 was not the score Caroline had worked to get today after a couple of bobbles in the canter work inflated an otherwise true-to-Blake stylish test. The counter-canter movement elicited fours from all three judges and her second flying change also got dinged — a frustrating result no doubt, but Caroline responded maturely.

“Obviously, I’m pretty disappointed with because I know we both could do better — or I could do better, not him,” she said. “I didn’t give him the ride I wanted to today, but it is a sport, and that’s the fun thing about a sport. I’ll go back and reflect. You know, there’s always a lot of things, but I’ve got an incredible team at home and with our federation. They gave me all the opportunities to do the best we can today. Sometimes it just falls short. I’ll obviously go home, work harder, and then come back swinging again. He picked up left lead instead of the right lead. I’m not quite sure. You know, shit happens. It definitely was a stupid mistake, but stuff happens.”

Caroline is in 14th overnight and poised to climb her way up with two strong jumping rounds — a feat Blake has accomplished many times throughout his very successful career.

Jessie Phoenix and Fluorescent Adolescent. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Canada’s sole representative, Jessica Phoenix, had a banner day with Sharon Hall and Makayla Rydzik’s Fluorescent Adolescent. At 18 years young, “Lacey” delivered a five-star personal best and earned a 35.1 to sit in 25th overnight. Jessie credits some recent work done with four-time dressage Olympian Ashley Holzer for helping Lacey (and Jessie) understand balance better, which builds confidence. Interestingly, Lacey also seems to prefer dressaging on grass — most of her personal bests have come when she competes on grass.

“Ashley has really helped me understand where I need to be with my own position to help the horses balance themselves better, and she’s just helped me get control over a lot of those little things where it just gives me and the horses so much confidence when we’re in the ring executing the movements,” Jessie elaborated. “I think that was really what showed today with Lacey. Every time she went to get a little bit too onward or lose her balance, I was able to just calmly put her back together, and then she’s such a beautiful mover — she can really shine when she’s in the right balance.”

Tomorrow’s second day of dressage will kick off at 9.30 a.m. local time (that’s 8.30 a.m. BST or 5.30 a.m. EST) with Moroccan individual Noor Slaoui and Legende P first in the ring. Like today, it’s going to be a serious scorcher tomorrow: temperatures are set to hit 36 degrees Celsius – over 100 Fahrenheit, if you, too, hate numbers – and have already necessitated a scheduling change for the pure dressage competitors, who tackle the Special tomorrow. Further to veterinary advice, we’re told, the eventing dressage schedule, with its much shorter test, will remain unchanged and access to cooling areas with misting fans will be ensured.

The line-up tomorrow will bring us the third and fourth rider rotations, plus another thirteen individual competitors, and by any metric it’s a fairly jam-packed sort of day, with many of the frontrunners of this week’s competition yet to come. You can check out the times and the line-up in full here or, if you’re planning your sleep schedule around tuning in for our three remaining US riders, here’s when you can catch them:

Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker – 10.50 a.m. local time/9.50 a.m. BST/4.50 a.m. EST
Tamie Smith and Lillet 3 (individuals) – 14.51 p.m. local time/13.51 p.m. BST/8.51 a.m. EST
Will Coleman and Diabolo – 15.12 p.m. local time/14.12 p.m. BST/9.12 a.m. EST

We’ll have plenty more coverage to bring you, both at the end of the day’s competition and well before then; make sure you’re following along on our Instagram, too, for plenty of BTS content, rider interviews, and much, much more. Until tomorrow: stay cool, and Go Eventing.

The top ten at the end of day one of dressage.

The team standings after day one.

“We’ve Been Through So Much Together”: Calvin Böckmann Named Under-25 World Champion with Altair de la Cense

By Tilly Berendt on Jul 26, 2026 4:30 pm -

Hey EN, a quick note:

On Saturday, July 18, two statements from British Eventing were posted informing us that two serious incidents had taken place at competitions — one at Swalcliffe in Oxfordshire and one at Penrith in Cumbria. Both events were abandoned for the remainder of the weekend, and live scores were removed from the scoring platform out of respect for those affected. The full statement released by British Eventing can be found here.

Following other losses in our sport, EN has undertaken the following protocol:

These incidents represent incredibly dark days within our sport. We understand that the news cycle is cruel, particularly in cases like this. To help keep the cycle from perpetuating in the light of such loss, EN will continue to publish stories and news on an as-needed/timely basis, but we will refrain from sharing these updates on our social media platforms for the next few days. We feel as powerless as anyone in these situations and feel that the least we can do is not move on lightly. We will also not speculate on the circumstances of the incidents, nor will we allow this to take place in the comments sections.

We also know that there’s a World Championship (two of them — one this weekend at Millstreet for U25 riders and one next month at Aachen for Seniors) right at our doorstep. We’ll be covering these events to honor our commitment to our sponsors as well as to continue to provide coverage of the sport’s key competitions. However, we hope you’ll understand that we don’t feel it appropriate to approach these with our usual happy hype. Our content will be quality, but out of respect to all of those we have lost, we hope to offer this as a time of reflection.

Our thoughts are with all of those affected by these losses and we work for a safe sport in everything we do. We thank you for your understanding.

Anyone affected is encouraged to seek support through the British Eventing Support Trust Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 07780 008877.

____________________________________________________________________

Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

When the selection list for the 2026 FEI Under-25 World Championships went live a few weeks ago, it felt like it would be a flip of the coin for who might end up winning it: ten-time five-star partnership Alice Casburn and Topspin of Great Britain, who repeatedly took rosettes at Badminton and Burghley like they were mere Pony Club rallies, or Germany’s Calvin Böckmann, the World Number One in the under-25 rankings, who was fourth at the European Championships at Blenheim last year and travelling reserve for the German Olympic team in Paris. Though he wasn’t to ride his top horse, the ineffable The Phantom of the Opera, he had an interesting – and formidable – partner in the little mare Altair de la Cense, and the sense of a match race was quickly established.

After the first phase, it was his, thanks to a very nearly patriotic level of attention to detail. After the second, it was hers, thanks to a blazing turn of speed perfected over five-star hills. Before the third, it was someone else’s entirely.

Alice didn’t come to this morning’s final horse inspection, feeling that her 18-year-old homebred wasn’t quite himself; that left the door open for Ireland’s surprise hero, the nineteen-year-old Tom Nestor, to step into the two-phase lead with Cooley Diamond Dancer, which he held by just 2.9 penalties over Calvin and ‘Ali’.

But as the 30-strong showjumping finale got underway, it was very clear that experience was going to count for everything today. Not just experience under team pressures, mind you – experience, too, over every kind of course trickery that can be crammed into one arena, including variable stride patterns, tight rollback turns, long curving lines that tempted riders to lose their heads entirely and go galloping and flailing into the next fences. By the time we got to the top three, 52 rails had fallen and two refusals had played out in the capacious, intimidatingly atmospheric ring.

Vying for bronze or better, Great Britain’s Jasmine Underwood rode into the ring brimming with confidence with Indian Girl G, with whom she’s been the FEI Young Rider European Champion and represented Britain at the European level on three other occasions, only knocking a single rail across them.

But although the first half of their round looked as though everything was heading in the right direction, two taps in the latter half – at fence 8, which fell for four other riders, and fence 11, which fell for five – pushed her off the podium.

Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Overnight runner-up Calvin Böckmann had watched some of the earlier rounds of the day, wherein rail after rail fell, and after a few abortive minutes of trying to get a sense of how the course was riding, he wandered away from the arena to make his own plans. Whatever it was that he took – or left behind – at the ringside certainly did the job: he and the sixteen-year-old Ali dug deep and delivered in the ring, adding neither poles nor time to their two-phase score of 40 to deliver just the third clear inside the time of the class.

And then it was Tom Nestor’s turn, with the weight of Irish hopes upon his shoulders. At just nineteen, Tom is one of the youngest riders in this class, and though he’s still eligible for Young Riders, he’d opted to aim his sights on this gap-bridging championship a level up. It’s a brave choice, to ride for the challenge rather than going for what might be an easier victory, and although his week ended with a frustrating four-rail round, Tom has to be commended for the performances he’s delivered this week. The future of Irish eventing looks to be in safe hands – and the individual medal in this inaugural World Championship is, too, in those of Calvin Böckmann.

“I’m super relieved,” admits an emotional Calvin who, at 25, is in his final year of eligibility for this new title.

Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

But it’s not really that that put the pressure on him, nor even the expectation that someone with so much experience representing his country must surely walk away with the prize. It was, more than anything else, a desperate desire to prove to the world exactly who little Altair de la Cense really was.

“We’ve had a partnership for more than ten years, and we first bought her for me to do Juniors on,” he says. “Then everybody said to me, ‘okay, well, she might be good enough for Juniors, but she’s not good enough for Young Riders.’ Then I took her to Young Riders and it was, ‘oh, she might be good enough for Young Riders, but she’s not good enough for Seniors.’ So to be here, and for her to win this – I simply can’t put it into words. We’ve had our ups and downs; we’ve gone up from one-star all the way to four-star, and then back down to two-star when we lost some confidence, and there’s been so many people along the way who’ve said to me, ‘oh, just sell her. Get a bit of money for her, sell her to a Junior.’ But I think today she showed how much she fights for it – how much she really wants to do her best. She gets ten centimetres taller in the ring.”

Ali is owned by Calvin’s mother, Simone, and his brothers, Jason and Liam, but it’s Simone who, with Calvin, has invested her heart and soul into the little mare. It’s Simone who is ringside with her grooming bucket, wearing a t-shirt printed with a photo of Calvin smiling lovingly at the mare; it is Simone alone who can match Calvin for tears and shock and joy when Ali touches down from the last fence.

Simone Böckmann: the happiest mum in Ireland right now, we reckon. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“She means the absolute world to me, to us, especially to my mum, who’s been there for the whole journey” says Calvin.

Calvin and Ali’s week started with a smart test that earned them a 27.6, putting them in the lead – though not by a huge margin – going into cross-country. Over Mike Etherington-Smith’s stiff track, they added 12.4 time penalties when Calvin, aware that the mare doesn’t love hills, opted to ease off the gas pedal and give her a confidence-building run. That dropped them down the rankings to overnight third, but if this week’s competition has been anything, it’s been changeable.

“I thought at the beginning of the show that there would be a few people here who’d never had the chance to compete on a big stage before but have made it here now,” says Calvin. “I think that’s how it ended up [playing out] in the competition, as well. It was a tough cross-country course, a tough course today, but I think that was perfect to prepare us all for big things.”

An emotional Calvin Böckmann takes gold. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Now, as Calvin well and truly graduates from the youth rankings, with an individual under-25 title and a team silver to add to a championship trophy cabinet that already includes – let us catch our breath here – a Young Riders team silver, Juniors team gold, Juniors team bronze, Ponies team gold, Ponies individual silver, Ponies individual bronze, Children on Horses jumping team gold and individual silver, and the 2015 Pony European Champion individual title. Phew. Not bad going.

The extraordinary influence of today’s showjumping track allowed for some surprise entries onto the podium from horses and riders who hadn’t yet featured on its platforms. Silver medal, and the title of Vice Under-25 World Champion, went to Great Britain’s Cerys Macaulay and the eighteen-year-old Kananaskis, whose clear round with 0.8 time penalties allowed them to complete a three-phase climb from 12^th to second place.

Cerys Macaulay and Kananaskis. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This is Cerys’s first time on a British team, but not so for diminutive Kananaskis, who Cerys inherited a couple of years ago from boyfriend Richard Coney when the little horse needed a pilot to leg him back up after some time off. He had, before his injury, represented Great Britain in three youth European Championships, helping the team to medals in all three of them, and had taken Richard to his first five-star, too, at Pau in 2020. Now, with Cerys, he has climbed again, from two-star back to four-star, and to a double medal finish at his biggest championship yet.

“It’s so nice for the Coney family – they’ve had him since he was five and he’s taken Richard from Pony Club to five-star and now me to this, at the age of eighteen and at barely 15.1hh,” says Cerys. “He’s some horse.”

Even still, Cerys never quite expected this sort of finish in her debut wearing the Union Jack.

“I’d hoped I could be up there, but I didn’t really except to win an individual medal. I sort of thought the team could win it, and I was expecting to be a counting score, but not necessarily one of the top lots. So I was quite surprised when I got off and looked at the leaderboard and realised we’d gone up a few – but he does excel in the jumping phases, and when I walked the course and realised there’d be enough to do in here, I thought, ‘well, he’s quite small, and we can cut a corner here and there to be speedy enough to climb a bit.’”

The British team – Tom Bird, Alice Casburn, Jasmine Underwood, and Cerys Macaulay – take gold. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Cerys finishes the week as the best-placed of the strong British contingent, who also took the gold medal in the team competition – a competition that saw the Brits, Germany, and Ireland begin the day within a whisper of one another, but that tiny margin opened up into a much, much bigger one for the British as the class played out.

Team medals can come down to a knife edge of chance, and our three podium-finishing teams — Britain in gold, Germany in silver, and Ireland in bronze — know that all too well, because each had just three riders left in the hunt in today’s competition after the overnight withdrawals of Alice Casburn and Jenny Kuehnle, and a late fall on course yesterday for Nicholas Goldbeck of Germany. It takes nothing at all for a team to find itself out of contention even after some excellent competitive riding, and that’s the frustrating fate that befell the US team, who had to settle for fifth place despite arguably bringing one of the strongest fronts into this week’s event. But two falls on course yesterday, in the latter stages of two excellent rounds from Quidley Kellerman and Cassie Sanger, meant that the team had to add 200 points to their tally, and that was that for their podium hopes.

Our individual medalists: Cerys Macaulay, Calvin Böckmann, and Olivia Dutton. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

But individually, they weren’t ready to stop writing the story. Eventing is arguably at its best when it’s a true three-phase competition, with true three-phase movement and gutsy climbs, and that sort of gutsy climbing is exactly what Olivia Dutton did to claim individual bronze with Jewelent. They began their week in 26^th place on a score of 35.8; they finished it in third with just 0.4 time added today and a relatively efficient 12 time penalties on that tough track yesterday.

Olivia Dutton and Jewelent. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“I was a little bummed after my dressage test, and I wasn’t where I wanted to be at all – but I don’t remember that at all right now,” laughs Olivia, who inherited the ride on the full brother to Cooley Rosalent from her father last season. “I’m really, really happy. We just kind of slowly kept moving our way up, and then after showjumping, suddenly we were in third place.”

Olivia Dutton and Jewelent. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It is, she says, “a big trip coming from America and flying our horses here, and it’s a big commitment, especially financially. So I’m really thankful for my owners for supporting me, and while I think we’re bummed that the team didn’t do what we came here to do, we’ve got the best team and have had the best few weeks, and we’ll learn a lot from it. It’s completely different to doing something like the North American Youth Championships, and watching all these riders today, they’re just amazing, and I feel so proud to be competing against them.”

Jasmine Underwood and Indian Girl G. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Great Britain’s Jasmine Underwood and Indian Girl G’s two rails didn’t see them fall too far down the leaderboard; the pair finished in fourth place.

It is, no doubt, a bittersweet finish for a young talent who came here with everything it takes to win an individual medal, but at just 21 years old, Jasmine will undoubtedly be back to tackle this championship’s next iteration, taking place on home soil at Cornbury in Oxfordshire next year.

“I think I definitely felt the pressure,” says Jasmine. “I think having done it before, and maybe even more so because I have such high expectations of myself. But the week’s been incredible; the team’s been incredible; I’m a bit gutted to have let it down a little bit today, but I’m glad we pulled it through for the team and I’m really grateful for the experience.”

Molly Duda and Disco Traveler. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

50% of the top six individuals ended up being from the US of A, and fifth-placed among them was 21-year-old Californian Molly Duda and her own 16-year-old Disco Traveler. They began their week in 24^th place on a 35.6, climbed to eighth after adding just 9.6 time penalties yesterday, and then tipped a single rail – the first part of the treble combination at 10A – today to secure their position in the top five. Their fellow US individual competitors, Jack Curtis and Luska Candy Clover, took sixth place, having climbed through the week from first-phase 22^nd and delivered one of just three fault-free rounds today to shoot some eight places up the leaderboard.

Jack Curtis and Luska Candy Clover. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The Irish contingent might be feeling subdued now, but there’s plenty to celebrate in their ranks from throughout the week: they’d led the first phase as a team, which shows a real development on the flat for a country that ordinarily has to climb the rankings, and their youngest rider had led coming into today’s showjumping, too. While this phase might have caught them out, they can be expected to regroup and come back stronger for it.

Best among them in the final standings is Godfrey Gibbons, former stable jockey for Tom Jackson, who had the first and fourth fences down, and 1.2 time penalties, to drop from fifth to seventh, while morning leaders Tom Nestor and Cooley Diamond Dancer tipped a frustrating four rails to take eighth place.

Ann-Catrin Bierlein and Sir Scotty. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Germany’s Ann-Catrin Bierlein celebrated her 25^th birthday in the ring today, and although she, too, will be feeling disappointed to have tipped two rails, her performance this week with the eighteen-year-old Sir Scotty will have put her on the map as a serious contender for future German teams.

The gelding has never been a fan of the first phase, and Annca nursed him to a score of 40 on Thursday, but on cross-country yesterday they truly shone, delivering the second-fastest round of the day to add just 3.2 time penalties and climb to sixth place. They finish the week in ninth, and while this may be the tail end of Scotty’s career – for the second time, really, as he was ‘retired’ a few years ago before making a surprise comeback — it’s truly just the start of Annca’s. Keep a particular eye on the six-year-old homebred Daisy Dynamite 3, with whom she’ll be aiming for the Young Horse World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers later this year.

The top ten is rounded out by France’s Clara Cazeneuve, who had two rails to drop just one place in the order.

Meg Pellegrini and Dondante. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

British pathfinder and team gold medallist Tom Bird piloted Lenny to a rail and 1.2 time faults for eleventh place, ahead of Aussie individual Lamoza Velisha and the charismatic Call Me Cooley, who had two rails to finish twelfth. Thirteenth place goes to US team members Meg Pellegrini and Dondante, formerly the ride of Will Coleman, who also had two rails. Canada’s Kyle Charles Morton and Shannondale Gambit finished 25^thafter knocking just one rail and stopping the clock a second over time.

We also have an update from Alice Casburn on the much-loved Topspin after his withdrawal this morning.

“He was very angry this morning not to be showjumping with his friends,” she says. “He owes us absolutely nothing, and he’s a horse that’s always been very happy and excited, and I felt that he just wasn’t 100%. It’s obviously very difficult in that team situation, when you want to do your best, but my teammates have been so incredibly supportive of me. He’ll go home now and see some of his buddies and have a very happy retirement.”

For now, from us, that’s all from the inaugural FEI Under-25 World Championship at Millstreet – and onwards to the senior World Championships at Aachen in just a couple of weeks’ time. The pipeline to the future for our young talent has never looked clearer. Go Eventing.

The final individual top ten in the inaugural Under-25 World Championship.

The final team leaderboard.

FEI Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet, presented by Connolly’s Red Mills: Website | Live Stream | Entries & Scoring | EN’s Coverage

Overnight Leader Withdrawn from Under-25 World Championships at Final Horse Inspection

By Tilly Berendt on Jul 26, 2026 6:09 am -

Hey EN, a quick note:

Following other losses in our sport, EN has undertaken the following protocol:

Our thoughts are with all of those affected by these losses and we work for a safe sport in everything we do. We thank you for your understanding.

Anyone affected is encouraged to seek support through the British Eventing Support Trust Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 07780 008877.

____________________________________________________________________

There’s a slightly sombre mood in the air this morning at the final horse inspection for the FEI World Championship for Under-25s. That heaviness comes in the wake of a shock withdrawal: that of overnight leaders Alice Casburn and her remarkable eighteen-year-old homebred Topspin, who climbed from 16^th place to first when delivering the fastest round of the day yesterday with just 2.8 time penalties.

David Sheerin, chef d’equipe of the British team, shared a statement on social media that reads: “Alice and Topspin produced a world class cross country performance, and Topspin completed the course in excellent style. Alice knows her horse better than anyone, and when she felt he was not quite 100% this morning, she made the right decision. That is the mark of true horsemanship. At this level, welfare will always come first, and the whole team fully supported the decision not to present. We are incredibly proud of both Alice and Topspin and everything they achieved this week.”

Alice’s is not the only withdrawal from the competition, nor indeed from the top ten: Ireland’s pathfinder Jenny Kuehnle, tenth overnight with Sammy Davis Junior, also opted not to present this morning. French pathfinders Faustin Forreau and Danaos de Grece, 23^rd after cross-country, also withdrew overnight.

Cerys Macaulay and Kananaskis. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

There was one hold in the course of proceedings: British team member Cerys Macaulay suffered a tense few minutes with the eighteen-year-old Kananaskis, seventh after cross-country, but was ultimately passed and will showjump in a bid for both individual and team medals.

That leaves just thirty horses and riders left in the mix as we look ahead to the showjumping finale, which will begin at 13.00 local time (8.00 a.m. EST). Nineteen-year-old Irishman Tom Nestor and Cooley Diamond Dancer now hold the provisional lead on a two-phase score of 37.1, just 2.9 penalties ahead of second-placed Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense of Germany. Great Britain’s Jasmine Underwood and Indian Girl G sit third, also within a rail of the lead. Australia’s Lamoza Velisha and Call Me Cooley and the USA’s Olivia Dutton and Jewelent both step into the top ten.

Great Britain retains first place in the team standings, though now by less than a rail in hand over Germany, who step into silver position following Jenny Kuehnle’s departure from the competition, which pushes Ireland down to bronze – but by just one penalty. France sits fourth and the US fifth – but the podium looks certain to be the current top three in some order, as there’s more than forty penalties between Ireland and France, and more than a hundred between France and the USA.

We’ll be back soon with the full story of the finale of this inaugural championship, but in the meantime, we also just want to take a moment to raise a glass to Topspin – a horse who still lives in the stable he was born in and who, with his young rider, has been to ten five-stars and finished in the top ten in five of them. If there’s ever been a more consummate under-25 horse, and one who’s bridged the gap more comprehensively between Young Riders and senior competition, we have yet to meet it.

Go Eventing.

The revised top ten going into showjumping.

FEI Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet, presented by Connolly’s Red Mills: Website | Live Stream | Entries & Scoring | EN’s Coverage

“He Loves the Nitty-Gritty”: Alice Casburn and Topspin Rocket to Under-25 World Championships Cross-Country Lead

By Tilly Berendt on Jul 25, 2026 4:15 pm -

Hey EN, a quick note before the cross-country report:

Following other losses in our sport, EN has undertaken the following protocol:

Our thoughts are with all of those affected by these losses and we work for a safe sport in everything we do. We thank you for your understanding.

Anyone affected is encouraged to seek support through the British Eventing Support Trust Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 07780 008877.

____________________________________________________________________

Spain’s Marçal Piro Patau and Eventing de Fay jump the watermill fence with its waterfall feature. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

More so, perhaps, than Mike Etherington-Smith’s big, tough track and its accompanying tight time, it was the extraordinarily tight margins on the leaderboard that loomed most heavily over cross-country day at the FEI Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet. At the culmination of dressage, just 15.6 penalties covered the entirety of the 39-strong class; a meagre 6.2 spanned the top twenty. Many riders found themselves within a fraction of a penalty of several of their competitors. It was that – plus the knowledge that the 6:30 optimum time was wheeling as nearly impossible to catch – that lent a grave air of uncertainty to everything that was to come over the course of this afternoon’s competition.

If everything was expected to change, though, then there were hardly any surprises: not a single horse and rider remain in the same place they began the day in, and many early-stage competitors found themselves falling nearly to the bottom of the leaderboard before slowly regaining ground.

That was partly due to the fact that the first rotation of team riders largely aimed for conservative pathfinding clear rounds: the ordinarily efficient Jennifer Kuehnle of Ireland and her five-star partner Sammy Davis Junior, who had been second after dressage, added 45 seconds on the clock to pick up 18 time penalties, while overnight leaders Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense were 31 seconds overtime for 12.4 penalties. That opened the door for 25 riders to potentially finish ahead of him, and as one of the first starters of the day, he had a long few hours to wait and see how that might stack up for him.

Once the class got into the second rotation of team riders, though, things began to move themselves along – there were fewer of the sort of teething problems that plagued first-rotation riders, such as the USA’s Quidley Kellerman, who fell from Blakeneys Cruise at fence 20B, an angled brush in the final water complex, or France’s Faustin Forreau, who suffered a run-out at fence 9C, a wide brush oxer coming out of the sunken road.

Alice Casburn and Topspin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The first of this second rotation of riders was the one that everyone intended to use as a barometer of whether the time – so far, so comprehensively eclipsed – would even be catchable. Great Britain’s Alice Casburn and her eighteen-year-old homebred Topspin come into this competition as the most experienced partnership in the field; to their credit so far is individual bronze at the 2022 Young Rider European Championships, victory in Bramham’s Under-25 British Championship last month, and no fewer than ten CCI5* starts, which have yielded them five top ten placings, most recently a fifth-place finish at Burghley last year. They’re seldom more than a few seconds beyond the optimum time at the top level; at CCI4*-S, they have frequently caught it.

Even they couldn’t best Mike Etherington-Smith’s fiendish wheeling. But in trying, they gave us our closest attempt, adding just 2.8 time penalties to their first-phase score of 33.3 to climb from sixteenth place to the overnight lead.

“I am beyond delighted with him – he’s such a professional,” says Alice. “I said that on Thursday after his dressage, but today is definitely where he shines. I certainly wasn’t perfect in quite a few places, but he just picked up his line for me and said, ‘I’ve got this; don’t worry about it.’ My biggest worry was actually the first fence and the waterfall [at 16]. I was like, ‘oh, god, the first fence is spooky, great.’ But actually, I think it was good for me, because it made me really ride forward into that first fence, and he tried so hard for me today and just answered everything for me. I feel like one very lucky girl.”

Though Alice and Spin have so much experience as individual competitors, riding on a team presents a whole different kind of pressure – and coming in as one of the favourites for the win, too, meant that Alice couldn’t be complacent for a moment.

“I definitely felt the heat; I think a lot of people look at him and think ‘I’d quite like to take him cross-country!’ So there’s a lot of pressure, because I know that if it goes wrong it’s on my shoulders, not his.”

But, she says, the powers-that-be of the British team, helmed by David Sheerin and Tina Cook, wanted to ensure she stuck to the system that had served her and Spin so well for so long.

“I was told to try and do my thing, and I think that’s the beauty of having had him for so long: I know what makes him tick and how to ride him, and luckily he’s a horse that likes being chased a bit and going for the time,” says Alice. “At the point where a lot of horses go, ‘oh, this is actually getting a bit tough,’ he’s like, ‘this is brilliant.’ He loves that nitty-gritty, getting stuck in. But I definitely felt the heat this morning, and I wanted to produce a solid result for the team. Tom [Bird, British pathfinder] did that as first to go, which made me feel so much better – he rode an absolutely class round, and then I just wanted to come back having done the same, and take the pressure off everyone else. I knew if I messed up, it would put so much pressure on the later riders.”

There is one little thing, though, that Alice admits she ramped up for today’s competition.

“I’ve always come back and he’s recovered so well, and mum’s been like, ‘you know, you could have pushed a bit,’ so today I really wanted to go for it. I’m just delighted to have brought home a clear for the team, and my horse had a smashing time.”

Alice’s round helped to secure the lead for Great Britain, too, in this inaugural World Championships: they now head into tomorrow’s finale with just 4.7 penalties, or a rail and change, in hand over second-placed Ireland.

Tom Nestor and Cooley Diamond Dancer make it happen at the influential corner out of the final water. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The Irish team, for their part, surprised everyone by leading the way after the dressage phase – a novel place for a nation that’s so often had to climb in the jumping phases.

“This is where we want to be – we don’t want to be climbing,” says 19-year-old Tom Nestor, who sits second overnight after adding 4.4 time penalties with Cooley Diamond Dancer to move up from first-phase 13^th. “The dream is to start in gold and stay in gold. You don’t want to be hoping someone else makes a mistake. So actually, I like these positions, and I think it’s nearly less pressure in a sense because all you can do is worry about your own performance – you don’t have to think about, ‘oh, I hope she has time penalties,’ or whatever, you’re doing your own thing.”

The Irish line-up here at Millstreet, which sees Tom joined by Godfrey Gibbons, experienced Senior campaigner Jenny Kuehnle, and team newcomer Isny O’Donnell is, Tom admits, “pretty level-headed – the four of us don’t really think too much into things like the leaderboard. We’ve all had enough days in the saddle to know that day one isn’t normally the final result in these competitions. Like, the British went from fifth to first today – it goes to show.”

It’s a very cool and calm attitude for a teenager to have after a barnstorming round catapulted him onto the provisional podium, and no doubt that aversion to panic is what saved the day when Tom and his horse jumped through the hugely influential final water. The broad left-handed brush corner at C had changed the fortunes of plenty of riders throughout the day, and for a millisecond it looked as though it might do so for Tom, too, but in a sort of unruffled-but-agricultural manner, they scrambled their way to the other side sans penalties.

“He got a bit keen coming home, and at the corner we definitely had to make things happen, but he also used to be tricky across country – he wasn’t the straightest horse in the world,” says Tom. “So for him to do whatever it took to get over it was awesome, and he gave me a really good feel. He’s a horse who travels in such a way that he can look tired or slow from the get-go, but you kind of just ride him like and niggle him along a bit and actually he’s so fast.”

Although Tom went in the third rider rotation of the day, he hadn’t had a chance to watch the quicker riders on course, and instead trusted in the walks he’d undertaken with Irish team trainer Sam Griffiths and five-star rider Ian Cassells.

“I watched the first few, and I thought Tom Bird would be a good man to watch, but he gave me a fright because I thought he was going fast and then he was thirty seconds over,” laughs Tom. “I thought then that it might not be possible to make the time, and I didn’t really watch much more – just the first-line riders, and a few that I thought might be similar to me. But I didn’t want to overwatch, because I can overthink sometimes, so I just kind of do my own thing. It’s a credit to Ian and Sam, because they’re so detailed in how they walk the course, and they really think of the little things, and then I could just stick to what I knew would work for us. I knew, though, that he’s a fast horse – he was second fastest at Ballindenisk, and only beaten by a horse who’d made the time at Badminton, so I believed in that sense that he could be one of the fastest today. My instructions in the start box were clear: just jump clear, number one, and go as fast as you can, number two. That gave me a bit of confidence when he said that to me.”

Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Dressage leaders Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense may have dropped down 25 or so places in the moments after their 12.4-time-penalty round, but they didn’t stay that low – as more and more riders dropped below them, they ultimately settled into overnight third place, just 3.9 penalties behind Alice and Topspin.

Though many competitors might rue those time penalties and that movement on the leaderboard, from early on in the track, Calvin knew that what his mare needed was a little bit of time to pick her way around the course. If that was what she wanted, Calvin resolved that that would be the ride he’d give her.

“Of course I could just think about success or think, ‘oh, I’m giving away my lead going into showjumping,’” says Calvin. “I’m sure that’s something people think about. But to me, it’s about taking it jump by jump with her, and if I ever feel like she’s out of her comfort zone, I just want to give her back the confidence, even if it means taking another two seconds and adding another stride to help her jump. Today I had to be a bit encouraging, because it’s a really tough track and she’s not a horse who loves a hill, but she really outdid herself and gave 110% out there.”

She is, he continues, “a really careful horse, and I unfortunately gave her a distance early on in the round where she really had to try to get a bit out of her comfort zone. I’m just happy that she then gained confidence again.”

“I know she’s not the scopiest horse, but she means the absolute world to me — we bought her as a six-year-old, as a Junior horse, and so she’s the most special horse to my family. It means so much to have her here. We’ve been through ups and downs through the past ten years, but moments like that show that no matter what she just wants to go between the flags. My god, I couldn’t be prouder of her.”

Jasmine Underwood and Indian Girl G. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The 2024 Young Rider European Champions Jasmine Underwood and Indian Girl G secured Team GB’s top spot with a workmanlike anchor round that added 11.2 time penalties to their score card, dropping them just one spot on the leaderboard to overnight fourth place.

“She’s just amazing. She gives me absolutely everything, and I don’t think I could ask for a better partner cross-country. She absolutely adores it,” says Jasmine of the thirteen-year-old mare, with whom she’s come up the ranks from BE100 [US Training] to four-star.

Along the way, they’ve amassed no shortage of team experience: there was, of course that Europeans in 2024 when they won individual gold and team gold; there was last year’s Europeans, too, where they took team bronze and individual fifth; there were two stints at Junior Europeans, in 2022 and 2023, where they finished just outside the top ten individually and won team medals on each occasion.

Still, though, she says, “the added pressure of competing for your country is a lot – but I think I’ve got really good at managing my nerves and using them to my advantage so I can perform the best I can. It was quite nerve-wracking today, and I wanted to put in a good performance because everybody else had, but equally, because they’d all gone well it took the pressure off a bit. I could go for it and not worry, because we had three good results in the bag.”

Her plan of action was simple, and her elation when she crossed the finish line was palpable.

“I went as fast as I could while still jumping all the fences – she’s not a natural galloper, but she gives her all and she’s just the most amazing mare, and jumps incredibly.”

Godfrey Gibbons and Ballyvillane OBOS. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The top five is rounded out by Ireland’s anchor rider Godfrey Gibbons, who added 11.6 time penalties with Ballyvillane OBOS to also drop a placing.

“The horse was unreal,” he says. “From the get-go he was 100% on it. Everything I asked of him he delivered without batting an eyelid. It’s been a long day of waiting around for it, and with the way things have gone today, there was always a bit of pressure there, but it was great to get out there and he gave me some feeling. I’ve never enjoyed a round so much – I wasn’t even really thinking about the team or the placings or anything, I was just enjoying that feeling.”

Ann-Catrin Bierlein and Sir Scotty. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“You can see now why I keep going even with our dressage scores,” grins Germany’s Ann-Catrin Bierlein, after delivering the second-fastest round of the day to add just 3.2 time penalties with the eighteen-year-old Sir Scotty. (That, for what it’s worth, means that the two fastest horses of the day were also in the highest age bracket in the field, and that’s on great management.) That incredibly efficient round propelled the pair from overnight 34^th place, after putting a 40 on the board in the first phase, to sixth going into tomorrow’s finale.

“It’s crazy – the only horse faster than him has run fast around Badmintons and Burghleys,” says Annca. “I was already happy after dressage because I was expecting this [climb], and I know that this day is for this horse. This is always his strongest discipline, I would say, so I’m really happy and relieved.”

Scotty has been the horse that has taken Annca to the top levels, after a bit of a gamble of a start: “We managed to get him because he wasn’t good at the dressage, and like the arrogant German I am, I thought I would be able to improve that,” she laughs. “It’s a shame that I haven’t, but he means the world to me and he’s an amazing cross-country horse.”

Annca was the second team rider to take to the course, and even with her early position, the course had already shown how influential it would be – even in the German camp, in which individual competitor Konstantin Harting and Botswana 4 had retired after early issues for the inexperienced mare.

“Our national coach came up to me after Calvin’s round and said, ‘okay, I think you know it’s not going to be a walk in the park, and it can be a bit of a fight. So really fight, and don’t ever stop fighting until the end,’” she says. “So that was the plan. When we first walked it we were like, ‘okay, this is a proper championship course.’ So we knew that, but that final moment of being told to really take this seriously helped quite a lot, because usually I don’t like to fight – like, attacking riding. But that’s something I have to learn to do and you have to be able to do it on a championship course. The time was so tight that I couldn’t ever afford to think ‘oh, I won’t make it anyway’ – I had to keep going, and he’s so fit that he really kept running until the end. I’m just so privileged to sit on a horse like him.”

Germany’s mixed bag of a day now sees them in bronze medal position, down from silver after dressage: they now count Annca’s score, which had previously been the drop score, and retain Calvin’s score and Linus Weiss and Astrello’s steady clear, but lose that of Nicholas Goldbeck and Chintano 7, who were the last pair out on course and sat ninth after dressage, but took a non-injurious tumble just before the Irish Bank.

Cerys Macaulay and Kananaskis. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

British third-round rider Cerys Macaulay steps up from 12^th to seventh place with eighteen-year-old Kananaskis, who previously finished in the same position here in the Junior European Championships nine years ago with Cerys’s partner, Richard Coney, in the irons. It was abundantly clear as the little gelding popped around the track that he remembered exactly what Millstreet is all about, and the pair added just 12 time penalties to their first-phase score of 32.5 to put them well in the hunt going into the final day.

Molly Duda and Disco Traveller. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just seven tenths of a point behind them are the best of the US contingent, individual competitors Molly Duda and Disco Traveller, who put down a solid round early in the day to add just 9.6 time penalties. That pushes them up from 24^th to overnight eighth and offers much for the US camp to celebrate after a day of mixed fortunes: the team now sits in fifth place without hope of climbing in the final phase after both pathfinders Quidley Kellerman and Blakeneys Cruise and anchors Cassie Sanger and Fernhill Zoro failed to complete, the latter having fallen together at a wide table at 19, just before the final water.

Olivia Dutton and Jewelent. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Meg Pellegrini and Dondante. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

But team members Olivia Dutton and Jewelent and Meg Pellegrini and Dondante shone in this phase, adding 12 and 15.6 time penalties, respectively, to move up from 26^th to 12^th place and 16^th to 13^th place.

Jack Curtis and Luska Candy Clover. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Individual competitor Jack Curtis moves up from 22^nd to 14^th with Luska Candy Clover, another horse returning to the site of former glories – he previously won here as a four-year-old under Kelly Hutchinson. A little north of the border, German-based Canadian Kyle Morton produced a steady clear with Shannondale Gambit to add 40 time penalties, and will sit in 30^th place overnight.

Kyle Morton and Shannondale Gambit. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Clara Cazeneuve and Dolce Gabana. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

France’s Clara Cazeneuve and Dolce Gabana step up one spot from tenth to ninth place, with 13.6 time penalties, despite the pair’s relative inexperience in this line-up: “it’s just our second four-star, but it was an easy course for her because she’s a really good jumper,” says Clara. “I was so nervous to be here, with the atmosphere and the course and everything, but my horse is so good that it’s my job to be calm for her. That was what I wanted to do today.”

Jennifer Kuehnle and Sammy Davis Junior. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The top ten going into tomorrow’s final horse inspection is rounded out by Irish pathfinders Jenny Kuehnle and Sammy Davis Junior, who added 18 time penalties to drop from second in a bid to fact-find for their team.

At the close of the first-ever Under-25 World Championships cross-country day, British Olympian and u25 team trainer Tina Cook is delighted at the precedent the day of sport will set for the future.

“This is a great thing for the sport, and for the riders of the future. They come out of the under-21s and they’re still kids, even if they wouldn’t like me saying it. This age group will be the making of them, and the experience they get from this, even if they haven’t had the perfect day, they’ll learn so much from it and go away and keep training.”

It was, she says, “a brilliant course, and when we walked it, we had a massive amount of respect for it. Mike Etherington-Smith has got it exactly right – there were some very big fences out there, even the single fences. The combinations were tricky, and it was three strides for a lot of the combinations, so if the horses had a little mistake, the riders had to be so quick to recover, so there was plenty of action out there.”

Tomorrow’s finale begins with the final horse inspection, starting around 8.30 a.m. local time (3.30 a.m. EST), with 33 of our original 39 starters left to come forward before the ground jury. Then, we’ll head into showjumping from 1.00 p.m. (8.00 a.m. EST), after which we’ll crown the first-ever Under-25 World Champion. Join us then, and Go Eventing.

The individual leaderboard after an influential day of cross-country at Millstreet.

The team standings after cross-country at the Under-25 World Championships.

FEI Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet, presented by Connolly’s Red Mills: Website | Live Stream | Entries & Scoring | EN’s Coverage

Hills To Spare: Take a Look at Millstreet’s Under-25 World Championship Cross-Country Course

By Tilly Berendt on Jul 25, 2026 6:21 am -

Hey EN, a quick note before the cross-country preview:

Following other losses in our sport, EN has undertaken the following protocol:

Our thoughts are with all of those affected by these losses and we work for a safe sport in everything we do. We thank you for your understanding.

Anyone affected is encouraged to seek support through the British Eventing Support Trust Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 07780 008877.

____________________________________________________________________

Fence 11: the Horseware Ireland Hobbit House.

We’re just a scant couple of hours away from the start of cross-country here at the FEI Under-25 World Championships in Millstreet, Ireland, and our 39 competitors have a big task on their hands in their pursuit of the first-ever medals at this inaugural championship.

Though the event is a CCI4*-S, it’s being held with showjumping last, and certainly, designer Mike Etherington-Smith has worked out how to pack as much as possible into 3700m of track. With an optimum time of 6:30, we’re looking at the clock as being one of the most influential factors of the day, but the terrain here at Millstreet is sure to play a part, too: the first two-thirds of the track feature plenty of uphill pulls and undulating ground, which flattens out and eases up in the final two minutes to ensure that any horses who are starting to tire can make it home comfortably.

Fence 1: the Millstreet Horseshoe.

As with any championship, it’s a course with plenty of slow alternative routes for riders and horses who are here to gain experience, rather than vie for a title, but those who want to get their paws on some metal will be looking at a top-of-the-range CCI4*-S challenge with no shortage of technicality. That technicality may play in the favour of the European nations, who are used to calculus-level courses – and Mike E-S’s own brand of question, since he’s been the course designer at Luhmühlen for a good long stint – but the let-up fences, with lots of broad tables among them, are pure Ireland.

Of course there’s an Irish bank, we’re in Ireland! This one comes up at 17ABCD.

Most fences on this course are approached on a turn, including those single fences – a savvy touch that requires riders to manage their line of approach while also helping horses to readjust their balance to their hind end, creating a safer trajectory and reducing the ability to gallop into single fences.

The leaderboard as we head to the start box is tight, tight, tight: just 15.6 time penalties cover the entire class, and a scant 6.2 spans the top twenty. That’s just over fifteen seconds of time, and doesn’t even stretch to a flag (9 penalties), a MIM activation (11), or a runout (20).

You can take a virtual walk around the (beautifully-dressed!) course via the CrossCountryApp here, and stream all the action via ClipMyHorse.Tv. Go Eventing!

Riders React to the U25 World Championships Course

Ann-Catrin Bierlein (Team Germany: 34^th place with Sir Scotty on 40)

“It’s quite far from home, so we didn’t have a chance to come here before, but everyone said to me, ‘oh, it might be a bit hilly!’ I think the first part is quite intense because it’s mostly going uphill, but I like that in the last part, where they could start to get tired, it’s mostly flat. I think that suits my horse very well; he’s very fit and a fast horse, so I think I can attack the course. But it is big: it’s a lot of big fences, and so I’m really happy to be sat on this horse, because scope is not a topic I need to worry about. I can just point him and he does it. I think it’s not going to be a dressage competition, which, with my dressage performance, is something I’m really happy about! It’s a proper track.

Meg Pellegrini (Team USA: 16^th place with Dondante on 33.3)

“I’m so excited – I think it’s going to be really, really fun. This horse especially is such a machine; he goes out there and he hunts everything, and he has a huge step, so I have to make sure I’m putting him in the right places. I learned that at Kentucky. I went back and watched the video, and there’s some jumps where he’s, like, moving himself out of the way because I’ve made a bit of a mistake. So I’m going to try really hard to do it all right for him this weekend. The course itself looks amazing – they’ve done such a beautiful job. Even just looking at the first jump, you know it’s going to impressive.”

Alice Casburn (Team Great Britain: 16^th place with Topspin on 33.3)

“It’s a very Mike course, and I had a very interesting walk around it. I’m really glad I went to Luhmühlen because this gave me the same sort of feel – everything’s off a bit of a turn, and considering there aren’t hundreds of combinations, you still come back and your brain feels a bit tired. I was like, ‘I need an hour’s time out!’ There’s loads to do out there, and I think the last water is very stiff; that’s going to cause trouble. And the same again for the step [at fence xxx], because they’ve got you really galloping and thinking forward before it. But I’m looking forward to getting out there on him. It’s not even a case of wanting to be on him because of what he’s done – it’s that I trust him implicitly and I know we’ll look after each other and give each other confidence. Neither of us are actually very brave people, but somehow, you take one incredibly insecure person and one incredibly insecure horse, and we make each other feel so confident. I wouldn’t want to be on any other horse.”

Calvin Böckmann (Team Germany: 1st place with Altair de la Cense on 27.6)

“Technicality wise, it’s all fine – it’s challenging enough for sure, but what stands out is that they really did use proper fences. Maybe the Brits are used to these kind of fences more, but for us Germans and many other nations, we’re not really used to having big table after big table, and so there’s not really a fence to bring back the confidence. That’s why I think it’s even more important as a rider to just be on your game and have that bond and trust and communication with your horse so you can make it really clear for them. Combination-wise, I think it’s tricky, but if you ride the lines well, the distances and fences are pretty clear for the horses.”

Nico Goldbeck (Team Germany: 9^th place with Chintano 7 on 31.6)

“A big point is trust and partnership, because with my horse, when I’m not straight to a jump, he knows what to do. The track is quite big, and the hills – we don’t have these in Northern Germany, so I think they’ll be one of the biggest challenges. I think the most tricky thing is the last water, with the skinny fence in the water and the big corner at the end – it’s one of the most tricky combinations on the course.”

Godfrey Gibbons (Team Ireland: 4^th place with Ballyvillane OBOS on 29.9)

“We’ve given it a few walks now already, and it’s a proper championship course. We’re not surprised, but it’s a really good course out there, and really well presented. It’s going to cause problems and it’s going to take prisoners, and we just hope it’s not us.”

Cassie Sanger (Team USA: 6th place with Fernhill Zoro on 30.2)

“I feel really good about it. I feel very happy that we’re an experienced pair together, and we know each other inside out. I don’t love to go fast, but he’s a horse that I find it very easy on, so that really settles me down because I don’t have to think about that as much on him. The track really suits him; all the distances are great for him. He’s little – just 15.2hh – but he does have a massive step when he wants to. I don’t think there’s anything out there that I’m really scratching my head about but it’s difficult enough for sure, and the last water is very difficult. I’m last out for the US, and I’ll be remembering all the things I’ve done when I go into the start box – that’s what my coach always says, because I can be pretty hard on myself.”

Matilda Piovani (Individual for Italy: 7th place with Born West on 30.2)

“It’s a challenging course, and a really big one, and I also just have one horse at this level, so it’s only the second year for me at four-star. I don’t do as many of these courses as some of the other riders might do, so it’s probably the biggest course I’ll ever have ridden, and also for my horse. I know he’ll try his best for me, and I’ll try to ride him as good as possible.”

Nicolas Müller (Individual for Hungary: 33rd place with Mandoble on 39.4)

“It’s a tough track, with big everything. I think it should suit him, though. He’s a very galloping horse, and so I hope he should be eating up the track quite well. He can sometimes be a bit spooky or go a bit spooky on me, so I’m hoping he’ll just trust me enough to get over all the big jumps and the waters and everything like that. But I think it should be a lot of fun out there.”

Olivia Dutton (Team USA: 26th place with Jewelent on 35.8)

“The course is tough, but it’s fair. I walked it and I was like, ‘I really like this course!’ I think he did a really good job designing it. It’s going to cause some problems, and you’re going to have to react quickly.”

Brooke Dougall (Individual for Australia: 28th place with My Locky on 36.3)

“The course is very tough, but I didn’t expect anything else, being a championship. I think they’ve been very kind to us with a few options out there. But honestly, I just have to trust my partnership with him and just have to ride him on the day.”

The top ten at the culmination of dressage in the FEI U25 World Championships at Millstreet.

The team leaderboard at the culmination of dressage.

FEI Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet, presented by Connolly’s Red Mills: Website | Live Stream | Entries & Scoring | EN’s Coverage

Calvin Böckmann Retains Lead; Jasmine Underwood Best of Friday at Under-25 World Championships

By Tilly Berendt on Jul 24, 2026 3:02 pm -

Hey EN, a quick note before the cross-country preview:

Following other losses in our sport, EN has undertaken the following protocol:

Our thoughts are with all of those affected by these losses and we work for a safe sport in everything we do. We thank you for your understanding.

Anyone affected is encouraged to seek support through the British Eventing Support Trust Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 07780 008877.

____________________________________________________________________

Jasmine Underwood and Indian Girl G. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“I’m getting a bit nervous,” admitted Germany’s Calvin Böckmann, the day one leader and under-25 World Number One, as he sat in ringside in the grass watching today’s competitors produce their tests. The primary focus of his concern? Great Britain’s Jasmine Underwood and Indian Girl G, the 2024 Young Rider European Champions, who made such a potent impression that he kept their score sheet up on his phone, analysing and assessing each mark as it came in.

It was a close run thing, but in the end, a couple of teensy-weensy lost marks meant that the German rider could breathe a little easier. He and Altair de la Cense will retain first place going into cross-country on a score of 27.6, followed by Ireland’s Jenny Kuehnle and Sammy Davis Junior, who also came forward in the Thursday line-up and put themselves into second place with their 29.2.

Jasmine, for her part, will sit third overnight on a 29.3, at the business end of a leaderboard that’s so tightly packed that just 15.6 penalties covers all 39 competitors.

“She’s quite reliable and quite professional, and she knows what she needs to do in the ring,” says 21-year-old Jasmine of the thirteen-year-old mare, who she bought via the late Caroline Moore as a seven-year-old.

It hasn’t always been plain sailing, though.

“She’s taken me from BE100 [US Training] to CCI4*-L so far, but in the beginning it was a bit of a rocky start, and it took a while for us to form a partnership. She used to bolt around the arena at home, and my dad would be like, ‘we need to sell her.’ But I was determined. I think sometimes you just know, deep down. I don’t think there was any one particular thing I saw in her, I just knew.”

These days, she says, “we have such a great partnership, and we’re on the same page – it’s like we know each other’s thoughts, and I absolutely adore her. She’s my one in a million horse, and I’m so grateful to have her. She’s the angel of the stables, and pretty much the perfect horse.”

Meeting your own expectations as a rider in a highly-pressurised situation is no mean feat, but happily, that’s exactly what Jasmine and her mare did today.

“I’m really pleased with the test she did, and I’d say it’s about where she is,” says Jasmine. “She’s come on so much in the last few years in this phase, and I think she just keeps getting better and better and building on it more with the harder movements in these four-star tests. I’m particularly pleased with how the changes came off – she’s getting really good at them.”

Godfrey Gibbons and Ballyvillane OBOS. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“This is the first time Irish people have done good dressage, isn’t it?” quipped Godfrey Gibbons, who will start cross-country in fourth place on a score of 29.9 with the thirteen-year-old Ballyvillane OBOS. That result also propels the Irish team into the overnight lead – which, okay, yes, is a bit of a rarity for a country that’s so often a leaderboard-climbing entity.

Now, though, they really give their fellow nations something to worry about, while Godfrey, who recently finished a stint based in the UK as stable rider for Tom Jackson, continues to put himself on the map as one of the swiftly rising stars of the future.

Unlike many of his competitors this week, Godfrey is still in the process of getting to know his horse, who he rides for Richard Ames.

“I’ve only been riding him for six or seven months, but he’s done a good bit [with former rider Robbie Kearns] and he’s a very, very honest horse,” says 22-year-old Godfrey. “He always tries so hard, and he’s done great work at home all the way leading up to here and at his events prior. It was nice to just keep that consistent and be able to pull off what we knew he could do.”

The pair come to this event off the back of a tenth place finish in their first CCI4*-S together at the same venue in May, and before that, a decisive victory in the CCI3*-L at Ballindenisk in April.

“It’s been so easy to learn the buttons to him, because he’s always trying so hard,” says Godfrey. “So this is a great starting block – normally, as a country, we’d always be a bit behind on the first day. But it’s a long weekend, so we won’t be getting ahead of ourselves, but it’s great to get that off, for sure.”

France’s Lisa Gualtieri moves down from overnight third to fifth place on her Thursday result of 30 with A d’Aunis.

Cassie Sanger and Fernhill Zoro. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

British-based US rider Cassie Sanger has always been the very picture of cool composure, and like her trainer, Great Britain’s Ros Canter, it’s rare to catch her in a wave of emotion.

But when it comes to eighteen-year-old Fernhill Zoro, she has to catch herself so as not to cry in the mixed zone.

“I’ve known him since I was twelve – he’s so special to me,” Cassie says. “I was at a small barn with a group of amateurs and Alice Roosevelt, who’d bought him from Carol Gee [of Fernhill Sport Horses]. He was Alice’s Young Rider horse, and I was twelve and she was sixteen, and I always thought he was the most special horse in the barn. It was just his nature, and his personality, and the way he looks at you.”

Most of us have been a horse-mad kid who idolises the best horse in the barn, but few get the chance to have that horse for their own. But that’s exactly what happened for Cassie when Alice headed off to university.

“He was her horse of a lifetime, and she never wanted to sell him, so she called me one day and said, ‘would you ride Zoro?’ It was very much right place, right time, and since then, he’s taken me through all the levels, from my first FEI win to my first three-star, my first four-star. He’s taken me around the world, so he’s very special to me.”

The pair were second in the Under-25 CCI4*-L at Bramham, the last time the class was held at the long format, and after sitting out 2025, Zoro returns for his bid at a title that would make a fitting bookend to a career that’s seen him finish in the top ten in seventeen of his 28 FEI starts.

The pair’s 30.2, which sees them take overnight sixth place, is a good start: they’re less than three penalties off the lead, and a tenth of a penalty off their four-star personal best of 30.1.

“He’s very good on the flat, but I would say I’ve struggled in the last little bit with things like those little marks you throw away with straightness, and things that are really up to the rider to fix,” says Cassie. “His way of going is lovely, so it’s really up to me, and that’s why I had to put a lot of pressure on myself in the lead-up to today – because I knew a good bit of it was going to just come down to me riding well and eking out every mark I could get.”

The result, though, is a test that “was the best he’s ever felt in his career with me – and to do that at eighteen years old is pretty special.”

Matilda Piovani and Born West. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“It’s a little bit of a surprise,” laughs Italy’s Matilda Piovani, moments after posting a 30.2 and taking seventh place on the leaderboard with the charismastic Born West.

For one thing, she points out, “it’s a windy day – and my horse is really hot in the dressage phase, so it’s also a difficult balance.”

But also, “it’s 40 degrees [Celsius] right now in Italy, so for my horse this weather is really fresh. But I wanted to do a good test, because I know that we can.”

Though the pair have plenty of experience together, including placings at four-star and a top-ten finish at the 2021 Young Rider European Championships, breaking the 30 barrier at this level has thus far eluded them – and often, their scores at four-star have been in the upper end of the thirties. But today, it all came together when it counted.

“I know him really well because I made him,” says Matilda. “We’ve been together for ten years now, so we know each other really well. I know what to do to keep him calm, and so does my dressage trainer, who’s in Italy right now but helped me warm up over Facetime.”

25-year-old Matilda is a one-horse rider and a university student in the middle of an economics degree, and balancing a non-horsey career with riding at the top level is how she hopes to continue her journey in the sport. There is, she reckons, no better partner in this goal than Born West, who is “so kind – he always tries his best for me, and he has so much heart. He’s like a dog on the ground, and at the same time as he’s a top sport horse, he’s also a horse my mother and boyfriend can ride around at home.”

Barnie Brotherton and DHI King Nelson. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Great Britain’s individual competitors Barnie Brotherton and DHI King Nelson were our first pair in the ring in today’s competition, and as such, our first impact-making pair of the day. They posted a 30.3 – just a whisper above their four-star personal best of 28.2 – to take eighth place going into cross-country.

Though the pair have previously represented Great Britain on the victorious Nations Cup team at Bicton a year ago, and have been to a Young Rider European Championships, too, their omission from the team doesn’t come as much of a surprise: the gelding, at just eleven, has proven both his talent and his unpredictability, and as the pair learn the ropes at the upper levels, their results have fluctuated between very competitive placings and non-completions, without much middle ground.

This year, they’ve also had a tricky lead-up to this week, wherein they hope to turn their fortunes around.

“I only had two runs at the start of the year before I broke my arm,” says Barnie. “That put me on the sidelines for six weeks, and I may have taken the cast off early to get back to ride at Bramham CCI4*-S. That was a bit of a test because obviously I hadn’t been able to do much.”

Today, he says, “I didn’t quite prep the movements that I wanted and how I know I could. He was great, and a bit more relaxed than usual, actually, which maybe took away a bit of the activity, but I’m really happy with him.”

Nicholas Holbeck and Chintano 7. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The final German team rider, Nicholas Goldbeck, chose the perfect moment to score his four-star personal best with the fourteen-year-old Chintano 7. Their 31.6 put them firmly into ninth place individually, and helps the German team to a close second place provisionally.

“That could be worse for sure,” laughs Nicholas.

Unlike his teammates, the 25-year-old isn’t a professional rider, and just rides the one horse – a partnership that’s ten years in the making.

“I work at a company that sells heat pumps, and then I’m really just concentrated on Chintano, because I think if I have more horses and I’m also working, the time would get shorter and I’d have less time to work with each horse – so he gets all the attention instead,” grins Nico. “He’s truly my best friend, and I’m really happy to be here with him.”

The top ten is rounded out by France’s Clara Cazeneuve and Dolce Gabana, who produced a 31.7 yesterday and remain the best of the fifth-placed French team.

Olivia Dutton and Jewelent. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The five-strong national leaderboard has seen some major changes today, but remains remarkably tight: less than ten penalties separate first-placed Ireland from last-placed France.

Day one’s leaders, the US team, now find themselves in fourth going into cross-country, though just over six penalties behind Ireland, and the drop score at this early juncture is that of Olivia Dutton and Jewelent, who put a 35.8 on the board to sit close behind their teammates and 26^th individually.

“It wasn’t our best test, but I was happy with him,” says Olivia. “It’s a big ask to come into this arena, and he was a little bit tense and nervous, so I just tried to hold his hand. Our entry wasn’t great, and we had to kind of build it up after that.”

But, she says of the 14-year-old full brother to Cooley Rosalent, “he’s just incredible, and he always tries so hard – almost too hard, sometimes!”

The gelding was originally produced by Ireland’s Clare Abbott, who rode him to five-star before Olivia’s father, Phillip, took the reins in 2024. In the latter half of last year, Olivia inherited him, and after several runs at three-star, they moved back up to four-star earlier this season.

“We’re still getting to know each other, but we kind of instantly clicked,” says Olivia. “He’s been around and he definitely knows his job, so I’m just really lucky to be partnered with him. The owners and my dad thought it might be a good idea for me to take the ride, and that he might suit me, and I do think he’s a little bit more of a girl’s ride. I’d ridden him a bit when he was my dad’s horse, and we always got along, so it was a pretty easy switchover. I’m just really thankful for his owners, for supporting that.”

Tomorrow’s cross-country phase begins at 12.00 p.m. local time (7.00 a.m. EST) and will be live-streamed in full by ClipMyHorse. We’ll be bringing you a closer look at the hilly, beautifully dressed course designed by Mike Etherington-Smith, very soon. Until then: Go Eventing.

The top ten at the culmination of dressage in the FEI U25 World Championships at Millstreet.

The team leaderboard at the culmination of dressage.

FEI Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet, presented by Connolly’s Red Mills: Website | Live Stream | Entries & Scoring | EN’s Coverage

Hot Favourite Takes Early Lead with Comeback Queen on Day One of Under-25 World Championships

By Tilly Berendt on Jul 23, 2026 6:00 pm -

Hey EN, a quick note before today’s report:

Following other losses in our sport, EN has undertaken the following protocol:

Our thoughts are with all of those affected by these losses and we work for a safe sport in everything we do. We thank you for your understanding.

Anyone affected is encouraged to seek support through the British Eventing Support Trust Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 07780 008877.

____________________________________________________________________

Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“I feel relieved, mostly,” admits 25-year-old Calvin Böckmann, one of two match-race favourites for the gold medal at this week’s inaugural FEI World Championship for Under-25s, held at Ireland’s Millstreet International Horse Trials.

That welcome exhalation comes after a job well done in the ring: he and the sixteen-year-old Altair de la Cense lead the first day of dressage here in Co. Cork, on a 27.6 that represents the Selle Français mare’s best-ever score at four-star.

“I’ve had her for ten years now, and it’s kind of cute, because [these days] we totally get to see another side of her,” says Calvin, who rides the mare for his brothers, Jason and Liam, and mother Simone, who own her in tandem. “Now, I don’t really warm her up for more than ten minutes; these past years, I was trying and trying, like the German I am, to gain every single point I could. But this year I’ve been taking it so chill with her, and she’s absolutely loving it.”

It will be, no doubt, some small consolation for missing out on the senior World Championships next month, which Calvin – who was Germany’s travelling reserve for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and represented his country at last year’s European Championships at Blenheim Palace – is “heartbroken” to be missing out on this year.

“To be honest, on the one side it kind of breaks my heart not to be able to ride at the Worlds with Phanty [The Phantom of the Opera, with whom he’s previously represented Team Germany],” says Calvin. “But on the other side, being here with this horse now means the world to me, because we’ve really come the whole way together, beginning at one-star level and coming up to the championships now.”

The partnership, which began in 2017 after the former Pony European Champion graduated to horses, hasn’t been without its ups and downs – but it’s these hurdles along the way that have bolstered Calvin’s fierce love for the little mare. They were top ten finishers individually at the Junior European Championships in 2018 and 2019; as the step up to Young Riders loomed, Calvin was told time and time again that he’d need to find a different, better horse for the next level. He persevered; was selected; stepped up again to four-star, in 2022, and won Strzegom’s CCI4*-L on his and the mare’s debut at the level.

Two more placings at four-star confirmed the result was no fluke, and the pair were selected to represent Germany at CHIO Aachen in 2023 – the most prestigious competition of the level in the world. Here, the wheels fell off the bus, and horse and rider fell on cross-country, denting sensitive Ali’s confidence.

Calvin opted to step her right back down the levels to two-star in a bid to build her bravery back up. But she kept on stopping. He opted to end her season early in 2023, allowing her to rest and regroup without pressure. Most of the German eventing circle figured the mare was done, would never again come good.

But in 2024 she returned rejuvenated. That season, the pair only finished outside the top ten once – and that was an 11^th place finish – and closed the year with eighth in a huge field at Boekelo CCIO4*-L. Last year, they had a lighter but just as competitive season, placing in every international they started except CHIO Aachen, where they delivered a steady, confidence-boosting run to finish double-clear and just outside the top twenty.

Now, Ali has found herself at a World Championship that feels tailormade to show off what the pair have built together.

“I’m kind of here to have a good time,” grins Calvin. “I want to try to give Ali the best run that I can. She’s not a horse who loves hills the most, and I think it’s going to be challenging enough condition wise. But it means a lot to be here. I think it’s very special for younger riders to have competitions like this; it does feel like a proper, proper championship to me, and that’s why I’m here to give it a proper go.”

Jennifer Kuehnle and Sammy Davis Jr. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Ireland’s Jenny Kuehnle sits second overnight with the only other sub-30 score of the day: a smart 29.2, earned with the seventeen-year-old Sammy Davis Junior, formerly the ride of Jenny’s partner, Cathal Daniels.

“Sammy Davis Junior and I have been partners for a few years now, and this is our second championship,” says Jenny, who piloted the son of Imperial Hights around the 2022 FEI Young Rider European Championships for individual fourth and team bronze.

That multi-year partnership has also encompassed a few five-star starts: they were clear around an underwater Pau in 2024 and 8^th at Luhmühlen the same year. In all that experience gained together since she took the reins in 2021, though, they had never managed to crack the 30 barrier – until this season, when they put a 29.9 on the board in the CCI4*-S at Kronenberg last month.

“I’m really pleased with him today,” says Jenny. “We had one little mistake but he was really good as always, and I can’t fault him. He always tries really hard.”

Sammy is, says first-time pathfinder Jenny, “the monkey of the stable – he has to be involved in everything, and he loves attention. He’s definitely the favourite, even if we’re not meant to have them!”

France’s Lisa Gualtieri holds overnight third with the sixteen-year-old A d’Aunis on a 30, which must be a balm for the soul after a tense start to the competition saw them held in yesterday’s first horse inspection. But for Lisa, it’s all about looking ahead, and enjoying the ride with her long-time partner.

One of the things that’s been so heartening about this event so far has been the longevity of the partnerships – there are no horses here who were bought with this competition in mind, and the majority of the riders we spoke to throughout the day have climbed the levels with their ride here, learning along the way and creating the foundations of the top-level careers they’ll have with the superstars yet to set foot in their stable. They know their quirks, their weirdnesses, their likes and dislikes, and over and over again, we heard the same sentiments: they owe us nothing, I want them to have fun, I do things like this because that’s how they like it.

Lisa and A d’Aunis are no different. 23-year-old Lisa gives the gelding a very short warm-up because six years together mean she knows he prefers that – “I trust that he knows his job, and anyway, he’s not the craziest one I’ve got,” she laughs – and it’s clear that they take a huge amount of confidence from one another both in the ring and outside of it.

“We know each other very well now,” she says. “When I was ending my pony years we bought him, and then we were nearly directly into Covid, so we got just one year to become together. But we did the Junior Championship, we did twice the Young Rider Europeans [including taking an individual silver medal in 2024], and then we started our first Senior year and did a Nations Cup for France, so we’ve set a lot of milestones together.”

France finds themselves in a very close second place in the team standing after today’s competition, which saw the first two rider rotations come forward to the dressage ring. While Lisa and A d’Aunis are competing as individuals this week, overnight fourth-placed Clara Cazeneuve and Dolce Gabana, who posted a competitive 31.7, lead the charge for the tricolour as France makes an early bid for a podium finish.

Marçal Piro Patau and Eventing de Fay. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Spain has just two riders in the hunt in this year’s inaugural championship, and both tackled their tests today on nearly matching rangy greys – but it was the penultimate rider of the day, Marçal Piro Patau, who made the biggest impact on the leaderboard. He and the aptly-named Eventing de Fay, a twelve-year-old Selle Français, earned a 32.2 – by far their best score at this level since the horse’s step up last season.

“I just feel so lucky to come inside this arena,” says Marçal, who returns to Ireland after a stint based in Ennis a few years ago on a jumping yard. “The horses are a bit tired down there [in the warm-up], and then they come up and see the arena here and get quite fresh again. So I’m very happy that my horse did a good job, and that we did quite a good test for what we were expecting.”

Marçal, who recently graduated with a double degree in Computer Science and Business Management, has his biggest fan by his side this week: his father, the family’s first horse lover, whose two sons diverged athletically as children. While Marçal’s brother tried a bit of dressage before ultimately committing to football as his sport of choice, the boys’ father was thrilled when Marçal showed an interest in going further with his riding – and this week at Millstreet, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone filling their phone’s camera roll up quite as committedly as him.

“He really tried that I liked horses, and if I fell off the ponies, he was the first one who took me back there,” laughs Marçal. “If I’ve ridden 1000 hours, he’s been there supporting me for 1001. That’s why this whole thing is going so well.”

Amy Rose Frühwirth and Gin Tonic 150. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The last rider of the day, Austria’s Amy Rose Frühwirth, is her country’s sole representative this week – but the central European nation is one that’s used to sending high-performing solo flyers to major events. The most prominent example of that, of course, is Olympian Lea Siegl; it’s hardly a coincidence that Amy Rose’s long-term trainer is Lea’s father, Harald.

The credit for the patience that earned her overnight sixth place and a score of 32.7 with Gin Tonic 150, though, is entirely her own. The fourteen-year-old Trakehner had suffered a loss of confidence in the first phase while competing in the Junior European Championships at Hartpury, where they ultimately scored a 47.6 – and in the four years since that day, Amy Rose has been chipping away at helping him believe that there’s a safe space between the boards again.

“He got so scared there – he freaked completely out because the ring beside me finished before me and the crowd clapped and he went crazy,” she says. “Since then, he can go crazy if there’s music or anything. But today he really behaved great; I was so surprised and happy.”

The key, she says, is “just time. And magnesium! I’ve tried everything. I don’t go around the arena [before the bell rings], I just work him on a circle at the front or the side [and keep him focused]. It’s a relief, today.”

Millstreet’s uniquely enormous arena no doubt offered some help here – there’s a huge amount of space on either side to work in the moments before the test. But fundamentally, it’s four years of patience, and four years of love, that have culminated in a peak at the perfect moment.

Alice Casburn and Topspin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Overnight seventh place is the domain of the other partnership in that match race for the win: Great Britain’s Alice Casburn and Topspin, who have been to more British five-stars than most of us have had hot dinners, and who are perhaps the ultimate pony novel story in a field that’s chock full of feel-good trajectories.

Alice, whose mother, Caroline, bred Topspin from a mare she’d taken to Advanced – and the grandmother, too – knew that she wouldn’t be vying for the lead at this stage of the game with the rangy gelding, who is one of the best cross-country horses in the field and arguably the best showjumper, too. Probably, their 33.3 is about bang-on what they’d have been aiming for – but all those details sort of seem to pale into insignificance when Alice is asked, quite innocently, what the gelding means to her.

Once she wipes the tears away, she’s able to put the partnership into words.

“He’s done Juniors, Young Riders, and five-star, and now this,” she says. “He owes us absolutely nothing, but it really is fantastic to have him feeling so well and just so excited to still be out. There’s not many horses you can say completely put your name on the map, but he’s done exactly that for me. He feels as good at eighteen as he has any other year; he’s got a big bum on him, and when I got him off the lorry his eyes were on stalks. He’s so excited to be here, but what he’s done for me, I honestly can’t put into words.”

“I do,” admits Alice, “feel pressure here this week. But at the same time, I sort of don’t, because at the end of the day he’s a fantastic horse. He’s not your flashiest, biggest mover, but he tries so hard every single time, and today, I just wanted to put a middle of the road clear round on the board to help set the team up.”

Her score joins the 38.3 posted by British pathfinders Tom Bird and Lenny to put the team in fifth place of five at the moment, but tactics abound: tomorrow sees the line-up’s dressage heavyweights come forward to propel them up the very tightly-packed national leaderboard.

Meg Pellegrini and DonDante. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

On the other end of the team results spectrum, both of the USA’s Thursday representatives made it into the top ten, which means that the US team sits in first place at this early juncture of the competition.

Best of the two by a very small margin is Meg Pellegrini, who put a 33.3 on the board with the former Will Coleman ride Dondante to share seventh place with Alice and Topspin.

“I’m thrilled because he walked, and that’s not something he always does,” laughs Meg. “That was my biggest takeaway! Honestly, though, I’m happy with everything – he was so relaxed. This is a perfect atmosphere for him because he likes the crowd, and it’s nice to then come in here and just feel a little bit settled. He’s such a good old-timer – every time I come into the arena with him it puts a smile on my face.”

She’s not alone in having a smile on her face. For Dondante, who competed at five-star with Will, his second career with Meg has been perhaps his best era yet.

“He’s been so good to me,” smiles Meg. “I call him Coach, because of how much he’s taught me. We’ve only been together since the end of 2024; he was coming back from a break after Maryland 5*, and Will was sort of unsure if it would be the best call to bring him back to the level.”

Meg, who had recently moved her string of horses to the Coleman’s yard, was offered the ride “as an Intermediate/three-star horse. I was like, ‘of course, that sounds great!’ I didn’t have a tonne of horses, and he was like, the most perfect creature to me. I’d only really seen him in the field, and then they bring him in and he’s this dragon. I just loved him from the get-go, and even though we weren’t ever going to go beyond three-star, he just kept showing up. He kept getting better and better and sounder and younger and everything. I think he really likes having a girl, and he really likes being the focus. He and I are just kind of buds, and I respect him so much.”

Quidley Kellerman and Blakeneys Cruise. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just behind her, in tenth place and on a 33.6, is US pathfinder Quidley Kellerman and Blakeneys Cruise. There was a horrifying moment about three minutes ago when I realised that adding the nine-year-old horse’s age to the twenty-year-old rider’s age still didn’t come close to my age, and frankly, I’m going to have to wrap this report up soon and go process that – but suffice it to say that the pair in tandem have been prodigies, really, as they’ve climbed the levels together. But prodigies in a head down, work hard, don’t shout too much about it kind of way, which makes Quidley seem unbelievably normal for a girl who got a horse to the Young Horse World Championships when she was just seventeen.

That year, too, she packed her bags and left her hometown to move to the UK, where she’s been based with Australia’s Kevin McNab ever since.

“It’s quite special, and I’ve had loads of support along the way,” says Quidley, who hails from Texas. “You end up growing up quite quickly, but to have everyone around me supporting me from afar and close obviously makes it a bit easier. I’ve adjusted along the way, got loads of experience, and found my way through – and Poncho and I have kind of grown up together, so it’s pretty special.”

Their test today was sweet and workmanlike, and although Poncho is among the youngest horses in the field, he was unruffled by the huge arena and buzzy surroundings.

“It’s always just about getting him a positive experience, because he’s young, but then I’m obviously on the team so trying to produce the best result possible, too,” says Quidley. “We’re all working together this week, and I did think that for him, that was quite good – a nice smooth test to start the week off.”

Konstantin Harting and Botswana 4. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Sandwiched between those two high-flying American riders is German individual competitor Konstantin Harting, who also piloted a nine-year-old to a smart day one finish. He and Botswana 4 close out the day in ninth place on 33.4 – a huge result for a horse who hasn’t always found this phase easy.

“She’s very special – actually, in a few different ways in the dressage,” says Konstantin with a grin. “She was super in the trot work; I had a glimpse of the board and saw she was trending below 30, which is quite cool as she’s new at this level. The canter work is a bit green, so we lost a few marks there, but I’m delighted. I think it’s a personal best for us at this level, and it’s a cool place to pull that off.”

In order to help the sharp mare manage her surroundings, Konstantin held her back in the collecting ring while the rider before him finished their test. Once the applause subsided, he hacked up the chute and through the small barn that acts as an entry into the arena, accompanied by his groom.

“For horses like this, it’s quite a difficult entrance, because it’s narrow and there’s an archway, and then they look out to this big arena. She was quite tense going in, but then she was actually pretty cool in the arena.”

Konstantin has had the mare for five years now, and rides alongside his job working for Aachen, where he’s part of the cross-country team.

“It makes me a bit emotional, to be honest,” he says. “I got her as a four-year-old from her owner, who’s here today, and she’s always been special – but also mighty. It took some time for us to get to know each other, and I’ve produced her myself, so to pull off a four-star dressage test when I haven’t done lots of myself, makes me pretty proud. She’s all quality, and I think she’s a proper horse for the future.”

US individuals Jack Curtis and Luska Candy Clover and Molly Duda and Disco Traveller narrowly missed out on top ten places, scoring a 35.2 for 11^th and a 35.6 for 13^th, respectively, while Canada’s German-based Kyle Morton posted a 41.9 with Shannondale Gambit to take 20^th overnight.

Tomorrow sees us head into the second half of the class with a further twenty horses and riders to come forward. It all kicks off at 14.00 local time (9.00 a.m. EST), and can be live-streamed via ClipMyHorse.TV. We’ll be back with all the stories you need to know – and in the meantime, Go Eventing.

The individual top ten at the end of day one of dressage.

The team standings after the first two rider rotations in the FEI Under-25 World Championships.

FEI Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet, presented by Connolly’s Red Mills: Website | Live Stream | Entries & Scoring | EN’s Coverage

Two Held; All Accepted in Inaugural Under-25 World Championships First Horse Inspection

By Tilly Berendt on Jul 22, 2026 10:53 am -

France’s Nicola Rupi and Azur de Casteras. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We’re coming to you this week from Co. Cork, Ireland, where Millstreet International Horse Trials is hosting the first-ever FEI World Eventing Championship for Under-25s. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of the competition, we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the unique discomfort of being at an event right now.

Just a handful of days has passed since the tragic passing of Sophie Fouracre and Kerry Donoghue, both of whom died in cross-country accidents at British events. Four days is not enough time to process, to grieve, to regroup; those who have lost loved ones will readily tell you that four years would barely scratch the surface. At EN, we can do our best to reduce the relentlessness of the news cycle by easing back on coverage and allowing space for these stories, and the memories of these much-loved women, to breathe; what we cannot do is slow the ongoing march of the season. There is no doubt that we all need to pause and to mourn. The inherent restlessness of sport doesn’t allow for that.

So it’s particularly important to us to make sure that every day, while we honour our commitments to our readers, to the sponsors, and to the riders and their teams who have worked so tirelessly to get to this momentous occasion, we also sit with the absurdity of it carrying on with it at all. Kerry and Sophie’s deaths are not just another news story, nor are they simply a milestone in the ongoing development of the sport. Theirs are two lives that were unique and irreplicable. They were two women who were once little girls who loved ponies; they were mothers, daughters, friends, wives; they had hopes, dreams, fears, wonderful attributes, bad habits, charms, foibles – all the ephemera and complexity of human life when it is lived completely. The cruelty of their loss, and the immense pain it will cause for so many people who cared for them, doesn’t expire or fade into the background just because another event has begun.

Our focus this week, therefore, will be, yes, on the competition itself as usual – but also on community, and the people within our sport who are at their best when banding together to prop one another up. This year’s championship season will be, more than ever, both a communal coming-together in mourning but also a squeeze of the hand, a reminder of why it is we keep forging on. Within that there will be investigations and recalibrations and necessary reflections on how our sport can improve; for now, it’s just as crucial that there’s space and time.

We will be sharing some resources at the beginning of every report this week, which are available to support you as needed in the aftermath of Kerry and Sophie’s passing.

Anyone affected is encouraged to seek support through the British Eventing Support Trust Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 07780 008877. You can also access support via Riders Minds, which offers live text support, a helpline, and a web chat. Look after one another, too – check in, reach out, and lean on the community.

Germany’s Calvin Böckmann, who is ranked Number One in the FEI Under-25 world rankings, with Altair de la Cense. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

40 horse and riders presented for the first inspection here at Millstreet, which was overseen by Ground Jury President James Rooney of Ireland, as well as the USA’s Robyn Fisher and Great Britain’s Angela Tucker. Those 40 partnership represent fourteen nations, five of which will field teams this week: Great Britain, the USA, Germany, Ireland, and France.

Lisa Gaultieri and A d’Aunis. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

But it was that latter team that had the most day-one stress to contend with. Two of the country’s six squad members were sent to the holding box; both, after a tense re-presentation and some deliberation, were happily accepted into the competition. They were Lisa Gualtieri and A d’Aunis, her own sixteen-year-old Selle Français, with whom she won individual silver in 2024’s FEI Young Rider European Championships, and Verane Nicaud and Eau Vive de Brenne AA, a twelve-year-old daughter of Upsilon, who makes her debut for France with Verane, a team gold medallist at last year’s Young Rider Europeans.

Great Britain’s experienced five-star partnership, Alice Casburn and Topspin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

After those two hitches, though, it was all plain sailing for our competitors, and the full cohort will now proceed into the first phase, which kicks off tomorrow at 14.00 local time (that’s 9.00 a.m. EST, which feels like a much more sociable wake-up call than we usually drop on you from this side of the pond). We’re still awaiting the release of the starting order to see who our pathfinder will be, which will be contingent on how the individual riders are slotted in with the team riders, but in the meantime we do have the nations’ draw, which sees the teams go as follows:

Great Britain
USA
France
Ireland
Germany

Olivia Dutton and Jewelent for the USA. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Before we can even think about dressage, though, we’re heading back out for this evening’s opening ceremony, which will kick off at 18.00 in the main arena and take a tour through the village of Millstreet before returning to the venue for a proper little Irish shindig. Keep an eye on our Instagram account for a glimpse of the fun; we’ll be back tomorrow with plenty more coverage from this exciting inaugural championship.

Go Eventing.

FEI Under-25 World Championships at Millstreet, presented by Connolly’s Red Mills: Website | Live Stream | Entries & Scoring | EN’s Coverage

A Happy Hacker Becomes a Double Five-Star Winner: Caroline Harris and D. Day Blitz Luhmühlen Win

By Tilly Berendt on Jun 21, 2026 4:08 pm -

Caroline Harris and D. Day. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Luhmühlen may boast one of – if not the – toughest showjumping courses at the five-star level, but you’d never have guessed it to watch the top three in today’s finale.

All three of our post cross-country frontrunners – Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley in third, Emily King and Valmy Biats in second, and Caroline Harris and D. Day in first – delivered fault-free rounds inside the tight 87-second time to hold onto their places, giving us a podium packed with redemption stories.

For Caroline, victory looked just about sewn up before the day even started: her little gelding, the son of Pippa and William Funnell’s showjumping sire Billy Mexico, has the kind of jumping record that must be making team selectors weak at the knees. He hasn’t had a rail down in any FEI event in three solid years – but of course, anything can happen at this level, and after romping home eighteen seconds inside the time over yesterday’s track, he could have come out feeling a touch weary in today’s similarly scorching heat.

None of that sort of thing, though: now, the 12-year-old gelding and his enormously hard-working rider are double five-star winners, despite this never really having been the intention at all for this horse. He was bred by Fiona Olivier – who is still one of the horse’s bevy of owners, alongside Lucy Matthews, Marie Anne Richardson, and Heather Royle – to be a happy hacker for Fiona’s son’s then-girlfriend; when the relationship fizzled out, Fiona decided to send the four-year-old to Caroline. Caroline’s initial impression? That this might be the sort of horse she could produce to be a very sweet Juniors horse. But as he embarked upon his education, with a rider who was well on her way to becoming known as a seriously good producer of young horses, he just kept on delivering.

“I never thought this horse would be a five-star horse, and now he’s won twice, so I take that back – I take it all back,” laughs Caroline.

Caroline Harris and D. Day. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This is a third start at the level for the gelding, who made his five-star debut – and Caroline’s – here in 2024, finishing twelfth and learning an enormous amount as he did so. Later on that season, the then-ten-year-old made a tough Pau in famously aquatic conditions look like child’s play to win on his second start.

But in 2025, Caroline and D. Day suffered a shake-up in form in perhaps the most visible of places. They were selected to ride for Great Britain at the FEI European Championships on home soil but, like several of their compatriots, failed to complete the cross-country after a rider fall.

It’s a moment that has dogged Caroline, and one she’s been determined to course correct.

“I just wanted to put right what we did wrong at Blenheim last year, and I think he’s definitely done that,” she says.

Caroline Harris and D. Day. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Even at her lowest ebb, Caroline never lost faith in the little horse that never quits.

“He’s just all heart. He’ll give me a thousand percent every time I ride him. He’s not the most naturally talented, but he gives you absolutely everything.”

But, she laughs, “I still doubt myself every day, so it’s quite nice to prove that Pau wasn’t a fluke.”

As the daughter of non-horsey parents, Caroline didn’t grow up with ponies as a prerequisite, and it was only after moving out of London at the age of ten that she picked up riding, almost entirely because her sister was keen on the idea. When she caught the bug and wanted to pursue a competitive career, it was a case of doing things the slow, steady, and hard way: finding yards to work on and riders to base with, and laying down the Lego blocks of a foundation that would see her step up to this level at 34.

“[If I could go back fifteen years I’d tell myself] just to keep going – to be determined, and that the harder you work, the more things will happen,” she says.

When winning Pau, the pair made a spectacular climb from 22^nd after dressage to first place after cross-country thanks to a round that ended up being the fastest of the day. This week, they didn’t have quite as huge of a mountain to scale: their 31.1 saw them go into cross-country in fourth place, and when they were once again the fastest of the day – by nineteen remarkable, unrushed seconds – they stepped up to the top spot. They did so, though, without affording themselves a rail in hand.

That didn’t worry Caroline.

“I trust this horse implicitly, and I know he’ll give me everything as long as I ride him okay,” she says. “If I do that, then he’ll do everything he can to keep the jumps up. So I just tried to focus on getting a good canter and keeping the rhythm, and not think about winning. Like on cross-country, you can ride him quick and he really likes that, so the tighter the time, the better it is for me.”

Most riders would, perhaps, quietly hope for the rider ahead of them to have a rail and give them a bit of a cushion in pursuit of their win – but for Caroline, it was a great boon that Emily King went clear with Valmy Biats moments before, inspiring a wave of euphoria from the packed grandstands.

“D. Day loves a crowd, so when everyone starts clapping, it’s actually great for him – he’s like, ‘everyone’s here to watch me!’” she says. “So it was great to come in after Emily had jumped so well – he was buzzing. He was like, ‘yeah, okay, well now they’re watching me, so let’s show them what I can do!’”

Some winning rounds put you on the edge of your seat – tip-tap rounds by Braille; poles that bounce in cups before settling back into place; great gasping flyers and nearlies. Others are almost grounding in their precision, like everything is going to happen in exactly the way the textbooks would describe it. Caroline and D. Day’s showjumping round was the latter, and was, for the pair, yet another showcase of all the reasons why they truly belong at the top.

“My god, that horse is just something else – I couldn’t ask any more of him,” says Caroline, tearing up. “The little horse that was bred to be a happy hack has now won two five-stars!”

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Emily King and Valmy Biats have also well and truly vanquished some demons with their second place finish, which comes after a turbulent spring season for the pair. They had to abandon their early April run in the CCI4*-S at Thoresby after a crashing fall with a young horse in the showjumping warm-up left Emily with several broken ribs and a punctured lung; when she tried to rally for a prep run at Burnham Market a few weeks later ahead of Badminton, she found she couldn’t ride as effectively as normal, and they picked up 40 penalties on cross-country. When Badminton came around, and with it, the chance to try to better the fifth place finish they logged last year, it all went similarly wrong, and they completed with 40 penalties on their scorecard yet again.

But, says Emily, at seventeen-years-old, Valmy has never felt better than he does this year, and she was determined to give him the ride he deserved and rewrite the story.

“On paper he’s a little bit older, but my goodness, he feels like he’s seven,” she says. “The whole team – our team vet, Liz, the team physio, the trainers – every year they’re like, ‘he feels better and better, and younger and younger.’ He’s like Benjamin Button!”

The pair began their week on an incredible high, posting a 27 to take the lead going into yesterday’s cross-country. Once out on course, Emily found that – like so many horses yesterday – the heat of the day took a bit of the wind out of Valmy’s sails, and rather than pushing to make the time and keep her lead, she opted to ease off of him, picking up 6.8 time penalties to move down to second.

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

He wasn’t, she said after her round, “his usual liony self” – but today, the beast was most certainly back.

“In the trot-up this morning I gave him a little click and my goodness, I regretted it! He nearly bolted down the trot-up strip,” she laughs. “I think in hindsight, maybe I started half a gear down yesterday, and with the twists and the turns, it made him really respectful of the course. Normally everything’s a little bit on Val’s terms, and I have to say, ‘hello, I’m here, and I’m trying to help you!’ He was very rideable, which is a little bit different, and then today he kept the rideability but had so much energy – he was on springs.”

Emily and Valmy have historically been very good showjumpers, but this phase had also suffered this spring: they had two rails down at Badminton, one at Burnham Market, and didn’t even make it to that phase before Emily had her fall at Thoresby. That meant that she wasn’t remotely complacent about the task that lay ahead of them today – but like Caroline, she knew she was sitting on a horse who would do everything he could as long as she upheld her end of the bargain.

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“He’s so gritty – he just fights for you every day,” she says. “His heart’s incredible. He’s obviously a super athlete in his physique, but he also gets up every morning and wants to work; he loves working. In those tough moments in each phase, he just grits his teeth and gives you more. You never feel him thinking, ‘well, this is getting a bit hard.’ He just keeps fighting, and it’s such an honour to work with horses like that.”

Whoever decided 13 was an unlucky number might want to rethink: this is Emily and Val’s thirteenth five-star together, and her best result at the level yet since that fourth-place finish at Pau back in 2015, when she made her debut at the level with Brookleigh.

Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Third-placed Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley haven’t even been a partnership for long enough to have any wobbles to work back from, but the eleven-year-old gelding’s upper-level career trajectory certainly has had its own peaks and troughs.

“It’s a tragic story, really,” says Boyd. “This is the horse that Liz Halliday had her accident with, and her coaches, Eric Duvander and Peter Wylde, thought maybe it would be smarter to redirect him into a different sport after that, as a hunter-jumper. So they fattened him up and tried to jump smaller fences in a different style, and after a period of time, it became clear that that probably wasn’t going to be the answer.”

He was, he says, “on the fence about whether I wanted to take the horse, but Peter and Eric swore that this is a great, great horse, and I’m so grateful that they convinced me to take him. I’m so thankful to Liz’s owners for transferring him over. It’s a very wonderful feeling carrying on Liz’s work. I saw how hard she worked for years and years, and then to find her way onto the American team [at the Paris Olympics], and then to have her career suddenly stop… you know, I’m in the same sort of bracket as she is, and I just know how heartbreaking that would be, so it’s a real honour and privilege to continue with her horses.”

Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This week was intended as a fact-finding mission as the rangy gelding stepped up to the level, and began slightly on the back foot: a test that had “moments of brilliance and moments of disaster” put them into equal eleventh place on 35.7 after dressage. But in yesterday’s cross-country, ‘Dallas’ came into his own, and picked up just 2.4 time penalties in the third-fastest round of the day.

Today he, too, came in as a horse with an exceptional jumping record behind him, though untested at this level – Dallas hasn’t had a rail at any FEI event since early 2024. In his step up to five-star, it’s easy to see why.

“Five-star is a bit like running a marathon,” says Boyd. “There’s this part of you that just wants to finish, and then the other part of you wants to try to win this thing. It’s a huge difference in how you ride or how hard you push if you’re trying to be competitive, and I was sort of in two minds whether we should just try and get across the finishing line. But once he started off yesterday, I thought, ‘oh, screw it, let’s have a crack at it.’ He really, really showed me that champion heart that he has, and to dig deep all the way around and then to come out and jump a clear round today – I’m absolutely thrilled.”

“Obviously,” he continues, “it’s a huge effort to come all the way from America to Luhmühlen, and I’m so grateful to the owners and supporters and coaches of the horse that we gave it a whirl. I really didn’t know what to expect here – I’ve done one four-star long on him, and that was last year. He was pretty good, but this year, he’s just been brilliant in all the lead-up events. Every time we’ve competed together I’ve felt like we’ve started to click a little bit more, and then to come to Luhmühlen and finish in the top three next to these girls sort of exceeded my expectations. I really didn’t know if we’d even get through it or not, so I’m very, very proud of him, and thankful for the team around him.”

Jonelle Price and Capitaine de Hus Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Jonelle Price has been this week’s sole two-horse rider, and after every phase, both those horses found themselves in the top ten. Today, it was new ride Capitaine de Hus Z, who Jonelle took on from fellow Kiwi Ginny Thomasen at the start of 2025, who led the charge, producing a clear round with 0.8 time penalties to secure fourth place in his second five-star.

“He’s a little bit of an unknown, but I thought he showed himself off very well this week, and I’m looking forward to the next couple of years with him,” says Jonelle of the 14-year-old gelding. “He’s so talented, which I think has been a little bit of his problem – he’s almost got too much ability in all respects. He’s only a little horse, but he’s got a whole lot of stride, a whole lot of scope and power, and he’s a cocky little bugger as well. It’s harder taking them over when they’re a little bit older, too – Ginny did a super job, but it takes a bit of time to sort of make them your own, I think. It’s at least a year before they feel like they’re your own horse, but yesterday was a big stepping stone in that direction.”

Capitaine de Hus Z began the week in 7^th place on a score of 33.1, and stepped up to fifth after adding 7.2 time penalties yesterday. 2022 Pau winner Grappa Nera, always a slightly tricky proposition on the flat, acquitted herself well to earn a 35.5 and tenth place after dressage, which then became fourth place provisionally after a 4.4 penalty cross-country round. Today, though, proved a bit of a tougher day in the office, and the ordinarily one-rail horse tipped a surprise four rails to slip to a final eighth place.

Jonelle Price and Grappa Nera. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“It’s unlike her – she wouldn’t be totally reliable, but she certainly wouldn’t normally have four down,” says Jonelle. “But I can’t help but adore the mare – there’s nothing she can’t do, and if she wasn’t quite as hot as she is, she could have been a champion, she really could have. She loves what she does, and she just gets to excited about the whole thing. She’s so honest, and in terms of being pathfinder with her yesterday, I just had absolute faith in her to go out and do the job.”

Hallie Coon and Kapriccio. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Fifth place went to British-based US partnership Hallie Coon and Kapriccio, who had led Thursday’s dressage day after an expressive, correct test earned them a 27.8. This is a first five-star for the eleven-year-old Dutch Warmblood, who Hallie took on from Julia Norman last year, but he certainly didn’t look a newcomer to the level on yesterday’s cross-country, and stormed around to add 4.4 time penalties. Unfortunately, the pair also picked up 11 penalties for activating a MIM clip at the corner at 22B, which was very quick to fall from the lightest of taps on a couple of occasions.

“I’ll take that on the chin,” Hallie says. “It was my fault – the horse did everything right.”

Today, though, they wrapped their week up with a neat bow, executing a fault-free clear round to step up two places on the leaderboard and confirm to Hallie that this really is her horse of a lifetime.

“I’m awestruck by the horse,” she smiles. “I’ve never felt anything like it in my life. It’s like he didn’t do anything yesterday. I’m just really grateful – I feel like the luckiest human alive, as cheesy as it sounds, but he is everything. That’s a feeling I’ve never felt before.”

Hallie Coon and Kapriccio. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Like Caroline’s D. Day, Kapriccio is a horse who rises to an atmosphere, which is something that Hallie is learning as she continues to aim him at these bigger, buzzier, education-making venues.

“As I came into the ring the crowd absolutely erupted for the German rider before me, but he’s the weirdest horse – you get him in a situation like that and he just owns it. He thinks they’re all there for him, and he grows in front of a crowd. He loves the attention, not in a cocky way, but in a really cool way. It’s amazing to be able to go out on a five-star debutant and really feel like you can attack the showjumping – you can really ride up to a plank with him, and that’s a level of trust I’ve never had in a horse.”

On cross-country, too, she says, “my only job is making it easy for him. It’s not getting him between the flags, it’s none of that – it’s just making it easy, because I trust him so much to do it all.”

It’s evident that the young horse is a serious three-phase contender, and an exciting prospect for the US’s championship bids over the next handful of years – and, Hallie says, there’s still a lot more untapped potential in there.

“The dressage has come on leaps and bounds, and that’s after just three weeks of training with Lisa White. She really understands horses’ brains and bodies, and getting everything to work together in such a happy and truthful way, and I think that’s been so enlightening for me. So just continuing on with that, I think we’ve got so much work to be done in the dressage, and so many points to knock off still.”

And, she continues, “I know now that even at this level, when we get to minute ten on a cross-country course, I can still trust him. I wish I’d known that yesterday, of course, and I’m kicking myself a bit, but at the same time, you get so much feedback out there from horses, and what he’s given me is the best possible feedback. Next time I can go out there and trust him even more.”

Luhmühlen is always an interesting feeder event in a championship year, and while there’s no telling which way selectors of any nation will lean, this looks like a very promising partnership to develop with an eye on the world stage. But whether that ends up being a trip to Aachen this August, or a return to Boekelo in October to consolidate in another championship-feel event, Hallie isn’t about to lose the hearts from her eyes any time soon.

“He’s just the weirdest, most gentle creature you’ll ever meet,” she grins. “He’s a lovable freak. He could be a kid’s horse in his personality. He’s so kind and so special – and now, I just want to keep his best interests in mind.”

Benjamin Massie and Guess Star. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

France’s Benjamin Massie and the Upsilon daughter Guess Star finish the mare’s first five-star in sixth place after a single-rail round, which didn’t lose them any ground on the leaderboard. They’d begun their week at the very bottom of the leaderboard after a 41.7 dressage, but where the mare isn’t necessarily put together for dressage supremacy, she proved yesterday that she’s a cross-country behemoth through and through. They added just one second to the optimum time in one of the standout cross-country rounds of the day, and this is a horse that will be very, very fun to watch over some of the world’s biggest courses in seasons to come.

Katharina Meyer and Aspen T. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just one German rider was left in the hunt today, and Katharina Meyer couldn’t possibly have ended her week better: she and the sixteen-year-old Aspen T jumped a clear round with 2 time penalties to take eighth place in their first attempt at the level.

The deafening, delighted roar of the crowd came as no surprise: Katharina isn’t just the country’s sole representative here, she’s also about as local as it gets.

“My horse was born and raised here at Luhmühlen,” she says with a broad smile, just barely recovered from a great avalanche of tears. “My plan was to ride him over to the showground this week, and everybody told me, ‘no! It’s not professional!’”

Katharina Meyer and Aspen T. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Aspen T is one of just a handful of horses that Katharina has bred herself, and her admiration for the horse is limitless.

“I’m so honoured to sit next to legends like these, and I just… I can’t find the words,” she says. “I just want to say thank you to my horse. We had a ride yesterday like he’d already had a look at the cross-country map before – it was like he did it on his own, with all the right strides everywhere. He did everything that I showed him – I just kept saying we could do it, and we were going to see it through.”

James Avery and Dallas 13 take ninth place after a tricky three-rail round, while British first-timers Harry Horton and Cooley With Ambition round out the top ten.

The final standings in the 2026 Luhmühlen CCI5*.

Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

In the CCI4*-S, the win felt similarly sewn up by Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel, who began their day with a margin of 4.4 penalties over second-placed Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville.

So influential was this afternoon’s jumping that by the time they entered the ring, though, Julia only had herself to beat: she’d jumped clear earlier on in the class with the inexperienced but classy Tullabeg Platinum, which had steadily moved him up from overnight fourth to the provisional lead.

Julia Krajewski and Tullabeg Platinum. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Nickel rarely falters, though, and today he certainly didn’t. The pair jumped a clear round with 0.8 time penalties to secure the win, and to retain the German National Championship – not too shabby for a horse who, like Caroline Harris’s D. Day, was only ever intended to be a Junior horse, but just kept on showing up.

This week is a crucial stepping stone en route, hopefully, to Aachen for Nickel.

“He needs a few competitions at this level to reach his peak form, and that’s why we built his season carefully during the spring. This weekend, everything simply came together.”

Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“People might think that I’ve simply defended my title, but there are 365 days of work, training, and planning behind a result like this,” she continues. “When you see Nickel continuing to improve and ‘Pauli’ taking such a huge step forward over the past few months, that makes it incredibly special. It’s a moment to pause and really appreciate it, not just think, ‘what’s next?’”

“It feels really, really cool to win here. I’ve said it many times before – Luhmühlen is my favourite event. It has such a welcoming atmosphere, yet at the same time it is absolutely world-class.”

Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Third place went to Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K, who also jumped a clear with 0.8 time penalties to retain their position on the leaderboard after cross-country.

“I’m delighted with the whole week and with my horse,” she says. “He’s so focused and always does a fantastic job. He’s simply unstoppable and genuinely enjoys everything he does – that’s his greatest strength.”

Nadja Minder and Top Jobs Jalisco. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and Toblerone took fourth place, delivering a fault-free clear to add to their excellent round yesterday, which saw them add just 0.4 time penalties in the fastest round of the day in this class. Their weekend helped them climb from 32^nd place after the dressage, proving once again that this class is a top-calibre event of its level.

Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Fifth place went to Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville, who dropped from second after a rare rail and 1.6 time penalties.

That’s all from us – for now – from Luhmühlen, but keep your eyes peeled for plenty more to come, including a debrief episode of the Go Eventing podcast, coming to you very soon. Until next time, folks – Go Eventing.

The top ten at the close of the CCI4*-S Meßmer Trophy.

Longines Luhmühlen: [Website] [Tickets] [FEI Schedule] [Entries] [Ride Times/Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Map] [H&C+ Live Stream] [CCI5* Form Guide] [Ultimate Guide] [EN’s Coverage]

All Quiet on the Western Front at Luhmühlen CCI5* Final Horse Inspection

By Tilly Berendt on Jun 21, 2026 4:59 am -

Overnight leaders Caroline Harris and D. Day. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

One year ago, the Sunday morning final horse inspection at Luhmühlen felt like a pretty fraught endeavour – the sort of thing you watch with a gentle but unrelenting clench of the bumcheeks. Today, no such muscular endeavours: all fifteen horses who completed yesterday’s CCI5* cross-country came forward to present, and all were accepted without further ado.

There was ever so slightly more to think about in the CCI4*-S, which also necessitates a trot-up thanks to the final-day showjumping format. Two horses were held through the course of proceedings – Germany’s Anna Haag and Little Caterpillar, and New Zealand’s Dan Jocelyn and Blackthorn Cruise, who sit 38^th and 34^th, respectively, in the standings – but both were happily given the nod to complete the competition upon reinspection. Three horses, too, were withdrawn overnight: Germany’s Felix Etzel and TSF Polartanz, 12^thovernight; Australia’s Hannah Klep and Tulara Chicouve, 39^th; and the US’s Cosby Green and Highly Suspicious, who were 9^th after a classy clear round yesterday.

Now, we look ahead to both classes’ showjumping finales, beginning with the CCI5* at 11.25 a.m. local time (10.25 a.m. BST/5.25 a.m. EST). Caroline Harris holds a slim 2.7 penalty lead with the 2024 Pau winner D. Day, who hasn’t had a rail down in an FEI competition in three years, while Emily King and Valmy Biats in second are ordinarily very secure showjumpers but have had a few rails in their topsy-turvy spring season, which has seen Emily battle back from injury. In third place, Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley are something of a floating question mark: the partnership is new, the horse is a debutant at the level, and while he hasn’t had a rail in two years, he also hasn’t ever jumped after a test of the length and breadth he faced yesterday. He’s well supported in the warm-up ring, though: Peter Wylde is in situ and locked in to help Boyd try to secure a five-star victory on behalf of Liz Halliday, who produced the gelding to CCI4*-L.

Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It’s hard to imagine the winner today coming from outside the top three – even if you can shelve Caroline and D. Day’s exceptional form in this phase, the margins aren’t particularly tight across the leaderboard. With just fifteen left in the hunt from our original line-up of 21, we’re looking at a 65.9 penalty spread from top to bottom, and if Jonelle Price and her 2022 Pau winner, Grappa Nera, were to jump into the lead, that would require two rails and time penalties from our leaders, a rail and time for Emily and Valmy, and at least three seconds’ worth of time penalties for Boyd and ‘Dallas’.

But this is five-star, and anything can happen – including, a couple of years ago, the first rails since CCI2*-S level for Ros Canter’s Izilot DHI, a statistical near impossibility that completely rewrote the story of the week and gave Belgium its first-ever five-star champion in Lara de Liedekerke-Meier. Luhmühlen, like Pau in the autumn, presents notoriously big, difficult showjumping courses on its surfaced arena, and everyone – including the odds-on favourites – will have to work hard out there to make a clear round happen.

Julia Krajewski and fourth-placed Tullabeg Platinum. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The CCI4*-S, similarly, will have to face a serious challenge, but has a clear outlier with a serious lead: Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel have a rail and change in hand over second-placed Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville. That class will get underway this afternoon from 14.10 local time (13.10 BST/8.10 a.m. EST). As usual, all the action will be broadcast on Horse&Country TV, and we’ll be bringing you the full story from each class, too. Until then, and for one last time this week: Go Eventing!

The top ten in the CCI5* after cross-country.

The top ten going into showjumping in the CCI4*-S.

Longines Luhmühlen: [Website] [Tickets] [FEI Schedule] [Entries] [Ride Times/Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Map] [H&C+ Live Stream] [CCI5* Form Guide] [Ultimate Guide] [EN’s Coverage]

D. Day Storms to Luhmühlen Cross-Country Lead with Caroline Harris

By Tilly Berendt on Jun 20, 2026 3:29 pm -

Caroline Harris and D. Day cruise into the Luhmühlen lead. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just fifteen horses and riders remain in the hunt for the 2026 Longines Luhmühlen CCI5* title after an influential – and very, very warm – cross-country day shook up the 20-strong leaderboard.

It’s clear that course designer Mike Etherington-Smith has championships on the brain, because both his courses today – this one, and the CCI4*-S Meßmer Trophy this afternoon – were even more technical than usual, ensuring that the day’s sport had a true five-star feel despite a smaller-than-normal field.

Of those fifteen finishers, just nine completed without incurring jumping penalties, and only one horse and rider would catch the tight eleven-minute optimum time.

Great Britain’s Caroline Harris and her 2024 Pau winner D. Day didn’t just sneak inside it, either: they eclipsed it by some eighteen seconds, despite never looking hurried.

“I actually have no idea how we managed that,” laughs Caroline. “I was trying to make up a bit of time earlier on, because the course got really intense later, but somehow I just kept hitting my minute markers and then getting more and more up on the clock.”

She did, she says, “have Dicky Waygood and Chris Bartle in my head telling me not to set my preparation point too early, and because D. Day is so polite, I tried to dare myself to do it. Even then, I did sometimes think, ‘oh, god, I’ve set up way too early!’”

Caroline Harris and D. Day. Photo courtesy of TGL/Thomas Ix.

The ease with which Caroline and the twelve-year-old gelding, who she rides for breeder Fiona Olivier and co-owners Lucy Matthews, Marie Anne Richardson, and Heather Royle, allowed them to top the leaderboard at the end of the morning’s sport, stepping up from fourth place after dressage on their score of 31.1.

This is a third five-star start for Caroline and the son of the Funnell’s Billy Mexico alike: they made their debut here in 2024, finishing twelfth, before going on to take victory at Pau later that year over a course that looked more like a swimming pool, except all the pool floaties were solid and frightening rather than, like, inflatable flamingos with cupholders.

There was a moment – or about three hours, really – in the early hours of this morning when Caroline and her little horse might have had a war flashback or two. Luhmühlen at this time of year is famous for its extremes of weather, which I devoted myself to finding out more about earlier this week but got as far as learning something about weather fronts out of Russia clashing with something to do with the sea. I don’t know. Anyway, in real world terms, that means that even when the event is a sun-trap, as it is this week, it’s also nearly guaranteed that at some point the heavens will open so dramatically that any other event would be forced to hold its hands up and stop the show.

Not so Luhmühlen, with its ground like a sponge, which benefitted enormously from the apocalyptic storm that kept most of us awake until it was time to get up and get moving. Caroline and D. Day didn’t have to use their previous excellent form in wet going at all, and instead cruised along the top of the ground to make the whole round like a bit more like a schooling exercise than a five-star marathon.

Part of that comes down to this year’s course direction, Caroline explains.

“This year really suited us, because in this direction, it eases you in and the last seven minutes is very intense,” she says. “The last time I was here it started out very intense and then eased off, but this way, we really got into our rhythm. He can start out a bit careful, and so the lessened intensity early on really got us going.”

It would be easy to assume that, coming into a smaller five-star line-up on a horse that’s already won at the level, Caroline might have been feeling that the odds were fully in her favour ahead of today’s cross-country. That wasn’t quite the case.

“I was pretty nervous, actually,” she admits. “I was very aware of what went wrong at the Blenheim Europeans last year [the pair had a 20, and then suffered a rider fall] and I really wanted to put that to bed a bit. But he’s come out this year feeling better than ever, so I think that’s a lesson we’ve both learned, and we’ve both come back better for it.”

Last year’s disappointment was, she explains, a bit of a mystery.

“If I’m really honest, last year he just never felt quite 100% himself. He gave me some brilliant runs, like at Aachen, but would I say he felt as good cross-country as he’s feeling this year? Probably not. I don’t know why that is, but we gave him a long, long holiday, and he’s come back feeling really good.”

Today, she says, “he was perfect. He absolutely flew. There wasn’t a moment where I was worried – it all rode exactly as I’d walked it. He’s just a little horse who gives you everything – he might not be big and flashy like some of the others, but he’ll always dig very, very deep and do his best.”

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Caroline and D. Day’s storming success stole them the top spot from dressage leaders Emily King and Valmy Biats, who added 6.8 time penalties after Emily decided to ease off the 17-year-old a touch.

“He’s an amazingly brave horse, which can sometimes make him a little bit hard to ride, and I’ve fallen into that trap a few times around some bigger events,” she says. “I wanted to just think a little bit extra for him around the course today. I’m not sure whether it was the heat, but he was a little bit quieter today, so actually, this crazy lion that I’m normally trying to navigate around a course was not so lion-y, and I had to adapt a bit to that.”

“It’s lovely having your plan, and when it all comes off and your horse is exactly how he normally is, it all happens seamlessly and is the most amazing feeling, but that’s not always the case, is it?” she continues. “It was a bit like that with Valmy today. I thought, ‘my goodness, I need to start thinking about a different plan’. He was super, though. Maybe some of the strides or the approaches weren’t quite as I’d imagined them, but he was so good on the fences, super quick with his legs, really straight, and came through the finish super quick.”

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo courtesy of TGL/Thomas Ix.

It was evident that Valmy had gained a second wind in the back end of the course, and the gelding’s cruising pace increased to regain the pair some valuable time back on the clock. They were also granted another nine penalty reprieve, when a flag on their scorecard was removed at the end of the class.

On a hot day like today, most riders are just desperate to see their horses finish well and happy, and that was Emily’s top priority.

“These horses mean so much to us, and I think we can all agree that we just want to get them home safe and sound,” she says. “In England, it’s only been heating up over the past month, and it’s not been like this, nor as close as this, so I think we all had to ride with the feeling that we could only go as quickly as we felt safe to in order to get them home safe and sound.”

Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

There’s just 2.7 penalties separating Caroline and Emily as we head into tomorrow’s showjumping finale, but the margin opens up a touch as we look to third place, which is the domain of Boyd Martin and his five-star debutant, Shanroe Cooley. They added just 2.4 time penalties in an educational, confidence-building round for the eleven-year-old, boosting them up the order from eleventh after dressage and putting them just a hair over a rail behind Emily and Valmy.

“I’m thrilled with him today,” says Boyd. “He’s a new ride for me, and the dressage is still a work in progress – yesterday we had moments of brilliance and moments of disaster all in the one test – but I really didn’t know what to expect here today. We came to Luhmühlen wondering if he was a five-star horse, and as he kept going through the track, I’m thinking to myself, ‘hey, he’s feeling pretty good!’ I’m looking at my watch and thinking, ‘we’re in this!’”

Like much of the class’s entrants, Shanroe Cooley tired in the last couple of minutes of the course, but that’s when Boyd really got a sense of what sort of a horse he might be.

“He was tired, but he just gritted his teeth and pricked his ears. I’ve got so much admiration for these horses; they’re really just true competitors, and he really fought hard for me out there today. I’m thrilled for the horse, I’m thrilled for the owners, and most importantly, I’m thrilled for Liz Halliday, because to have a successful round at five-star is a great accomplishment, and she’s done a magnificent job of producing him.”

Shanroe Cooley’s path to this level hasn’t been straightforward: after his accident at the AECs with Liz in 2024, which curtailed her eventing career, he pivoted into a career in the equitation ring – which, Boyd laughs, “was a massive failure! Then Peter Wylde and Eric Duvander convinced me to take him, and I was sort of on the fence about whether to do it or not, but they assured me he was a champion horse.”

The five-star’s early finish today might sound like it spells an afternoon of rest and relaxation for Boyd, but not so: “I’ve got half of America texting my phone at the moment, because he’s got such a massive following – all of Liz’s students and fans and owners are cheering this horse on. There’s only a handful of Americans here, but we’ve got the whole country waking up very early this morning and glued to this live stream, so I reckon I’ve got to reply to about 400 texts now!”

Jonelle Price and Grappa Nera. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Jonelle Price finished the dressage with two horses in the top ten, and finished cross-country with both in the top five after two textbook rounds. The 2022 Pau winner Grappa Nera was our pathfinder today, and set a smart pace to add just 4.4 time penalties and step up from 10^th to fourth, while the five-star first-timer Capitaine de Hus Z, formerly the ride of Ginny Thomasen, cruised around for 7.2 time penalties and a leap from seventh to fifth.

Benjamin Massie and Guess Star. Photo by Jan Frohne.

One of the rounds of the day was that of France’s Benjamin Massie and the Upsilon daughter Guess Star, who might not be built for the first phase, but for whom cross-country is truly just a game. The pair shot up from last place yesterday to sixth today, crossing the finish line just one second over the optimum time. At just ten years old, this is only her thirteenth FEI competition and her fifth long-format; today’s single second on the clock is the first she’s ever racked up in any long.

Hallie Coon and Kapriccio. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Day one dressage leaders Hallie Coon and Kapriccio – another of the first-timer horses in this field – looked stylish and confident around the track, but were one of several combinations to have a pin from a light touch at the corner complex at 22B, adding 11 penalties to their tally. It would be easy to be frustrated with that in a round that otherwise added just 4.4 time penalties to their score card, but Hallie is too busy looking at the gelding with hearts in her eyes to worry too much about the details.

“He is,” she texts me, “the most amazing!”

The pair will head into Sunday in a still very respectable seventh place, some 12 penalties away from the leading spot.

German five-star debutants Katharina Meyer and Aspen T brought it home for the enthusiastic spectators lining the ropes, and will hold eighth place overnight. Like Hallie and Kapriccio, they came home in a time of 11:11 (make a wish!), but added no further penalties on course.

James Avery and Dallas 13. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

New Zealand’s James Avery and his exciting Dallas 13, who also steps up this week, moved from third to ninth place after they, too, barely tapped the rail at 22B to have the pin. Their round was otherwise a picture, and they came home fifteen seconds over the time to add 6 time penalties.

Harry Horton and Cooley With Ambition. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

British five-star debutant Harry Horton had expected to put a 40 on the board with Cooley With Ambition yesterday, and admitted that when he actually managed a 35.6 and a top ten position, that made him morenervous, not less.

But you’d be hard-pressed to spot nerves in horse or rider as they made their way around the course, picking out a couple of sensible long routes – including at that tricksy corner combination at 22 – to come home as a confirmed five-star partnership with a clear round and 35.6 time penalties. They’ll head into Sunday morning in tenth place.

“I’m enormously relieved and incredibly proud,” says Harry. “And I came down in the lorry with Caroline Harris, so the journey home’s going to be alright!”

The mighty Kiwi contingent here took a bit of a knock today, with a retirement on course for Vicky Browne-Cole and her lovely Thoroughbred, Cutting Edge, and a non-injurious rider fall at 22B for Abby Jones and Henton Audacious, who had sat sixth after dressage. But the biggest story of the day was arguably that of Tim Price and Happy Boy, who were fifth coming into cross-country, and have some major wins under their belt already, like Boekelo in 2022 and the Seven-Year-Old World Championship in 2019. But the gelding is also a bit of a wild card in this phase, and although he started well, he took a dislike to the skinny on dry land in the middle of the Meßmer Water, the second water complex on course. He dropped his left shoulder, bid adieu to the fence, and sent his poor rider careening across the grass, too. Poor Tim’s indignities didn’t end there, either: after gamely fixing the flag back on the fence for the next rider, he attempted to make his way off course by walking over the top of the alternative fence… and fell off that, too. Someone get the man a beer.

So: fifteen left in it, and just the small matter of the final horse inspection to get through at 9.15 a.m. tomorrow morning (8.15 a.m. BST/3.15 a.m. EST). After that, we’ll see the CCI4*-S horses trot up, before another scorcher of a day of sport beckons.

The top ten in the CCI5* after cross-country.

That CCI4*-S, which incorporates the German National Championship and acts as an important selection trial for the World Championships, too, is down to 43 from 50 starters, and was every bit as influential as we expect from this class. Much like Kentucky’s accompanying CCI4*-S, it’s no run-of-the-mill spin at the level – and we saw that play out with some surprising mishaps on course.

Germany’s Arne Bergendahl has arguably one of the most exciting young horses in the sport in Bronco NRW, who placed at Boekelo last year, but the pair failed to complete today after a rider fall at fence 22B, while New Zealand’s Sam Lissington and her sixth-placed Delarado retired on course after picking up twenty penalties midway around the course.

Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Photo courtesy of TGL / Thomas Ix.

There’s little change in the upper echelons, though: Julia Krajewski and the sublime Uelzener’s Nickel retain their lead, adding just 4 time penalties to their 22.9 dressage score to take a rail in hand into tomorrow. Julia also sits fourth with the inexperienced Tullabeg Platinum, who added 7.2 time penalties to drop down one spot on the leaderboard.

“Nickel’s round was, from my point of view, faultless – he’s really a pro at this level, and I was very happy with myself that I didn’t take too many pulls,” says Julia. “So we were able to be very fluid, and that’s how we can be quick, because he doesn’t have high speed but he’s always so on it.”

Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and 2025 Boekelo winner Kiarado d’Arville move from fourth place to second, also adding just four time penalties to their first-phase score in a run that Lara hopes will be a crucial preparation for August’s World Championships.

“He’s just ten, and he’s done a lot already, but he never came to a show like Luhmühlen,” says Lara. “I’m aiming him for Aachen, which is why he came here – it’s a little bit similar, with a twisty track that’s like what we’ll have. Everything this week is with an eye on a few weeks’ time – I could have gone faster today, but I didn’t take on the risk, and I’m glad I didn’t.”

Malin Hansen-Hotopp and her five-star and championship mount Carlitos Quidditch K cruised home with 6.8 time penalties to sit third overnight.

“I’m so happy with him – he’s such a smart, clever event horse,” says Malin. “He’s always in front of me and makes it so easy for me to ride the right lines – it’s just fun. I think I had a big smile on my face the whole time.”

The fastest rider of the day in this class was Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and Top Job’s Jalisco, who came home just one second over the 6:40 optimum time. British-based US rider Cosby Green retains ninth place with the evergreen Highly Suspicious, who added 6.4 time penalties, while compatriot Tommy Greengard opted to give his exciting nine-year-old That’s Me Z a steadier clear for 18.4 time, dropping them from 12^th to 28^th but giving them both a huge amount of mileage for the future.

We’ll be back tomorrow with all the news you need to know from the final horse inspection and beyond. Until then, Go Eventing.

The top ten after cross-country in the CCI4*-S.

Longines Luhmühlen: [Website] [Tickets] [FEI Schedule] [Entries] [Ride Times/Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Map] [H&C+ Live Stream] [CCI5* Form Guide] [Ultimate Guide] [EN’s Coverage]

“I Wanted to Show Off How Happy He Feels”: Emily King and Valmy Biats Lead Luhmühlen Dressage on Day Two

By Tilly Berendt on Jun 19, 2026 5:34 pm -

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It’s been a short but sweet two days of dressage in Luhmühlen’s CCI5*, and as we reach the end of Friday – and twenty tests in the books – it’s Emily King and the evergreen Valmy Biats who hold the top spot going into tomorrow’s cross-country. The pair put a score of 27 on the board to edge the lead from Thursday leaders Hallie Coon and Kapriccio on a 27.8.

“He tries so hard,” enthused Emily. “He’s just the dream. He really kept his cool in there, which is so nice because sometimes he can try so hard that he nearly gets a little bit hurried and a bit frantic, and his little brain goes a bit too quick. Today I tried to keep it really slow and obvious.”

The pair come here after completing Badminton, though not quite with the result they’d hoped for: a tricky spring season, which saw Emily sustain several upper-body injuries after a fall off a young horse at Thoresby, meant that they were on the back foot going into the event.

“It was a funny spring, because actually, I felt that he was feeling the best he ever has in his work,” she says. “But then I couldn’t get it done, because I was injured, and I didn’t have the prep runs. So that’s why I rerouted here, even though we finished Badminton – because I just thought it was such a waste, when he’s feeling so good, not to make the most of that. The mistakes we had in the spring were purely because I couldn’t ride him how I need to ride him, because I had some breaks moving around inside me – and I’m a stubborn little determined monkey, which probably did bite me in the ass a bit.”

But, she concedes, “you just don’t know until you know.”

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This week feels like the beginning of a redemption arc, as such, for the pair – and Emily is delighted to have helped ‘Granddad’ show off his best work today.

“I just wanted to listen to him and show off how happy he feels. It’s all about tomorrow, really – I didn’t want to sacrifice any oomph today when there’s so much out there to do tomorrow. We’ve had a few blips this spring, and when it comes to things like team selections that’s far from ideal, but actually, I’ve learned so much from this spring – I’ve pinpointed why those blips happened and hopefully now I can use that to try and deliver.”

Thursday leaders Hallie Coon and Kapriccio now sit second going into cross-country on their score of 27.8, while New Zealand’s James Avery and the five-star debutant Dallas 13 move into third place with a smart 29.6.

James Avery and Dallas 13. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

A sub-30 has always looked very possible for the quirky British-bred gelding, who James rides for Karie and David Thompson, but had thus far eluded the pair at the four-star level.

“He’s growing up,” says James of the twelve-year-old, with whom he jumped clear around Boekelo last autumn. “For him, it’s about being able to take what we train at home or in the warm-up and bring it into the ring – and be settled doing it.”

There’s been no magic button for the gelding, whose production has also been overseen by James’s partner, the event rider and in-demand dressage trainer Holly Woodhead.

“It’s just really been learning what ticks and what doesn’t. I think we’re still not totally there, but we’re getting that way.”

Today’s corner might have been turned twelve months earlier, but for a lighter 2025 season for the horse after a slightly nontraditional accident sidelined James.

“It happened just after Badminton last year. My mum and dad had come over, and as I wasn’t riding, we decided to go see some family friends who’ve got a house in Corfu for three days. While we were there I went running one morning and ended up getting chased by a dog, and it put me over a fence. As I jumped the fence, I got the steel pipe from the retaining wall stuck into my shin, which ripped right down to the bone – right where the stirrup leather sits. I had three months of not even really being able to sit on a horse.”

“I guess I need to think a bit more about protecting myself more when I’m off the horses,” he says wryly.

Caroline Harris and D.Day. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

2024 Pau winners Caroline Harris and D. Day slotted into fourth place on a score of 31.1 after a test that divided the judges – Nick Burton at C had them in fifth, Christian Steiner at M put them into third, and Germany’s Edith Schless-Störtenbecker put them eighth in the lineup.

In any case, it’s less than a penalty more than the 30.3 they scored en route to winning at Pau two seasons ago, and a nearly four-mark improvement over the 34.9 they posted on the gelding’s debut here two years ago.

Abby Jones and Henton Audacious. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Thursday runners-up Tim Price and Happy Boy will head into tomorrow’s cross-country in fifth place on 31.7, followed by Kiwi compatriots Abby Jones and Henton Audacious, who trended in the 20s in the first half of their test but had to settle for a 32 and sixth after losing a mark or two in the canter work.

It’s clear, though, that after their superb effort in their five-star debut at Pau last year, which saw them sail into the 20s and the business end of the leaderboard in the first phase, that this level suits the charismatic Henton Audacious to the ground.

“I think the harder test definitely helps,” says Abby. “She’s a classic orange mare, and she gets a little hot, which will be my favourite thing about her over the next couple of days because she’ll never give up on me and that energy will be endless. But trying to contain all that to produce a test is hard.”

The mare, who Abby has had since a three-year-old, is “definitely more of a long-format horse. The longer I can be here, and the more I can do at the grounds before she goes into the ring, the better. At Pau I discovered that she really likes coming to a place with a surface, where she can really work in the arena familiarisations – that settles her more than if we’re in a place with a grass arena, where you can only really walk around the outside in familiarisation.”

One of Henton Audacious’s most admirable qualities in this phase is her extraordinary engine, which allows her to produce expressive, emphatic extensions – but can also be one of the trickier elements to manage.

“I lost her a little bit in the canter, because it can be a bit difficult for me when she gets like that, but she wanted to stay with me,” says Abby. “She was really trying, but there was a little bit of a buzz there as soon as I went into the canter. That can be the tricky thing – she’s got so much engine that trying to condense that into a little test and make it look pretty can be hard.”

It’s one heck of a top ten for the Kiwi contingent across the board, actually: Jonelle Price takes two places in the top ten and will start cross-country in seventh place on Capitaine de Hus Z on 33.1 and tenth on 2022 Pau winner Grappa Nera, who put a 35.5 on the board yesterday.

Harry Horton and Cooley With Ambition. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

British five-star debutant Harry Horton far exceeded his own expectations with the eleven-year-old Cooley With Ambition, putting a 33.5 on the board to take overnight eighth.

“Since we got here on Monday, he hasn’t managed to trot around the arena once without spooking,” he laughs. “But he put his professional hat on in there and was very good. His way of reacting has always been to go a little bit numb, basically – he can get a bit backward and spooky, but he’s very capable of doing that kind of good work.”

Time and an endless well of patience have been the key to unlocking Cooley With Ambition’s best side this week.

“It’s just about knowing that it’ll pass eventually,” says Harry. “He doesn’t hold onto it, and he’s not nasty or anything. He just sort of likes to have his say on the whole thing. But today, as soon as I got on him at the stables, I thought he was a much more relaxed horse than I’d had all week, and I was very happy.”

On the flip side, though, he continues, “I thought I was going to be getting a 40 today, and going cross-country on a 40 would have been far more comfortable for me – now I’m nervous!”

Great Britain’s Steve Heal, who was third yesterday with Heather Chapman’s Hagonda, now sits ninth overnight on their score of 33.6, ahead of Jonelle Price’s first ride, Grappa Nera in tenth.

Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley sit in equal eleventh with Great Britain’s Sam Ecroyd and first-timer Mister Big Ears after scoring a 35.7 for a test that had some expensive moments of tension in the latter half.

“Shanroe Cooley is a new ride for me, so we’re still sort of figuring each other out,” says Boyd, who inherited the ride from Liz Halliday. “We had moments of greatness in the test, and we also had a couple of bobbles, but all in all, I feel like it’s a work in progress. I feel like this event is going to be a great learning event for us, and hopefully this is the beginning of his five-star career.”

Although the lanky eleven-year-old isn’t quite the finished product in this phase, Boyd is backing his brain as his best asset for the future.

“You wouldn’t find a horse that tries harder,” he says. “He’s a really good horse. He’s a very different ride to what I usually ride – he’s a warmblood, and he’s a quiet horse. I think this is the first time in my life I’ve had a horse that I didn’t have to pre-ride the morning of the dressage. He just does a twenty minute warm-up to keep him fresh.”

Today, perhaps, that freshness just beyond requirements – but as far as educational experiences go, Luhmühlen’s ring provides them in spades.

“I think this is a really nice first five-star to bring them to, if you can wrangle the money to get them over here,” he says. “It’s not quite as tough as a Kentucky or a Badminton, and for a heavier horse with less blood, it can be an easier trip for them with no hills. The first couple of five-stars where it’s a bit of a learning process, it’s a great, safe course to get an understanding of how they feel.”

The CCI5* top ten after dressage.

Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

In this morning’s CCI4*-S, Julia Krajewski took the lead over from herself – yesterday, she’d taken the top spot on the relatively inexperienced Tullabeg Platinum on 27.2 in the best test of the gelding’s career so far. Now, he sits in third place going into cross-country, while stablemate Uelzener’s Nickel quite unsurprisingly takes the top spot on a 22.9.

“He knows his job now, and when I ride into the arena he’s like, “okay, I know this!’,” says Julia. “There’s always small things where you think you could do this or do that, but with him, the aim is really to do the work good enough without overdoing it. I want to increase it a little bit so that he can peak where I want him to in eight weeks; today is a show where he has to do a little bit but we’re still getting the condition on top for the rest.”

Their test – which showed so much promise for even more boldness and expression – puts them just over four points ahead of their nearest competitors, compatriots Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K, who scored a 27.

Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“Now that he’s older, it’s just the most fun with him,” says Malin. “You come in and you feel that the crowd lifts him up, and you can go forward and collect him again, and he’s just right there. In earlier times, you’d think, ‘okay, stay cool, stay cool,’ but now I can really use it.”

In her corner is the queen of dressage herself, Bettina Hoy, who Malin credits with helping create a consistent first-phase competitor of the rangy horse.

“She always says that preparation for every movement is everything – to hold the horse all the time and make good movements, good shapes, and just be so precise. You can then just keep going for it.”

Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Former five-star champion Lara de Liedekerke-Meier takes fourth place going into cross-country with last year’s Boekelo champion Kiarado d’Arville, who posted a 27.3 after a smart, workmanlike test, despite a shift in Lara’s warm-up routine.

“My dressage trainer left this morning, so I was a bit confused and upset not to have him here, but we did the training through the earphone,” says Lara. “But really, I wasn’t concentrated enough, and I think despite all of that, Kiarado did really well. I just wanted him to have a nice experience, and really, when he came into the arena with all the electricity after Julia’s test, I thought he held it all together pretty well. There’s more in him, but he’s only ten, and he’s solid. He does everything I ask, but there’s more there.”

Sam Lissington and Lucas Stone. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

New Zealand’s Sam Lissington rounds out the top five with Lucas Stone on a 28.8, and also sits sixth with yesterday’s ride, the professional little Delarado, who posted a 29.2.

“I think he’s got a lot more to give, and at the moment, he’s just developing that confidence in the ring,” says Sam. “I think there’s heaps in there, though, once we’ve got that all really established. For now, the goal is just to stay level throughout the test, which we did today, so that was great.”

Compared to Miss Reliable, as Sam calls Delarado, “he’s more on high alert – and he’s very horse-shy, so it requires a bit of tact to develop a warm-up programme that doesn’t involve other horses. We’ll usually try to ride early in the morning, before the arenas get busy, because he doesn’t even like horses walking towards him – but then, when he gets into the arena, he takes a bit of a breath and it’s like, we’ve got our own space, we’re not trying to dodge anyone.”

The top ten at the end of dressage in the CCI4*-S.

Tomorrow’s sizzling hot cross-country day begins at 10.00 a.m. local time (9.00 a.m. BST/4.00 a.m. EST), starting with our twenty CCI5* competitors. Then, we’ll head into the CCI4*-S cross-country from 13.25 p.m. (12.25 p.m. BST/7.25 a.m. EST), wherein 51 horses and riders will compete for the title, the attention of their respective selectors and, in some cases, the German National Championship. We’ll be bringing you a look at the course that awaits our five-star competitors, and some thoughts from the riders themselves, soon – and if you want to plan your Saturday viewing schedule, you can tune in on Horse&Country TV to catch all the action. Until next time – Go Eventing!

Longines Luhmühlen: [Website] [Tickets] [FEI Schedule] [Entries] [Ride Times/Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Map] [H&C+ Live Stream] [CCI5* Form Guide] [Ultimate Guide] [EN’s Coverage]

“He’s My Soulmate”: Hallie Coon Takes Day One Luhmühlen Lead

By Tilly Berendt on Jun 18, 2026 2:00 pm -

Hallie Coon and groom Conor Coomey, with Kapriccio. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

From the moment Hallie Coon first sat on the then-ten-year-old Kapriccio, she says, “it was weird – it was just like meeting your soulmate, as cheesy as that sounds.”

The British-based US rider isn’t prone to excesses of emotion, but when she tries to explain what the gelding means to her, she has to fight back a groundswell of tears.

“I’ve had a lot of horses that I’ve loved in my life, and this one tops them all,” she says. “I’ve only had him for a year, but he’s just like – you hold his hand and he’ll give you every bit of his heart. He means the world to me.”

Their fledgling partnership began when neighbour Julia Norman received the shock news that a fall while training, which rendered her unconscious for 45 minutes, had left her on the precipice of a life-altering brain injury, and she could risk no further accidents. The Zimbabwean five-star rider wanted to ensure her horses went to riders who wouldn’t just carry on their career trajectories, but would love them as she had done – and so, with her two top horses in mind, she picked up the phone to Hallie.

Now, a year down the line, Kapriccio makes his five-star debut with Hallie in the irons. And at the end of day one at Luhmühlen? He’s leading the charge. The pair sit on a score of 27.8 overnight, the only sub-30 score of the day.

“To be honest, he did exactly what I thought he was going to do [in the ring], and it’s so special that I’m able to do it with him,” says Hallie.

Part of that consistency, Hallie explains, comes down to a new working relationship with dressage trainer Lisa White, with whom she’s been training for just three weeks – but who, she tells EN, has already been revolutionary to her system.

“Lisa has come into my life and changed a whole lot of my thinking in three weeks. I think I’ve learned more in that time about dressage than I have in the last five or six years – she’s just so strategic and so about the horse being happy and comfortable and feeling their best.”

It is, she says, “not just an amazing system – it also suits ‘Bruno’ down to the ground. I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere without Lisa now; she’s my emotional support person!”

Hallie Coon and Kapriccio. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Although Lisa couldn’t make the trip out to Germany with Hallie, she’s been instrumental in the lead-up to today’s test, and coached the rider through a lesson yesterday via iPad, gamely assisted by groom Conor Coomey.

“She’s always at the end of the phone whenever I need her,” says Hallie. “She’s just immense.”

Her system has also helped Hallie to find her own mental equilibrium before a test. Whereas before, she admits that she could “go in the warm-up for 45 minutes before my test and not have any idea what I was trying to do,” Lisa has helped her to set and realise concrete objectives.

“I could make the horses look pretty in the warm-up but not really get to the bottom of them, and not necessarily be able to present it in the ring, but Lisa’s so objective: she’s like, ‘okay, this is what we’re doing, this is the plan, this is what we’ve prepared for, so if you go out there and do this and this, this is what will happen.’ It really helps my brain.”

Hallie Coon and Kapriccio. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Hallie and Bruno’s test was a clear outlier from the first movements: they scored a 9 from Christian Steiner at M for their decisive, confident entry, and followed it up with no less than 14 8s over the course of the ride.

Their result doesn’t just represent the best ride of the day; it’s also Bruno’s personal best at the upper levels. He hasn’t previously broken the 30 barrier at four-star and has done it just once at three-star and once at two-star, though he’s certainly been inching closer this season. He posted a 31 en route to winning the Oudskarpel CCI4*-S in April, and a 30.2 at Royal Jump last month, where he finished seventh in the same class.

“He’s just been perfect from the beginning, and we’ve worked really hard to get where we are, but I don’t think we could suit each other down to the ground anymore,” says Hallie. “I mean, he reads my mind, I read his – he’s just the best thing in the world, and every opportunity he’s just shown up and exceeded my expectations. He’s just so genuine, and obviously physically he’s so talented, but his brain is what makes him special – he’s so, so trainable.”

Hallie finishes Thursday at Luhmühlen sitting pretty on a nearly four-point margin ahead of the rest of the field.

“Those four marks are all Lisa’s,” she grins. “It’s been a good three weeks – imagine what another two months will do!”

Tim Price and Happy Boy. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tim Price arguably started the day as the favourite to lead Thursday’s dressage, but the mercurial Happy Boy is nothing if not a bottomless well of surprises. Though the 2022 Boekelo champions produced some very smart work in the latter half of their test, the trot work – ordinarily a highlight for the fourteen-year-old – was marred by a break into canter in both the medium and extended trot.

It’s a departure from form for Happy Boy, whose greatest uncertainties are ordinarily on cross-country.

“He’s a bit of a Rubik’s Cube, this fellow,” says Tim. “I was walking the course with James Avery earlier, and I was saying that everyone always asks, ‘where is his issue?’ and I’m like, ‘well, it’s sometimes here and it’s sometimes there…!’ I’ve got to predict the unpredictable in terms of what would be the next little issue with him, so I’ve just got to do a good job and find a clever way around the course.”

Ordinarily, says Tim, “he’s one of mine that I can actually put together in the trot and do a little bit of a fancy step, actually. And that’s quite fun, and it’s something I use in the turn before a medium. With a horse like him, with smaller movement, it’s so much about the transition, so I want to do a good job with the demonstrating the transition, and then go into a medium or an extended that I have it from the beginning and then maintain it. With something like Vitali, you can build on it and go for more, and the balance gets better, but I really want to set this guy up from that turn.

“That was my plan today: come around the corner and establish it, and then there was a canter step. And then to make the same mistake again… it’s a bit weird, but he’s a bit of a weird chap!”

With two early mistakes on his score sheet, Tim had to quickly reestablish his own headspace.

“The movement’s gone, and it’s almost me that has to recover more than him, because you come around to the first shoulder-in thinking, ‘well, you’ve well and truly fucked it now, haven’t you?’” he laughs. “You think, ‘is there any point in even trying to do a good shoulder-in?’ But actually, he was good everywhere else, and he’s got a very safe, reliable flying change, so everything else I was really happy with.”

Tim Price and Happy Boy. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The redemptive second half of the test allowed them to regain some purchase on the leaderboard, and they brought their mid-30s trotwork trend down to a final 31.7 for second place overnight – the gelding’s first 30s score in nearly three years.

Happy Boy comes into Luhmühlen with a fourth-place finish at Pau under his belt at the tail end of last year, as well as a slightly more complicated twentieth at Kentucky last spring – but his most recent run, in the CCI4*-S at Kronenberg, saw him retire on course after picking up 60 penalties.

It might not seem like a traditional entry point into a five-star, but it’s not Happy Boy’s first rodeo.

“It wouldn’t be him if he didn’t have a little blip, and we had one in our last run before coming here – and that’s fine, because we’ve done some homework and it’s a new day,” says Tim. “He had the same result [a 60 and retirement] at Saumur before winning Blenheim in 2024. Optimism serves you very well in this sport. It might have looked a couple weeks ago like I should put up and go home and forget about it, but you know, having a healthy horse at the start gate of a five star that’s been there, done that, and I’ve been there, done that, is sometimes 90% of the battle. The rest is just one foot in front of the other.”

Steve Heal and Hagonda. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

Third place overnight is the domain of Great Britain’s Steve Heal and 14-year-old Hagonda, who he co-owns with Heather Chapman and runs with the support of the BettaLife Holly Hub, a pay-to-play experience group that brings eventing enthusiasts behind the scenes and into the fray even if traditional ownership is out of reach.

It’s not hard to see why ‘Holly’ might be a particularly appealing horse for them to get behind: she’s flown up the levels despite a late start in life, and was purchased for peanuts from a field as a backed but barely-ridden seven-year-old.

“A friend of a friend owned her, and she’d had some kids and various things, so Holly just got picked up and put down – she had about six months of work across the first four years of her ridden life,” says Steve. “The owner then texted a friend of mine and said she had a nice horse in the field not doing anything, and did she know anyone who was looking for a project? [Heather and I] went out to see her and thought, ‘well, she’s nicely bred – if it doesn’t work out, she’s not expensive, so she can become a broodmare or a fun horse for someone. I did a couple of laps of trot, attempted a canter, thought ‘this isn’t really going anywhere,’ so I just trotted her down the road and thought she had such a nice outlook that we’d give it a go.”

Since then, though, “she’s just carried on and on and on.”

The pair made their five-star debut together at Pau last year, finishing 30^th with a clear across the country.

This year, though her 33.6 is nearly bang-on the same score she received at Pau, Holly’s first phase has levelled up in consistency.

“She always classically used to go into a test and sort of not really let me in or let me ride her or things like that,” explains Steve. “Today, it felt like I could actually be quite brave in there, almost to the point where I was a bit like, ‘come on, Holly!’”

“Everything just feels a bit more secure [this year]. She just feels a bit stronger, and a bit more like there’s a leg in each corner. She’s always felt like a bit of a weaker horse – she’s very long, and it just now feels like when you ask her to shoulder-in, you actually get steps of shoulder-in, whereas it used to be like one step, then straight, then one step. There’s still loads more to come, but it just feels like she’s building on it all the time now.”

Like Hallie, Steve has a relatively new dressage trainer in his corner – four-time Olympian Richard Davison.

“I’ve been training with him for the last year or 18 months, and he’s just really helped, to have her whole body a bit softer,” he says. “She can get quite tight and tense when you start asking her things that are a bit harder, whereas he seems to be able to get so much out of her, but in such a relaxed, soft way. I’ve tried to replicate that at home, and when I ride her on my own, and it just feels like she’s taken it all in because she’s not stressed and wound up about it.”

Jonelle Price and Grappa Nera. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Pathfinder Jonelle Price holds fourth overnight on a score of 35.5 with 2022 Pau winner Grappa Nera, who has often been tricky in this phase, but looked harmonious throughout her work today. We didn’t get a chance to catch up with Jonelle in today’s whirlwind-quick nine-horse dressage session, but she returns tomorrow with second ride Capitaine de Hus Z, who has been a frequent flyer in the 20s at four-star.

Sian Coleman and Carrowgar Je Taime Max. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Ireland’s Sian Coleman rounds out the top five with Carrowgar Je Taime Max, who makes his five-star debut in just his third year eventing. The thirteen-year-old previously showjumped to 1.35 with Robyn Moran in the irons, before joining Sian’s string in 2023. She, too, began showjumping him for owner and breeder Gina Heaps, but before long, the pair decided to try him out in a new discipline. In 2024, he made his FEI debut.

“He’d just kind of reached his max in the show jumping, and I think Gina had just started to notice about the eventing model that there’s just a bit more diversity for the horses,” says Sian. “She loved the idea of him going out hacking and jumping random things and having a bit more variety, so she said, ‘we’ll just give him a try.’ I think he was going to go back and do a bit more jumping, and then we just did a few events, and he did really well – so we were like, ‘sure, we’ll just keep going!’ It just shows you that when they’re polite and they want to do it, it’s amazing what they can do for you.”

Today’s test was the rangy gelding’s first time in any kind of atmosphere, but he was wholly unruffled by the buzzy, busy main arena here.

“I’m used to producing them myself, and then you can think, ‘okay, well, they’ve been to Le Lion, they’ve been to Boekelo, they know about crowds’, but he’d done nothing other than some Irish jumping shows,” says Sian. “In a way, though, it’s quite nice, because he’s not had any bad experiences either – he’s just an older man saying, ‘huh, what is all this, then?’”

Sian Coleman and Carrowgar Je Taime Max. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“I’m so proud of him,” she continues. “He’s come up the levels quickly, but he stays so with me. We know the changes will be expensive, because he has jumper changes, but he loves to show off and he has a massive trot. He’s just such a pleasure – today he did the nicest bits of lateral work he’s ever done, and on Saturday he’ll go cross-country in an eggbutt snaffle.”

This week marks Sian’s return to the top level after her five-star debut at Pau in 2018 with Kilroe Hero.

“It’s so cool to be back at five-star,” she says. “I only had a small taste of it, obviously, but it’s been hard work to come back. You see your friends go back year after year and think, ‘how do they keep doing this?!’ This is my third attempt now – sometimes horses have gone wrong, and there was some time out when I had [my son] Fred. It’s amazing many ups and downs there are along the way, and you just really need people around you who don’t waver when it goes a bit off-kilter.”

In Gina Heaps and her husband Emelyn – “I’m not the owner, I’m just the Colombian drug mule; I carry things and pay for everything,” he laughs – Sian’s certainly found the right sort of people. And in Max, there’s plenty of hope for the future.

“He’s proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks,” she says with a grin.

Tomorrow’s five-star dressage sees ten further horses and riders come forward, following the withdrawal of Australia’s Bill Levett and RNH Tom Tom R, who were accepted at yesterday’s horse inspection but removed themselves from contention this morning. You can take a look at the starting order here.

The leaderboard after day one of dressage in the CCI5*.

Julia Krajewski and Tullabeg Platinum. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This morning’s competition focused on the CCI4*-S, incorporating the German National Championships, and after 23 tests, it’s Julia Krajewski who’s once again on top.

But her ride today, the twelve-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Tullabeg Platinum, might not be a familiar entity to many fans of the Olympic champion.

The pair posted a 27.2, one of just two sub-30 scores today, to take the lead, shaving over three marks off the gelding’s previous level best in a fluid, harmonious test that belied how tricky he’s previously found this phase.

“He’s been a bit of a funny horse to ride in the dressage, really,” says Julia. “In Germany we’d say he’s been ‘rumpelig’ in the trot and the canter and also, okay, the walk. It took a while for him to go from, ‘okay, I can trot along and canter along’ to working with some kind of collection and self-carriage.”

He is, she points out, “built with very straight hind legs, and we’ve had to figure out how to bend them. I’ve spent a lot of the last year really working on getting him more supple and getting him to come through, but the very positive thing is that he’s always trying. He doesn’t get tense in the arena and actually, he’s even better in there than outside, because he comes up a bit and you can push through. Today was his first time in this kind of atmosphere and he really rose to it – that was very cool.”

Julia Krajewski and Tullabeg Platinum. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

His owner, Michael Sperl, “is probably crying right now,” laughs Julia. “One year ago he was getting so many 33s and 34s, which is nothing bad but nothing special – he was a 6.5 horse. But I always said a 28 has to be possible for him because any horse that behaves can do a 28. We’ve come close to sub-30 a few times but just had a little blip here or there that gives us a 5, and so it’s very nice to do it today.”

Sam Lissington and Delarado. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

New Zealand’s Sam Lissington sits second overnight with Delarado, who put a 29.2 on the board early in the draw. The pair were originally entered in the five-star, but Sam opted to swap the pint-sized Strzegom CCI4*-S winner into this class late in the lead-up.

“I wanted to secure everything for the Worlds and really focus on that,” explains Sam, who has some incredible strength in depth in her string at the moment but rates the twelve-year-old as a team horse in the making.

“She’s always under the radar because she’s not as flashy as some of the others, so she’s not leading from day one, but she can finish on it. She’s a quiet achiever and our Miss Reliability, so while we’re thinking about the future, she’s ready if she’s needed this year.”

Today’s test marks Delarado’s first four-star sub-30.

“We’re forever fighting for it, and she’s just getting to the stage now where she’s so established – she’s got no buzz about her; she just goes and does her job,” says Sam. “So it’s really nice to hit that milestone and break that barrier.”

Cosby Green and Highly Suspicious. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Third place is held by British-based US rider Cosby Green, who rerouted the sixteen-year-old Highly Suspicious from Bramham after an uncharacteristic result in the dressage put them out of the hunt.

“It was 8 o’clock in the morning and really windy, and I think I tried to give him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt and perhaps underprepared him,” says Cosby. “His trot and canter work were lovely but we didn’t do too much walking in the walk, and it just wasn’t quite what we’re capable of, so I did a quick reroute. He’s working the best he ever has – it’s so nice to have a sixteen-year-old that’s still changing and evolving, and we just have to adapt and change with them.”

Today, that flexibility yielded a smart 31, their best score in a year.

“It’s so lovely here that we get to ride in the arena and practice, and he’s such a nervous horse that I can really just focus on giving him confidence in there,” she says. “I don’t think there’s any huge flaw in the work we’d been doing, or the preparation we’d been doing before the test – it’s just about being able to get him comfortable in the arena.”

The top ten at the end of day one in the CCI4*-S.

The four-star will return tomorrow morning at 9.00 a.m. local time (8.00 a.m. BST/3.00 a.m. EST), while the five-star commences at 14.00 (13.00 BST/8.00 a.m. EST). You can follow along live on Horse&Country TV, and tune back in to EN for all the stories you need to know. Go Eventing.

Longines Luhmühlen: [Website] [Tickets] [FEI Schedule] [Entries] [Ride Times/Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Map] [H&C+ Live Stream] [CCI5* Form Guide] [Ultimate Guide] [EN’s Coverage]

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