This year’s Boekelo CCIO4*-L cross-country was a step up in the toughness scales, and plenty of tricky combinations on course had riders and coaches putting their heads together — one rider even admitted that he’d walked the course ‘probably eighteen times!’ to get the measure of it all. But there was one complex that stood out above and beyond the rest, as it tends to every year: the main water, which began at 19 with a big, square timber oxer, then followed on a right-handed 90-degree turn to 20A, a huge drop into water, and 20B, a skinny on an island within the lake. Then, it was straight onto a double of skinnies at 21AB, which were set on a forward striding pattern.

The water caused problems for plenty of reasons: it’s one of the busiest, loudest parts of the course, so there’s plenty to get distracted by, and we saw no shortage of runouts at any of those myriad skinnies, even when some riders opted for one of the available long routes. The changing, dappled lighting can also make this water tricky, and many horses, too, can have a stumble when landing in it, depending on how they jump in.

Judging a drop fence isn’t always the easiest of tasks, but that’s what we’ve got on the agenda for you today. Take a look at this selection of horses and riders as they tackle 20A — you can even see 19 in the background! — and see who you think stands the best chance of landing neatly, regathering the knitting, and making neat work of those three skinnies to come.

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

Phillip Dutton and Denim. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

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

Laura Birley and Bob Cotton Bandit. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Ben Leuwer and Citius. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Stephan Hazeleger and James Bond. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Karin Donckers and Leipheimer van’t Verahof. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Marcio Carvalho Jorge and Royal Encounter. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Ros Canter and Dassett Cooley Dun. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tara Dixon and Master Smart. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

And now, it’s over to you: grab your pool noodles and cast your vote for our best diving duo!

Military Boekelo Links: Website | Entries | Live Scoring | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage

EN’s coverage of Boekelo is presented by Kentucky Performance Products.

Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe record a perfect finish, earning themselves the Boekelo title for 2023. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The margins were extraordinarily tight at the top, and in today’s showjumping finale at Boekelo, the poles were falling in much the same way that elusive concepts like ‘morality’ and ‘dignity’ and sometimes ‘trousers’ fall at the event’s various parties.

So when overnight leader Nicolas Touzaint entered the ring, it was without a rail in hand — and, no doubt, with bated breath. It had been seventeen years since his only former win here, which came when he was a green-bean 26-year-old and not even, yet, a Badminton winner (though he was already, then, an Olympian, because we’re pretty sure they started packing him off to Olympics when he was still riding horses with training wheels and sippy cups attached). In that seventeen years, a lot had changed: the sport, the event itself, which no longer, thank god, has a grass arena, and himself, too. Nearly two decades of experience and maturity and highs and lows and hard-won knowledge had deepened the colours of the world around him, had refined his instincts and sharpened his resolve — but they hadn’t changed the way he rides over a fence. And so, as he nimbly piloted the ten-year-old Diabolo Menthe around the influential showjumping track, legs pointing to Germany and elbows heading off towards Belgium every time he achieved take-off, it all made for rather exciting viewing. Would he tip a rail? Would he go into orbit himself? Or would he, like so many of the great French riders, use his unique style to shift all his weight out of his horse’s way, making it almost impossible to take a sensible photo but also, making sure every pole stayed firmly in its cups?

It was the latter, of course. Diabolo Menthe landed from the last fence, which had fallen seventeen times already, and the crowd — and expressive, ebullient, elbow-y Nicolas — went wild.

Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We just about managed to stop him from galloping pell-mell around the ring with no reins to catch up on how he’s feeling.

“I’m delighted to reset the counter,” he laughs.”I’m feeling very relieved, and very happy! It’s been a lot of work for a long time. Boekelo really is an important test in our programme, and I’ve got so much joy and satisfaction in doing well here. I felt like there wasn’t any rubs, and the time was exactly as we needed to be, so it felt really good.”

Diabolo Menthe, who hasn’t finished outside the top nine in an FEI event since 2020, and who has never had a cross-country jumping penalty in an international, seemed almost fated to win this week: this is his third CCI4*-L, and in his first, he finished third; in his second, he finished second; and now, because we like things to be nice and neat and organised around here, he had to win, really, didn’t he?

Boekelo’s 2023 podium: Nicolas Touzaint (centre), Lara de Liedekerke-Meier (left), and Ros Canter (right). Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Of course, that’s so seldom how equestrian sport works — but since the horse’s first days under saddle, Nicolas has believed he had a big win in him one day, even when, as a young horse, Diabolo Menthe was dismissed by naysayers. Now, there’s a very real chance we could see him posing a serious threat at Paris in front of a home crowd next summer.

“I bought him as a three-year-old, and so I’ve done everything with him. I’ve built his career up all the way through ’til now,” says Nicolas, who began his week in third place on a 25.4 and finished on that score, too, moving up to the overnight lead yesterday after a fall for dressage leader Julia Krajewski and jumping penalties for second-placed Hallie Coon. “I’m very happy to have him shoulder to shoulder now with Absolut Gold HDC; today he joined him in aptitude and experience. I feel incredibly lucky to have two amazing horses, and to have them both qualified now for Paris — although I haven’t made any decisions about which one might be best for that.”

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

Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier has had one hell of a week, to cap off one hell of a year — but before her final ride of three today, on overnight second-placed Ducati d’Arville, she wasn’t sure if her luck might be starting to run out. Her first ride, the inexperienced nine-year-old Formidable 62, knocked three rails; her second, the ordinarily very good-jumping Hooney d’Arville, dropped out of the top ten after tipping two.

But when she came into the ring on Ducati, a horse who she calls ‘the princess of the group’ because he’s not always been easy to manage and maintain, she decided to throw all her cards on the table — despite the fact that the gelding has never jumped a clear round at a long format.

And then, today, he did.

“I was second yesterday, I was second today — I’d rather not be second, but second it is,” laughs Lara. “But if you would have told me that [I’d finish in this position] at the beginning of the week, I would have just never believed it. I think I will have to check the result a couple of times, just to be sure that it happened! I’ve always loved this horse, to the moon and back, for so long, and I kept believing in the fact that [a result like this] might happen. I think it’s thanks to all the hard work at home: he’s not the easiest to handle, and this is a testimony to all the people behind me and just keeping on believing in it. I wish I can do that again; I hope it’s not a one shot, but today I’m just so thrilled. All my horses were fantastic. I have now three horses qualified for Paris, one which is second at Military Boekelo! I cannot complain, I’m just so, so happy.”

Lara has worked enormously hard to overcome a run of bad luck over the last couple of seasons that culminated in a hugely unlucky fall at the first fence at the World Championships last year — and this year, this result is just the cherry on top of a glorious cake. She’s currently the rider with the most FEI wins worldwide in 2023; she was also a crucial part of qualifying Belgium for the Olympics for the first time in over a decade at this summer’s European Championships, and in earning the overall FEI Nations Cup series win, too.

“It was just a question of being patient, and knowing the sport, that if I keep working, I keep believing in the system I have, it will work,” says Lara of her change in fortunes. “I know the wind will turn at some point, but at the moment it just is the way I want, and I will try as hard as I can to keep the horses happy and to stay surrounded by people who believe in me and think the same way and I hope we can stay on this path a bit longer.”

And of Belgium’s bright future, she continues, “It’s 24/7 we speak about it with my husband, Kai, who’s also the team manager. It was so much putting into place — to have the right horses at the right place, also not being influenced by the other riders at competitions, just trying to do what’s best for me and my horses and just leading the way. Even here, being third [as a team], it’s something — Australia, the USA, Great Britain…but we’re still in the picture in this bigger Nations Cup. There were some easier Nations Cups with less competition, but here, it was really amazing. I think we all did it together, and it has been a team effort, and it feels like we like being together more and more, which is something I think Kai worked hard on, and I’m really pleased to have been part of it and be again on the podium here.”

Ros Canter and MHS Seventeen. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

European Champion Ros Canter came to Boekelo this week with two very different horses: in the former Nicola Wilson ride, she had a green-as-grass CCI4*-L debutant, while in the former Sarah Way ride Dassett Cooley Dun, she had something much more experienced, but pony-sized and short-striding, which meant she had to keep her headspace, and her plan of attack, split neatly into two halves. But with both rides, one thing was the same: she didn’t have notions of winning, simply of getting to know each better and develop them a little bit further.

That was something she certainly managed, but to her delight, she also went a few better — MHS Seventeen climbed from a first-phase 11th, on a 28.6, to fifth after an early clear inside the time yesterday. When he came into the pressure cooker of the main arena today, he didn’t bat an eyelid at the myriad distractions within and without the ring, and delivered another foot-perfect clear inside the time to finish on his dressage score and take a final third place. And 14.3hh Mouse? He, too, excelled, finishing on his dressage score of 32.3 to execute a weekend-long climb from 37th to eighth.

“I don’t think I had that expectation at all when I came into this week,” says a delighted Ros. “MHS Seventeen is still an inexperienced horse; he only stepped up to four-star at Bramham this year and was very green there. So he’s had a lot to learn in a very short space of time, and I didn’t dream at all that he would be where he was at the end of this week. And then little Mouse — what an amazing horse he is! It almost makes me emotional because I don’t even know him that well, but he just brings pleasure to every single person that watches him, and I think he’s just amazing.”

MHS Seventeen, who was also thrust into the important role of pathfinder for the second-placed British team this week, is another slightly quirky addition to Ros’s string.

“He can be a spooky little horse, actually, but  you just have to get stuck in with him,” she explains. “He’s not a horse you point to a fence and he says, ‘I’ve got the job’; he wants me to hold his hand all the time, but I actually really love that about him. I’m not into strong horses particularly, I don’t find strong horses easy, so to have a horse like him that I can really get behind on a cross country really suits me.”

But, she says, his spookiness is very different to that of, say, Izilot DHI, with whom she won Blenheim’s CCI4*-L last month.

“Izilot’s spooky at things around the jumps, whereas this horse would draw back, actually, at the fences, so it just means that you can kind of gallop in and he does the preparation work for you, which is actually a really nice feeling.”

Ros Canter and Dassett Cooley Dun. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Ros rode the same dynamic duo at Bramham back in June, but there, she had them in the opposite order of go on cross-country day — something she was keen to reverse this time to allow her to give them the individual rides they needed.

“I definitely wanted to ride MHS Seventeen before Mouse,” she says. “I rode Mouse before him at Bramham, and I felt like, because riding [Mouse] is a little bit different, and his strides aren’t always the same as a normal horse, I thought that would be the better way round.”

But because of the slightly jumbled reverse order of go format of today’s showjumping, the two horses were switched the other way again. Fortunately, though, they were put into two completely different sections: Mouse jumped before the lunchbreak, while MHS Seventeen was fifth from the end of the day’s jumping, and that gave Ros ample time to work on reformatting her mental hard drive.

“I basically went and rewalked at lunchtime with a completely different mindset,” she says. “I’ve just made sure all week to remind myself to split the rides in two, because they’re quite different. I’ve been watching old videos of Sarah Way riding him ride him round Blenheim, just to see how she did it, and rewatching videos of them both has really helped me keep them separate.”

Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Selina Milnes might fly under the radar a touch — and if she does, it’s unfairly so, because her track record of finding and producing incredibly talented horses speaks for itself. In nine-year-old Cooley Snapchat, she’s got a rising star that we could, and probably should, see on plenty of British teams in the not-too-distant future; he stepped up to CCI4*-S just one year ago, and since then, he’s won this summer’s Bramham CCI4*-S, finished fifth in Blenheim’s prestigious eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S, and now, in his debut CCI4*-L, he’s finished on his dressage score of 29.9 to take fourth place. And next year? A win at the level wouldn’t come as a surprise to us one bit.

Luc Chateau and Bastia de l’Ebat. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

France’s Luc Chateau and the relatively inexperienced twelve-year-old Bastia de l’Ebat very nearly finished on their dressage score this week: just 0.4 time penalties yesterday stopped them from becoming one of the seven to do so this week. Their fault-free round today, though, meant that they finished the competition on a 30.2, climbing from nineteenth to fifth.

For Luc, and for his family, it’s a particularly special moment, and a particularly special horse.

“My emotions are really strong,” he admits. “It’s the first CCI4*-L for this horse, and to finish fifth is magic. The horse is from our family’s stud; he was born at home, and I actually rode his father [Houghton and Tattersalls CCI4*-S winner Propriano de l’Ebat] at Boekelo, so it’s really a special history that I have with this horse. It’s magical for me.”

Propriano de l’Ebat was an undeniably excellent horse, but Bastia outshone him roundly today: Propriano had knocked three rails for a 60th place finish here in 2012, while Bastia made easy work of the job at hand today.

“I really need to give him confidence, and then he does the job all by himself,” smiles Luc. Now, it’s hard not to imagine that he could find himself potentially looking ahead to a spot on the Olympic longlist with the horse, though, he says pragmatically, “the places will be very difficult to obtain for next year with just three on the team, and it’s always nice to feel that you’re in consideration, but the road ahead is still long.”

Laura Collett and Dacapo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Like last year, Laura Collett and Dacapo knocked a single pole in this final phase and dropped three places as a result. This year, that was from third to sixth, rather than first to third — but, explains Laura, the circumstances of that pole were completely different.

“I was actually chuffed with him, because he tried really hard. Last year we had a rail because he was being a bit of a lazy pig,” she laughs. “This year, he actually jumped really, really well. I’m obviously annoyed and gutted, but I’m delighted with him. He came out and he really jumped in there — it was just a bit of a shame, really, but that’s horses.”

The close of the 2023 season marks something of a fresh start for ‘Cal’ — or, at least a revised set of goals, which comes after an abortive cross-country round in Luhmühlen’s five-star this year, and many years of hard work on Laura’s part to unpack the brain of a horse who just can’t always quite be bothered with it all, unless he’s at one of his personal favourite events. Boekelo is one of those, and yesterday, Laura’s confidence in that knowledge was bolstered by a super round, one second inside the time.

“You know when you go out the startbox with him [whether he’ll rise to the occasion],” says Laura. “At Luhmühlen I knew I was in trouble from the moment I left the startbox! He was totally up for it yesterday, though — for some reason, he loves it here. He actually gave me probably one of the best rides; I didn’t have to work too hard, he actually travelled and was just having a lovely time, really. It’s just nice to have him back. We know him now: he’s not a five-star horse, and we won’t try again. He can just come here each year and have a lovely time! There’s worse horses to have in the yard than one that keeps coming and finishing top-ten in a four-star long — so long may that continue.”

Tim Price and Jarillo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tim Price finished seventh with the nine-year-old Dutch Warmblood Jarillo, who proved why he was a podium finisher at last month’s Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S with a cooly, classy trio of performances this week that saw him finish with just two time penalties on yesterday’s cross-country course to add to his 29 dressage.

“I’m so happy,” says Tim. “You just want them to come through sound and healthy, and he’s all that, which means you can start to think about next year and what you might do. He’s just been great in all three phases: he was a baby in the dressage and looked at the screen and things, but didn’t come off the job, although we didn’t quite produce our optimum where he’s at now. Then cross country, he was lovely. I gave him time and got some time faults — my intention was to just ride the horse first. I think, almost, that not having a top dressage meant it’s not like I’m trying to hunt the competition down. And he’s just such a lovely horse, and he’s such a careful jumper, I don’t want to go out there and hammer him around in the middle of the course and have some moments where he’s got to dig deep. I just wanted him to understand how easy it is and how he can cope with the stamina. It’s his first time over eight minutes and I couldn’t be more happy with all that, and then today, he’s just jumped like a show jumper.”

Jarillo didn’t show a jot of residual tiredness after his efforts of yesterday — “don’t you love young horses? They bounce back,” laughs Tim. “I’m really happy with him, and it definitely sets him up for next year and beyond.”

Though Blenheim was just a couple of weeks ago, the positive knock-on effects of Jarillo’s week there felt evident for Tim as he tackled each phase here.

“He feels a bit more forged as an Advanced horse this time,” he says. “Even though he’s young and green, the canter half pass, trot half pass, and changes aren’t a surprise to him anymore; he’s not like, ‘what’s this new stuff?’ I think going to Blenheim helps with that, plus the fitness that it put into him — up the hill and across the water and down and around — pushing him a wee bit there was definitely good for his fitness. It’s a big course at Blenheim, it’s quite permanently built and presented, and he coped there very well. It was a great prelude to this.”

Felix Vogg and Dao de l’Ocean. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Switzerland’s Felix Vogg confirmed a potential Olympic partner in the ten-year-old Selle Français Dao de l’Ocean, who climbed from first-phase fifteenth to a final ninth, adding nothing yesterday to his first-phase score of 29.4 and then, frustratingly, rolling the final pole today to move down three places from his overnight sixth.

“The horse is young, he did everything that he could, but I messed it up,” rues Felix, who was nevertheless delighted with the gelding’s performance in his CCI4*-L — especially as the path here hasn’t always been straightforward. He took the ride on after the end of the 2021 season from France’s Aurelie Gomez, who produced him to three-star, but for much of last year, Dao de l’Ocean had more educational outings than competitive ones, picking up a long string of cross-country jumping penalties and eliminations as Felix worked to produce him into a confident, capable partner. The turning point came at Montelibretti last November, when he won the CCI3*-S; he then began this season with another win at the same venue, though at CCI2*-S to confirm that newfound confidence, and has since had six top-five FEI placings and made the move up to CCI4*-S successfully.

“Last year he was quite crocked; he had a lot of eliminations, stops and everything,” he says. “We worked quite a lot over the winter, and this year he won quite a lot or was top-five in most things. He couldn’t do a log on the ground out of trot at first, he was so spooky and scared of everything. So I did a lot of cross country last year, but like 80cm, really low, every week, two or three times. And in the indoor in the winter and stuff like that, and I think that helped him quite a lot. He has everything that you wish for, but that’s the only thing which is still missing a bit — the strength.”

Though quieter tracks such as Montelibretti are great for building the skills that Dao needed to thrive, Felix didn’t want to go down the same route in making this step up: “I wanted to come here to do the first one because it’s a test and if he does it, it’s proper proof for the future. What he did was just brilliant yesterday.  Especially now, when he sees the line and two flags, he’s going for it. Last year, it was still like, ‘I’m unsure, what should I do?’ And now he’s like, especially yesterday when he did that, it’s a really nice effort.”

Now, Felix hopes there’ll be big things to come over the next nine months or so, including — if all goes to plan — a little trip to Paris next summer.

“He’s all ready. Only in dressage the strength has to go up a little bit, so that he can carry himself a bit more, but cross country and the show jumping is actually really good,” he says with a smile.

Karim Laghouag and Embrun de Reno. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

France’s most-loved comedian-on-horseback Karim Laghouag helped to confirm a win in the Nations Cup for the French, but in delivering his clear inside the time today, also nabbed himself a tenth-place finish with nine-year-old Embrun de Reno — a smart finale to an extraordinary climb from first-phase 48th, after adding just 0.8 time penalties yesterday to their dressage mark of 33.1.

Cosby Green and Jos Ufo de Quidam. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

22-year-old US representative Cosby Green finished 25th with relatively new ride Jos Ufo de Quidam, climbing from an original 73rd place after adding nothing to her score sheet yesterday and a single rail and 0.4 time today. That’s not just a very respectable result in its own right — it was also enough to earn her the title of best Boekelo rookie (hear us out here: a Roekelo?). That’s an even bigger deal, she explains, because she didn’t even necessarily know if she was going to be able to ride here at all a week ago. That all changed when Boekelo decided to take all its entrants and host a record-breaking size of field this year.

“I’m so happy, I really am — I’m very, very happy,” she says with a broad grin. “But my expectations were quite low! I found out Monday afternoon after returning from Lignières the past week, that I got into the competition, and I hadn’t obviously ridden him for the week before. This had always been the plan, but when I found out I finally got in, it was super exciting. My plan was to get a good MER and get a solid result, but really, everything about it was unconventional, so to have this result is just so exciting.”

Yesterday, she says, the 15-year-old gelding “gave me the ride of my life. He was so fast! It was hard all day — I had to sit there watching you know the best riders in the world go round, have some mistakes and whatnot. I just went out there and I attacked it and believed in my horse and he believed in me, and we had an amazing, amazing round. I was very stuck to my plan. I knew exactly. He’s one of the best cross country horses I’ve ever sat on, so I wasn’t too deterred by anything. But it was good to have breakfast, I will say!”

And today, he looked as fresh as ever, jumping neatly around the influential track.

“He was amazing,” enthuses Cosby. “With the big atmosphere, you never know how they’re going to act, but I think he just gave that little bit more to me, which is which is always what you hope for. He’s awesome.”

Now, Cosby will head to Pau to finish her year, before a winter trip back home to the US — and then she’ll be back before the spring season for another stint with Tim and Jonelle Price and then, presumably, world domination.

“It’s really nice that all my top horses have had really strong finishes in this fall season. I just hope I can finish this out strong!

Tiana Coudray and D’Artagnan. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tiana Coudray and her try-hard nine-year-old D’Artagnan tipped two rails and added 0.8 time penalties to finish in 36th place — but that won’t be much of a disappointment for the Olympian, who debuted the gelding at Novice last year and has been astounded by his quick, easy, generous progress through the levels. Now, with his first CCI4*-L behind him, there’s a whole future jam-packed with success to come — and that’s very exciting, indeed.

Hallie Coon and Cute Girl. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Hallie Coon and Cute Girl, who had delivered the second-best dressage test of the whole competition and a hugely classy cross-country round yesterday, with just one green error from the CCI4*-L debutant mare, also gave a masterclass in the arena today, jumping a classy clear with just 0.4 time to finish 59th, and brimming with hope for the nine-year-old mare’s undoubtedly bright future to come. Just. Look. At. Those. Knees. We’re obsessed.

The final top ten at Boekelo 2023.

With two of their team riders in the top ten, it’s no surprise at all that overnight leaders France secured the bag in the Nations Cup competition, finishing 13.4 penalties ahead of second-placed Great Britain. Third place went to those intrepid Belgians, who also secured the win in the 2023 series leaderboard, while the US’s squad of developing horses and riders completed a climb from eleventh to fourth, just two penalties off a podium finish.

James Alliston and Karma. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The best-placed of the US team was Brit-turned-West-Coaster James Alliston, who threw down the gauntlet with a very cool clear round with the enormously likeable nine-year-old Oldenburg Karma, who was bred on the West Coast by Patricia Crowley. That was enough to secure him a final 14th place, well up from the 75th place he began in — such is the power of finishing on your dressage score, and that’s just what he did to end up on a 35.9.

Cassie Sanger and Fernhill Zoro. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Nineteen-year-old Cassie Sanger and her Fernhill Zero had just the fickle final fence down to finish 35th, capping off an educational and hugely exciting week for the pair, who have delivered mature, measured performances brimming with quality over all three phases, and will no doubt be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come.

Phillip Dutton and Denim. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Phillip Dutton’s eight-year-old Denim also had the final fence down, plus 0.4 time, to finish in 45th place, a smart finish to a developmental week for this classy young gelding, who was formerly piloted by the Netherlands’ Merel Blom-Hulsman.

We reported last month that Italy had, unofficially, qualified for the Olympics by default as the only contenders coming into the final Nations Cup leg, which awarded a Paris ticket to the highest-placed unqualified team in the series standings — and today, by dint of the competition finishing, they truly and officially became our latest team to secure that coveted Olympic qualification. Bellisimo.

The final team standings in the 2023 FEI Nations Cup finale.

Janneke Boonzaaijer and I’m Special N take the Dutch National Title. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

And finally, the Dutch National Championship went back to 2022 winner Janneke Boonzaaijer, this time on I’m Special N, who were the only competitors in this leaderboard to jump clear, though they did add 0.8 time to their score sheet. That allowed them to step up from overnight third place after leader Merel Blom-Hulsman knocked a rail and added 1.2 time penalties with Vesuve d’Aveyron, dropping her to second, and overnight second-placed Sanne de Jong and Global Faerlie Flashy knocked three and added 0.4 time to move to third.

The final standings in the Dutch National Championship.

And so, for now, that’s EN over and out from another brilliant Boekelo. It’s been a wild ride, and we need some Berocca. Go, we implore you, To Sleep.

Military Boekelo Links: Website | Entries | Live Scoring | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage

EN’s coverage of Boekelo is presented by Kentucky Performance Products.

Phillip Dutton’s Denim seriously considers joining the under-twelves football game that may or may not be about to kick off behind him. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We were only part of the way through the morning’s final horse inspection at Boekelo when the screaming started.

Just kidding. Sort of. This year’s new trot-up location is great in some ways: unlike previous years, which have seen the inspections take place on the sandy footing of the arena, we’re now blessed with a proper hard-standing trot strip, which allows for a more exacting view of equine movement — but the other side of that coin is that in order to get that hard-standing area, we’ve moved the trot-up to the back side of a school. And yes, it’s Sunday, but yes, those tiny little Dutch chaos agents came out in full force, ready to wreak havoc and eat poffertjes, probably.

No bother, though, for the horses and riders who successfully navigated yesterday’s tough cross-country track, because in doing so, they got a PhD in dealing with chaos agents. Yesterday, it was 60,000 happy, loud, drunk adults, so who’s going to be scared, really, of a large group of prepubescents on a sugar high? Well, me, maybe, but fortunately they don’t make me do any running on a Sunday morning at these things. Thank the lord for small mercies and all that.

Our field of 84 finishers has diminished slightly going into today’s showjumping finale, which will begin at 11.30 a.m. (10.30 a.m. BST/5.30 a.m. EST) with a big batch of individual riders to jump first. In theory, the jumping today will be kind of in reverse order of merit, though it’s fairly jumbled in order to allow for a proper team showdown in the second part of the day, which will begin at 14.30 (13.30 BST/7.30 a.m. EST). Once we get into our top ten riders, though, at the very end of the day, then we’ll see a proper reverse order of merit showdown. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy the gentle air of confusion — and for now, let’s take a look at what happened this morning.

Three horses were withdrawn before the final horse inspection: the Netherlands’ Beau Posthumus opted not to present Smokie, 42nd overnight after a clear round yesterday; Germany’s young talent Brandon Schäfer-Gehrau also withdrew Fräulein Frieda 10, who sat 80th, and Ireland’s Robbie Kearns didn’t present Avery Klunick’s Pisco Sour, who was 49th.

Felix Etzel and TSF Polartanz visit the holding box, but are accepted to continue in their bid for a top placing at Boekelo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

There was some drama for those who did present, too. Overnight fourth-placed Felix Etzel and TSF Polartanz once again found themselves in the holding box, as they had at Wednesday’s first horse inspection, but were happily accepted upon representation, as was the Netherlands’ Maartje Van Riel and Eppo, who sit 65th overnight and seventh in the Dutch National Championship. But fortunes were fewer for France’s Cedric Lyard and Song du Magay, who were not accepted to continue the competition after some discussion by the ground jury of Judy Hancock, Xavier Le Sauce, and Merel Schurink.

Maartje van Riel and Eppo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Now, we have 80 left in the hunt, and a serious battle to come: France sit in first in the team competition, 9.4 penalties, or two rails plus three seconds, in hand over the Brits in second place, while series leaders Belgium are three rails and change off that top spot. The Netherlands sit fourth, and the US fifth, as we head into the final phase. And in the individual competition, the margins are even tighter: overnight leaders Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe are on a two-phase score of 25.4, which gives them just two seconds in hand over Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Ducati d’Arville. Laura Collett and Dacapo sit just 0.3 behind Lara, which isn’t even a second in hand, and Felix Etzel and TSF Polartanz are on an overnight score of 28.4, which is 1.5 penalties — or three seconds and change — behind Laura. In overnight fifth place, Ros Canter and MHS Seventeen are just two-tenths of a penalty behind Felix, and one rail covers the top six places. The showjumping course looks technical and tough, and the time in this phase tends to be influential here, so it’ll be a thrilling finale to one of the best competitions of the year. Make sure you don’t miss out: all the action is free to live-stream via the FEI TV YouTube channel, or via ClipMyHorse for members.

Here’s a look at our top ten after cross-country:

The top ten after an exciting day of cross-country at Boekelo.

We’ll be back with full coverage of today’s action later this afternoon. Until then: Go Eventing!

Military Boekelo Links: Website | Entries | Live Scoring | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage

EN’s coverage of Boekelo is presented by Kentucky Performance Products.

Hallie Coon and Cute Girl deliver their partnership’s personal best on the main stage. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

While our leaders in the clubhouse at Boekelo, Germany’s Julia Krajewski and Nickel 21, remain unchanged at the end of day two, the day got off to a very exciting start for the US contingent – and for fans of bloody good dressage. Individual competitors Hallie Coon and the former Seven-Year-Old World Champion threw down the day’s only significant challenge to Julia’s 23.6, delivering a flowing, poetic test that earned them a 25 — a score that’s not just the second-best in the whole, enormous competition, but also the best-ever international dressage score that either horse or rider has ever produced.

That score comes as the culmination of no small amount of work. Hallie bought Cute Girl from Australia’s Kevin McNab at the beginning of last year, first getting to know her at home in the US before making the big decision to relocate to the UK at the tail end of last season, basing herself with Kevin for a full immersion into the UK and European competition scenes four years on from her 2018 stint in England, when she came over as a recipient of the Karen Stives Endowment Fund Grant. There, she trained not just with Kevin, but also with Danish dressage rider Sune Hansen, both of whom helped her to unpack the talented, occasionally tricky mare’s headspace, and now, having recently relocated to Katherine Coleman’s Wiltshire base, she’s added Team GB performance manager Dickie Waygood and dressage rider Olivia Oakley to her support arsenal.

The most important element, though? Time — and patience. Getting to know a horse that’s gone to a high level with another rider — in Cute Girl’s case, three-star with Kevin — is always a nuanced process, and one that is often peppered with as many steps back as there are forward ones while both parts of the partnership figure one another out. This year has seen plenty of the former and the latter for Hallie and the nine-year-old Holsteiner (Coventry x Caligula, by Clearway), and now, it’s all coming together into a relationship that’s blossoming out of trust and shared experiences. Their trip to Blenheim’s eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S saw them sit in the top ten after the first two phases, which was an exciting turning point that became an educational weekend, and now, Hallie says, it all feels like the real deal — and this is a moment that she’s going to relish.

“It doesn’t happen often,” she laughs. “It feels like everything came together today. I knew it was in her — she’s so working with me now, and I’m just so excited. There’s no anticipation, there’s no missed signals — she’s just there with me, and it’s just lovely.”

“Oh my god, this animal is a beast”: Hallie Coon and Cute Girl. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Every competition, and every schooling ride, is a chance to fine-tune their communication, and this — Cute Girl’s debut season at four-star — has given them plenty of opportunity to finesse the system.

“There’s a balance of getting her forward enough and into the hand,” explains Hallie. “Then that, for a while, resulted in her running past the rhythm that she should be in. But the rhythm that she should be in, she wasn’t strong enough for yet. In the last week, though, she’s turned into this absolute animal — you get on and you’re thinking, ‘Oh my god, this animal is a beast!’ It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt. It’s finally like all the strength, and the power, and the collection is finally coming together, and it’s magic.”

And, she jokes, “it’s nice to maybe not have a reputation as a bad dressage rider anymore! But she’s very green still. She’s only a nine year old, so it’s very exciting for the future. The show jumping is so strong, and it’s just about getting on the same page for the cross country. Hopefully we’re working towards that.”

It’s not hard to imagine that the step up in communication that led to their exemplary test today could well have a positive follow-through effect on their cross-country performance. While they come here off the back of a tricky Blenheim — they trialled a different bitting set-up there, which resulted in a bit too much go and not enough ‘woah’ — they regrouped for an enormously positive run in the tough Open Intermediate at Little Downham, and Hallie, who has previously finished in the top ten here, thinks Boekelo could well be the making of Cute Girl as an upper-level competitor, not least because she relishes the buzz of a serious atmosphere.

“She was so bloody relaxed in this arena,” says Hallie. “Obviously, after the prep that we’ve had, you wouldn’t usually take a horse here, but I do feel like all the Boekelo questions that she’s seen she’s answered well, and I think it’s the right track for her. Maybe it’s not the choice everyone would make, but here we are!”

Hallie Coon and groom Tabby Fiorentini. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Germany’s Felix Etzel was the only other new entrant to the top ten today; he sits in tenth place going into cross-country with the 12-year-old Trakehner stallion TSF Polartanz (Konvoi x Polarfreude II, by Heraldik xx) on a smart score of 28.4. The Warendorf rider and his compact, classy horse are absolutely ones to watch tomorrow: they took the win in Strzegom’s CCI4*-S last month in their prep run for Polartanz’s CCI4*-L debut, which will also be his first long-format run since 2019, when he finished third in the CCI3*-L at Houghton Hall in England.

Tiana Coudray and the expressive D’Artagnan. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

British-based US Olympian Tiana Coudray has an undeniable future star in the nine-year-old Holsteiner D’Artagnan (Diamant de Semilly x Cherie Nema, by Cassini II) – and D’Artagnan has had a seriously big few months in pursuit of whatever the equine equivalent of a Master’s degree is. He stepped up to CCI4*-S in July of this year at Aston le Walls, just a year after making his FEI debut, and jumped clear, before doing the same again at Burgham’s CCI4*-S a month later. Last month, we saw him step up to the big leagues in Blenheim’s eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S, where he excelled himself for an exciting top-25 finish and now, we’re getting the great joy of seeing him make his CCI4*-L debut. That began with a sweet, flowing test that earned them a 32.5 and overnight 41st place, and gave Tiana and her groom, best friend, and co-owner Annabelle James plenty to celebrate.

“It’s only been a couple of weeks since Blenheim, and I feel like he’s just come on again,” beams Tiana. “There’s not a single day I come out with him and he hasn’t improved from the day before — he breaks my heart, he’s so gorgeous! He tries so hard — he’ll give you everything he’s got. Absolutely everything.”

That deep desire to try has taken him from Novice (US Prelim) to four-star in just over a year, and it’s also the secret weapon that allowed him to make the best of the buzzy, often overwhelming atmosphere of the arena today, despite never having seen a thing like it.

“He was so good in there — so good,” says Tiana. “My biggest struggle with him for now — and there’s no way around it — is just that he’s weak and he doesn’t have the strength to hold it together. But God, he tries — and actually, out here in the warm up, I thought, ‘Oh, no, I’ve used him up. He’s got nothing left’. He was really wobbly and wiggly and tripping over his own feet, and then he went in the ring and to be fair, the adrenaline picked him up a bit more.”

The feeling, she explains, is even better than the one she had at Blenheim, where he scored a 34.9.

“He’s a lot stronger already. By the end of the test, he’s still slightly falling down the centerline. But he held himself together more in there, and give him six months or a year and it’s so exciting what he’ll do, because he’s got the temperament and he’s just such a nice boy. He’s doing it right now because he wants to so badly, but it’s not easy for him yet.”

Now, she’s looking forward to cruising around his first-ever long-format four-star track, and Boekelo’s build this year — a much more open, gallopy feel than we’ve seen here before — will be a great platform for him to learn the ropes on, she says.

“Last time I was here, it was really twisty, and he wouldn’t necessarily be a horse for twisty tracks,” she says. “He’s such a big galloping, powerful horse, so actually, I’m delighted with this year’s course. It’s much more open and galloping. There’s plenty to do, and we can’t forget how green and young he really is, but I’m really excited. I think, from what I was expecting, it’s going to suit him better, because he’s got a really good chance to run and jump. I think the only thing about it is because they have such a chance to run and jump, you then have to be on your game when you do get to a combination. You could get lulled into just having a wonderful time running and jumping, especially on a horse like him, so we just need to really make sure we’re on it when it comes to it!”

Cosby Green and Jos Ufo de Quidam. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The final US individual competitors, Cosby Green and Jos Ufo de Quidam, had a long wait before they got their moment to shine – they were the 110th pair of the competition to deliver their test in the main arena. But while all that hanging around might make most of us go a bit green around the gills, Cosby’s been learning an enviable skill in her season based in the UK with Tim and Jonelle Price: the art of the Kiwi-style chill-out.

“The whole experience has just really grown me in confidence — that’s something I really struggle with,” says 22-year-old Lexington native Cosby, who made the move over with three horses in March. “Just seeing them do it every other weekend; they’re just out there doing the proper thing, no big deal. I think that’s really rubbed off on me — it’s just a horse show, you do the job, you do what you know how to do and it’s no big deal. You just roll on and things happen and you just carry on.”

That newfound zen helped Cosby pilot the relatively inexperienced Jos Ufo de Quidam (Lobby des Fortes x Remonta Guinea) to a confidence-boosting, smart test, with just two small mistakes – a touch of jog in the walk, and a wobble in a flying change as one of the tents next to the arena erupted in that sporadic, loud applause we experienced yesterday afternoon. They put a 35.6 on the board, slotting them into 73rd – but just over ten penalties from the top spot – going into cross-country.

“I mean, I really wish the mark was better, but it’s his first time in a proper atmosphere like that and there’s people all around clapping, so all things considered, I’m pretty happy with it,” says Cosby. “He’s new to the level, and ours is a decently new partnership; I got him from Heather Morris, who owns him, about a year and a half ago. She competed him to 3* level and then she handed over the reins to me last April, and he just stepped up to the 4* level this year. He’s quite experienced with the 3* level, and still sorting this out.”

Basing in the UK has given Cosby the chance to educate her horses over varied, tough tracks, and Jos Ufo de Quidam’s experience at four-star so far has given him the chance to see plenty of different build styles; he stepped up to CCI4*-S at Millstreet in Ireland in June, and then ran at the same level at England’s Aston le Walls the next month, finishing just outside the top twenty with classy clears both times. His CCI4*-L debut came at Blair Castle in Scotland in August, over a track known for being arguably the most mountainous in the sport, and there he shone — their steady clear saw them finish just outside the top ten, and with lots to get excited about as they come into this much flatter, championship-style continental course.

“It looks really good out there, and it’s really suited for my horse,” says Cosby, who says that the Team Price plan is “very focused: everything has a plan, and then the plan is just to execute it!”

One thing she’s not quite got on board with while adopting the Kiwi mindset, though? “Everyone except me was wearing flip flops on our course walk today,” she laughs.

The top ten following dressage at Military Boekelo.

Sanne de Jong and Global Faerlie Flashy remain atop the Dutch National Championship leaderboard on their score of 31.9, and former winner Merel Blom-Hulsman retains her second place on 33.9 with Vesuve d’Aveyron. Stephan Hazeleger and the splashy coloured James Bond step up into third place with their 34.6.

The Dutch National Championship leaderboard at the end of the first phase.

Tomorrow’s cross-country start time has been moved to 9.30 a.m. local time (that’s 8.30 a.m. British time/3.30 a.m. Eastern time) to accommodate for the colossal field of 112 starters, with a planned finish time — holds notwithstanding — of just after 4.00 p.m. (3.00 p.m./10.00 a.m.). That’s great news if you’re planning a duvet day with nothing on your to-do list but live-streaming, particularly as all the action is set to be streamed for free via the FEI TV YouTube channel, as well as through ClipMyHorse.

Want to follow along with the US riders in particular, and need to manage those early morning power-naps? Here’s when they’re set to leave the start box:

• James Alliston and Karma (75th overnight): 10.03 a.m. (9.03 a.m. BST/4.03 a.m. Eastern)
• Cassie Sanger and Fernhill Zoro (67th overnight): 10.39 a.m. (9.39 a.m. BST/4.39 a.m. Eastern)
• Jennie Brannigan and FE Connory (86th overnight): 11.30 a.m. (10.30 a.m. BST/5.30 a.m. Eastern)
• Phillip Dutton and Denim (68th overnight): 12.06 p.m. (11.06 a.m. BST/6.06 a.m. Eastern)
• Hallie Coon and Cute Girl (2nd overnight): 13.39 p.m. (12.39 p.m. BST/7.39 a.m. Eastern)
• Tiana Coudray and D’Artagnan (41st overnight): 14.57 p.m. (13.57 p.m. BST/8.57 a.m. Eastern)
• Cosby Green and Jos Ufo de Quidam (73rd overnight): 15.48 p.m. (14.48 p.m. BST/9.48 a.m. Eastern)

Our pathfinders for the day’s sport will be US-based Aussie Ryan Wood and Cooley Flight, who sit 101st after dressage on a 39 and also trailblaze for the Australian team, which currently sits just off the Nations Cup podium in fourth place. Dressage leaders Julia Krajewski and Nickel 21 will head out of the startbox at 11.03 a.m. (10.03 a.m. BST/5.03 a.m. Eastern) with just 1.4 penalties, or three seconds and change, in hand over Hallie and Cute Girl. Stay tuned for a walk around Adrian Ditcham’s new-look track, stock up your Grolsch fridge (you do have a Grolsch fridge, right?) and let’s dive into a seriously mad day of cross-country together. 3, 2, 1: let’s Go Eventing!

Military Boekelo Links: Website | Entries | Live Scoring | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage

EN’s coverage of Boekelo is presented by Kentucky Performance Products.

Julia Krajewski takes the day one lead at Boekelo with the exciting debutant Nickel 21. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

57 horses took to the atmospheric main arena on day one of dressage at the Military Boekelo CCIO4*-L – and when we say ‘atmospheric’, we’re not kidding. Though the morning session was nice and quiet (who, after all, makes it out to watch a 9.00 a.m. test when they spent the prior night propping up the bar?), by midday or so, the numerous social venues around the ring had begun to fill up with hospitality guests and sponsors. We’re not quite sure what they were all up to, but they were very happy to be doing it, and throughout a number of tests, loud, spontaneous, and apparently entirely unrelated applause broke out sporadically. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a photo of Germany’s Christoph Wahler taking it firmly in his stride and accepting it as kudos for his evidently stunning bit of walk work. Take it all in, Christoph; fame has come for you.

‘It might be a 5, but it’s a really, really enjoyable 5.’

One rider who enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet — relatively speaking, anyway — was Olympic champion Julia Krajewski of Germany, who capitalised upon the opportunity and piloted the nine-year-old CCI4*-L debutant Nickel 21 (Numero Uno x Orchidee V, by Lorentin) to the best-ever score of his international career. That 23.6 catapulted her straight into the lead with nearly a two penalty margin at the end of day one, making it a very good day in the office indeed for horse and rider – but, she says sagely, there’s always something to improve upon.

“He’s only nine, and the other week, I looked up how many three-stars I did with him — it was two, maybe three. So he doesn’t have the biggest experience, and so it’s always a little bit, ‘will he switch on?’ ‘How much do you do?’,” she says of the gelding, who was originally sold to a teenager as a young horse because he wasn’t expected to make the upper levels. “He’s been a bit of everything this year, and I’m trying to figure out a system that’s perfect for him for the dressage, and maybe for myself, I did a touch too much yesterday. He could have been even more springy, but he was so well-behaved. So more for myself, I’m always thinking, ‘what can I do better?'”

Those little moments of opportunity for progression — the walk, for example, which was scored in various points from 6s to 8s — were countered by an awful lot of very nice work, which saw Julia earn 9s for her first and final centrelines and an enviable collection of 8s elsewhere, including across the board for the harmony collective. Though Nickel is young and reasonably inexperienced, his strength and balance, both physically and mentally, have been on an impressive upward trajectory across his first ‘big boy’ season, wherein he made his first strides into the global spotlight when finishing on the podium for the German National Championship at Luhmühlen in June. Now, he’s beginning to feel like a real grown-up, Julia explains.

“How he went in and coped with the atmosphere was super nice. He just wants to do well. If you wanted to say anything about this horse, it’s that he just wants to do well, and that’s really good to have underneath you.” But, she continues, “three weeks ago at Blenheim, it was the complete opposite. For him, being on grass means galloping and jumping, [and that affected his test]. Here, when he walked on the grass, he always felt a little bit switched on, and when I went to the sand school and it was like, ‘okay, it’s okay. Let’s stay on sand’. It’s been funny — he’s very black or white. He’s either uper easy or you’re like ‘okay, what’s going on in your mind? Can we go back to normal?!’ But I’m really, really happy with him. I’m complaining for myself on a super high level, but I’m very, very proud of him. I think he’s probably got one of the best average dressage scores this year, so that’s really nice.”

This, she says, is the bread and butter of what she does.

“I think the nice feeling is that you know they’re still young they’re still going to hopefully get better. You always put a little stone on to the other scale, and get your warm up and preparation right. It’s what I love about this sport — finding the perfect way to make my horse and the judges happy.”

Now, she’s looking ahead to the biggest task of the gelding’s week – his first long-format four-star cross-country after five runs at CCI4*-S, in which he’s never finished outside of the top ten. The key, Julia says, is avoiding complacency, even with Boekelo’s trademark lack of terrain and ostensibly straightforward single fences.

“The course is, I think, typically Boekelo. It’s flat, but that’s always the same. It’s nice, but it’s enough to jump. You either have what you think is a straightforward jump — but I wouldn’t underestimate the big boxes they put everywhere — and then there are proper questions in between. There’s a bit of everything: skinnies, corners, angles, a downhill approach to an angled brush at the end. I think you really have to be on your toes and, especially if you or the horse haven’t done a long one, make sure they’re still switched on. Because it’s either fairly straightforward or, for my feeling, a proper test. It’s a good course, and I think it’s fair — but Boekelo’s always testing in the end, and never boring on Saturday!”

Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe step up to the plate for the French. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

While no one could touch Julia’s score, French Olympian Nicolas Touzaint made the closest bid, putting a 25.4 on the board with the ten-year-old Diabolo Menthe (Scareface de Mars x Cori Van De Helle, by Caesar Van De Helle) after trending around the 22 mark for much of the test’s trot work. While I’ve not yet had enough beers to attempt to coax an interview out of Nicolas in French, for which I’m sure he’s enormously grateful, I did a sub-30 myself once (just the once, mind you, and definitely not at four-star) so I feel pretty well-qualified to tell you that this horse is a serious not-so-secret weapon for the formidable French squad. I first saw him at Le Lion d’Angers as a seven-year-old in 2020, where he very nearly won it but for the final rail falling on the final day — but that eventual third-place finish has catapulted him to some seriously inspiring results. This is just his thirteenth FEI start, but in his previous twelve, he’s finished in the top ten ten times, and hasn’t been outside the top four since 2020. Today’s dressage score was by far his best ever, and you can expect him to follow up on it: he’s gone clear inside the time across country seven times, ordinarily only adds a second or two if he’s going to add anything, has never had a cross-country jumping penalty, and has had a single rail down in the last three years. That’s about all the insightful analysis I can muster for you now, but I will say this: I like him a lot, and you probably should, too.

Kevin McNab makes Miss Pepperpot his match at Boekelo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Australia’s Kevin McNab sits third overnight, and while he’s only had the ride on the eleven-year-old British-bred mare Miss Pepperpot (Peppermill x Winney Z, by Winner E) for just over a year, their partnership is beginning to look truly baked in. They proved that in spades today, posting a 25.5 that — surprise! — represents the best test of the horse’s international career thus far. We’re sensing a theme, and we’re into it.

“[We’re] definitely starting to feel more like we’re on the same page now and getting to know each other, and she was really good. She felt really professional in there,” says Kevin, who took the ride on from Britain’s Caroline Harris when the mare had already done a year at four-star. Learning the ropes of one another, he says, is simply a matter of time and sympathetic riding.

“I think that, in general, horses are creatures of habit, and so it takes a little while until you develop a partnership, no matter what they are,” he says. “She’s very workman-like; she tries really hard. And I would say that because she tries so hard, it’s really good to be on the same page, otherwise we can get little mistakes there because we’re both trying a bit too hard. Today, she was really relaxed in there. She stayed with me for the whole test — and it was actually quite fun!”

Relaxation is the watchword for the clever, sensitive mare, and Kevin was delighted to tick that box with her between the boards today.

“She actually started quite relaxed; she halted in the beginning and took a breath,” he says. “The mediums were maybe a little conservative, and the extended movements, but then as she got going in the canter, she felt good. The second change felt really nice — I hope it looked as good! It felt very good, and I was really happy with her. She’s got three good gaits and she can do everything really well, it’s just a matter of developing a little bit more now.”

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

At the tail end of the day, Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier strode back into the arena on her second horse of the day determined to deliver the test she knew Ducati d’Arville (Diarado x Pricilla, by Perpignon) was capable of. And that’s exactly what she did, earning a 26.6 that put the duo squarely into fourth place overnight.

For Lara, it’s just the start of a big week to come with three horses on her roster — but it’s also a moment that represents an incredible turning point of a year. After some truly rotten luck over the last couple of seasons, she’s turned it all around, and comes into Boekelo as the rider with the most FEI wins in the world for 2023 — and a key player in Belgium’s first Olympic team qualification since 2012, a box the team ticked in fine style at this summer’s European Championships. They’re also the de facto victors of the 2023 FEI Nations Cup series, with such a significant lead coming into this final leg that nobody can catch up with them.

But that’s Belgium as a team – now, let’s focus on Lara as a rider. The 13-year-old Ducati, who Lara bought on something of a whim as a young horse because he had the same name, and many of the same characteristics, as a previous much-loved horse, is one of Lara’s two individual rides here this week (her team horse, Hooney d’Arville, sits 16th on a 30.4), and has previously made headlines this year for finishing in the top ten at Aachen. Beyond that, though, he’s been a labour of love, and one that’s paying his dues in a major way now.

“It’s a dream come true to bring him here, and it will be a dream come true to finish it,” says Lara, adding, “I’m going to start crying! It means the world to me, because this horse just kept me awake for the last few years, and he feels as good as ever. So I’m scared to dream and to believe in it, but I think all the people behind me know how important he is to me, and so I just tried it to enjoy the test and not make it more important than it is at the end.”

Lara, like so many exceptional athletes, holds herself to exacting standards – but this week, that decision to enjoy the moment is at the forefront of her priorities.

“I just want to have fun with him, and when he feels like today it’s so easy. I’m scared to believe that I will make a good result with him,” she admits. “But he feels stronger than ever, and he’s so happy to be here. I think there is even more in him — his rider just needs to have everything in order in her head, but I think that’s never going to happen anyway! But he’s a true friend; I really, really like him and he feels good. “

There’ll be plenty more happy moments to enjoy in the phases to come: “Cross-country should be — it normally is — his strongest phase,” says Lara, “so I’m really looking forward to that. Then we will see whatever comes after that! But today, it’s just pure joy. I’m really happy about Hooney, too — she was fantastic.  The walk is still a work in progress, but she really tried hard for me, and he tried even more, and I feel in a good place as well. I’m just still on the high of the wave, and I know that will change. I won’t stay like that, so I’m going to enjoy as much as I can because at some moment, something will go wrong, and I hope it won’t be this weekend or even this year, but now I just know that I have this luck that you sometimes lose, and it feels so good to be here with these horses.”

Laura Collett and Dacapo sit fifth overnight on day one. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Though last year’s first-phase leaders, Laura Collett and Dacapo (Diarado x Tosca VII, by Canturo), couldn’t quite match their 21.9 of last year, they still delivered a very respectable 26.9 to sit fifth overnight. That mark was earned via a long string of good marks from the judges, but dampened somewhat by 4s in the second flying change and the second walk pirouette — an expensive couple of moments that, Laura explains, happened because the 14-year-old “just dropped behind my leg and got a bit lazy, like he can do! He needs a bit more of an atmosphere. But he was fine; he sort of goes through the motions, but he has to be quite sparkly to do a really good test, which he wasn’t quite today.”

Whether it might have helped him to have random applause from drunk businessmen scattered through his test isn’t necessarily a sure thing, either: “Atmosphere helps, but it’s whether he can be bothered. He didn’t really feel like it today, but we know he can do that sometimes,” says Laura with a wry smile.

But it’s never over ’til it’s over, and Boekelo has historically been a very happy hunting ground for Dacapo, who finished third here last year and jumped a speedy clear in 2019, too. There’ll be plenty to do on Saturday, and some room to climb — even more so, explains Laura, because this year’s Boekelo course has a beefy new feel to it.

“It’s a step up from from what we’re used to here, and with the new layout and the extra loops, it has a much nicer flow to it,” she says. “I think at the first water you’ll have to be very committed, and hope they’re awake and on it early on. The rest is, is very jumpable, but with clever questions here or there that, when you think about what the crowds are going to be like, mean keeping the horses focused is going to be the real challenge. But that does help Dacapo, because you’ve got the crowd from start to finish and it wakes him up a bit!”

Anna Lena Schaaf and Fairytale 39. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Germany’s Anna Lena Schaaf might be just 22, but she’s already making a major name for herself in the sport: riding her self-produced Lagona OLD, she won the Six-Year-Old and Seven-Year-Old World Championships in 2021 and 2022, respectively (and just about everything else in between, mind you); she was the Pony European Champion in 2016, the Junior European Champion in 2019, and the Young Rider European Reserve Champion in 2021; and she’s finished just off the podium in the German National Championship at Luhmühlen too this year, in her first season at four-star. But before this veritable wunderkind was kicking ass and taking names across the continent, most often with the sixteen-year-old Fairytale 39, she was just a kid with a homebred horse and some big dreams.

“I was eight and she was five when I started riding her,” smiles the young rider, patting the mare who her grandfather bred from her mother’s former dressage horse. “It’s really special. She’s my once in a lifetime horse. She’s like my best friend – she’s super calm, and everyone loves her. You can really do anything with her.”

That long partnership, and the mare’s winning personality, helped them begin their first-ever CCI4*-L with a bang: they sit sixth overnight on a smart score of 27.4.

“She was really good,” says Anna Lena of Fairytale (Fidertanz 2 x Lena, by Laurentianer. And yes, we do suspect Anna Lena’s name might be a nod to her mother’s horse.). “She was a bit calm in the warm up, but I think in the arena it was really good. She was in front of me and I can really sit and ride her. She is a dressage horse so it’s her strength!”

She sits just ahead of Jonelle Price and Senor Crocodillo, who scored a 27.9 – “he’s kind of exceeded my expectations; I was hoping for sub-30, but a 29.9 would have sufficed!” – for overnight seventh, while eighth place provisionally goes to Maxime Livio and his team stalwart, Api du Libaire, on a 28. Ros Canter is ninth on the inexperienced MHS Seventeen, on a score of 28.6, while Tim Price and Jarillo, who finished in third place at last month’s Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old championship, round out the top ten overnight on a 29.

Cassie Sanger and Fernhill Zoro. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The US team sit eleventh after dressage in the Nations Cup competition, with high hopes for a jolly good climb to come in the jumping phases – and lots to be pleased about from today’s tests. Nineteen-year-old Cassie Sanger is best of the bunch at the end of the day after delivering a polished, workmanlike test with Fernhill Zoro (Verdi x Oronia 2, by Voltaire) for a 35.1 and overnight 33rd place. They just lost a few costly marks in the flying changes, but otherwise picked up consistent marks through their test – a test that marks the CCI4*-L debut for both horse and rider, and the near-culmination of a year of extraordinary adventures. That has seen them make their European debut at Strzegom this summer after being named to the European Development Tour squad, finishing second with the US team there on their first call-up to fly the flag.

Phillip Dutton and Denim. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Phillip Dutton’s eight-year-old Denim (Dinken x Celia II, by Ibisco xx) had something of a homecoming today: the Holsteiner may have been bred in Germany, but he had his formative education here in the Netherlands under the saddle of former Dutch National Champion Merel Blom-Hulsman, with whom he competed in the Six-Year-Old World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers in 2021. He was bought for Phillip shortly thereafter by Ann Lapides, Caroline Moran, and Neill Sites, and returned last year to Le Lion, finishing seventh in the Seven-Year-Old World Championship. Now, on his return to the country of his ‘youth’, he’s making his hotly anticipated CCI4*-L debut after two runs at the short-format. At both of those, he scored in the 34 bracket, and today, in seriously hot company, he wasn’t far off that. He sits 35th overnight on a 35.2.

“He’s really cool,” says Phillip. “It’s just that some of the movements are a bit hard for him still. He’s been doing each movement okay [at home], but then we didn’t quite put it all together in the test — but he’s got a good head on him and I’m excited for his future. He’s a good type — he’s got quite a lot of Thoroughbred, he’s a  beautiful jumper and he’s got a good brain.”

James Alliston and Karma. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Boekelo returnee and Brit-turned-Californian James Alliston sits 38th on a 35.9 with the nine-year-old Karma — an exciting young prospect made even more compelling by her breeding.

“She was bred on the West Coast, so that’s kind of cool, by Patricia Crowley, and her daughter, Katie Crowley, started her and rides her siblings,” says James of the Oldenburg (Escudo II x Travita, by Lavita). “She started as a six-year-old and she’s been a really good jumper all along. The dressage can be a bit buzzy, so that was pretty relaxed — I know that she missed a change, but it wasn’t that bad.”

Getting Karma to relax and enjoy this first phase has been a process James has committed to taking one step at a time.

“She was quite a tricky young horse,” he explains. “I got sent her because she would freeze in the arena, and was a little bit strange like that. And then, once she stopped doing that, she flew around at 100 miles an hour. But she always jumped really well. Now we’re settling it all down, and finding that in the dressage.”

This will be Karma’s second-ever CCI4*-L: she won on her debut at Rebecca Farm in July, and then won a CCI4*-S at Twin Rivers in California. Boekelo, James explains, is the next step up for both her career and her education.

“It’s a lot of atmosphere here, obviously,” he says. “When you go in the arena, they’re on their own, and it’s definitely a different feel, certainly to the sort of West Coast of America — maybe Kentucky’s a little bit more like this atmosphere. Going through here, it’s quite intimidating for the horses. And then the course is a continental feel, which is different — it’s a different designer than I’m used to in America. And obviously it’s really high standard of competition, so she’ll learn a lot.”

Jennie Brannigan and FE Connory. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Jennie Brannigan and Tim and Nina Gardner’s FE Connory sit 44th on a 37.1 in the eleven-year-old’s second CCI4*-L, and while the flying changes and the lateral walk work proved costly, there was lots to like from the Holsteiner (Conrato x Hocaponta, by Lauries Crusador xx), who particularly impressed with his ground-covering canter extension. Like the rest of the US line-up this week, Connory represents a ‘next generation’ of American talent, all of whom will come on leaps and bounds from their exposure to this buzzy, enormously competitive event.

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

Germany leads the charge – unsurprisingly – in the Nations Cup competition, which saw all team riders complete their tests today. Theirs is the slimmest of margins, though: they’ll go into Saturday’s cross-country on a score of 82.3, with just 2.6 penalties, or six seconds, in hand over provisionally second-placed Great Britain on an 84.9. In bronze position is the French team on 86.5, while Australia waits close behind in the wings on 87.5.

The team standings following the first phase of the Nations Cup competition.

Sanne de Jong and Global Faerlie Flashy. Photo by Ashley Claus.

The Dutch National Championship got off to a good start today, too – four of the eleven competitors for this coveted title completed their tests, and at the end of day one, Sanne de Jong leads the charge with the eleven-year-old Global Faerlie Flashy, formerly the ride of Ireland’s Brian Morrison, on a 31.9, two penalties ahead of second-placed Merel Blom-Husman, a former winner of this title, riding Vesuve d’Aveyron.

The leaderboard following day one in the Dutch National Championship.

Tomorrow heralds another wall-to-wall day of dressage, beginning at 9.00 a.m. local time (8.00 a.m. BST/3.00 a.m. Eastern time) with Great Britain’s Alfie Marshall and Just Have Faith TN first down the centreline. We’ll have three further US competitors coming forward through the course of the day; the first of those, Hallie Coon and the former Seven-Year-Old World Champion Cute Girl, will perform their test at 10.52 a.m. (9.52 a.m. BST/4.52 a.m. Eastern), while Tiana Coudray and D’Artagnan will come forward at 14.35 (13.45 BST/8.45 a.m. Eastern). The USA’s day will wrap up with yet another British-based competitor in Cosby Green, who’ll ride Jos Ufo de Quidam at 16.48 (15.48 BST/10.48 a.m. Eastern). Keep it locked on EN for a full report from the day’s action – and to watch it as it unfolds, tune into ClipMyHorse or follow along (for free!) via the FEI YouTube channel. Until next time — Go Eventing!

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