This week’s coverage of Pau on EN is brought to you with the support of Kentucky Performance Products. We couldn’t do much of what we’ve done these last few years without the support of sponsors such as KPP — which, by the way, is a horses-first, women owned and operated company based in, you guessed it, Kentucky — and without you, our readers! So as we head into this final hurrah of our season, too, we thank each and every one of you.
And just like that, the 2022 season was over — or nearly, anyway. We’ve got one last big one to sink our teeth into before the battening down of hatches and digging out of training manuals and DVDs, and it’s one of our favourites here at EN. Welcome to the sultry south of France and weird, wonderful Les 5 Etoiles de Pau, where we’ve got a sizzling field of horses and riders from 11 different nations coming forward to fight for the prize — including five-star victors, some of the best debutants in Europe, Olympians and young riders alike.
It all kicks off tomorrow at 10.00 a.m. local time (9.00 a.m. British time/4.00 a.m. EST) with the first horse inspection, which will be followed by a short afternoon session of dressage — so to get you into the spirit of the thing, let’s take a glimpse at the stats of the 50 horses who will come forward this week.
Tim Price’s Coup de Coeur Dudevin digs deep again to take his first five-star win on his debut. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
After a Saturday that split opinions, it’s been enormously exciting to have an action-packed afternoon of influential competition at the MARS Maryland 5 Star.
Though our top three would ultimately remain unchanged after cross-country, the short and sweet showjumping finale was jam-packed with action and excitement, with a beefy, technical course of 16 jumping efforts. Both the time and the course itself — which featured jumper-style lines including a rollback turn between fences 8 and 9, followed swiftly by a sharp square turn to a treble combination at 10abc — proved influential, and just five of the 21 starters would deliver faultless rounds.
Cross-country leader Tim Price wasn’t one of them. He came into the arena with less than a rail in hand over Tamie Smith and Danito, who had just delivered an exceptional clear, adding 0.4 time to stay just one-tenth of a penalty ahead of Oliver Townend and As Is, who had added nothing in their round. Like Tamie and Oliver before him, he cantered through the starting line on an unseasoned five-star debutant and, again like those before him, crossed the finish on a newly-established superstar. In doing so, he took his fifth five-star title — won, quite remarkably, aboard a fifth different horse.
“I’m very proud of Coup de Coeur Dudevin,” says Tim of the ten-year-old Selle Français, who he rides for breeder Jean-Louis Stauffer. “In fact, I think all three of these top horses are incredible. It’s exciting for the sport; it’s exciting for us personally; and it’s just so unexpected to have a top result like this. I came in hoping that I would have a top-five finish with this horse, but I expected there would be a couple of things that showed his lack of experience. Luckily, we were able to do that while keeping a nice, low score.”
Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tim’s goal this week has been to educate the young horse, who was originally produced by Switzerland’s Robin Godel and, latterly, Chris Burton, before briefly joining wife Jonelle’s string last year. It was that modus operandi that allowed the rider to keep his cool coming into the pressurised final phase.
“It’s been so tight at the top through the week, starting from the dressage — and these guys have been there and got the t-shirt many times of what it’s like to be in the final few and the pressure that comes with it,” says the newly-crowned World Number One, who came here fresh off the back of a win at Boekelo with Happy Boy. “I knew there would be some flawless rounds at the top of the table, and that was kind of what kept me from falling asleep and woke me up early in the morning. I was ready for that and in a way, with my young horse at this level, I almost hid behind his lack of experience and just went into the mode of educating him and giving him a good time. But of course when you get in the ring and you know that the clear round inside the time is key, you go into performance mode. I was just really happy he dug deep for me. It’s a new depth of stamina requirement for him, and he really went into that ring and just lit up and busted himself for the job. That’s very exciting, for what a horse he’s showing me that he is, and for the future for him. To nail a victory like that, I’m just very, very proud of him.”
“It’s just to great to have such a good rider,” says owner Jean-Louis Stauffer. “We’ve known the horse from his first day, and I think we did it right in the way that we never forced him. He was never pushed to do something he couldn’t do, and he’s got this brain where he wants to get over the obstacles; he wants to be good. That’s a very good horse.”
Jean-Louis isn’t just the horse’s owner — he’s also his breeder, though he refuses to take all the credit there.
“It’s not me who made the match; that was Richard Levallois from [Haras de] Semilly,” he explains. “I went with a mare, and he asked me what I wanted from the horse. I said, ‘it must have a good force, good strength in the back’. And if you saw this horse, in the dressage he was almost kicking the ass of Tim Price to the front! He’s a very good one.”
‘Joker’ could have become part of a breeding programme in his own right, but flunked out at an early age due to some personality quirks.
“I had to have him castrated because he was very impatient — he wanted to go with the other horses. Castrating him just brought him into the team,” says Jean-Louis. “I think from the first day he was born, in the box he would make contact with you and then always be positive.”
Bringing a largely unproven ten-year-old all the way across the Atlantic Ocean for his five-star debut was always going to be a gamble, but when Tim expresses a quiet, unshakable confidence in the gelding to his owner, Jean-Louis backed the idea completely.
“Tim said, ‘I feel it’, and I said, ‘if you feel it, we’ll go.’ It’s just my way of doing it — as an owner, you shouldn’t intervene too much,” he says. “I never would have thought I’d have a horse coming to the States, and then, okay, you think that because of the expense, it’s good if they don’t come all this way just to be eliminated on the cross-country. But the rest? It’s all equal: there are horses that win, and horses that don’t win, but as long as they progress well, and as long as they do well, I think it’s good. It doesn’t mean they must win — we’re the winners today, but we’re not necessarily going to be the winners all the time!”
Tamie Smith and Danito log their first clear showjumping round since 2020 at the perfect moment. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It’s been one heck of a year for second-placed Tamie Smith, who gave it her all in her efforts to keep the Maryland title in US hands with Ruth Bley’s 15.2hh first-timer Danito. Although the diminutive 13-year-old Hanoverian is a force to be reckoned with on the flat and across the country, before this weekend, he’d not made the time in a long-format since his second-ever CCI2*-L, nor had he kept the rails up in an international since 2020. But with plenty of guts and gumption on his side — and on that of his plucky Californian rider, too — he made both things happen here, adding just 0.4 time today to his first-phase score of 29.4.
“I actually haven’t even produced a clear round on Danito at CCI4*-L — but we kind of all joked that he broke his wither this winter and it gave him another two feet over the jumps,” laughs Tamie. “But he really has come out outstanding, and he really jumped out of his skin. There was a couple of places where it definitely didn’t go to plan, but you go as quickly as you can to to Plan B. He’s such a mighty little horse and he tried his guts out, soI’m super proud of him. The ring would be difficult — it’s small and things come up quick, and so it was good to produce that result.”
The result caps off a year that’s gone from one mishap after another to something of a dream come true for Tamie.
“It hasn’t been the fairytale year that you might think,” says Tamie, who was part of last month’s silver medal-winning team at the FEI World Championships, and who also took a top ten finish at Badminton this spring with top horse Mai Baum. But earlier in the year, it didn’t look as though she’d get any of her goals for the season ticked off.
“California in my area was infected with EHV this winter. I got out of there right before that and went east, but then I promptly broke my ankle and tore all the ligaments in it. I could just see my dreams kind of fading away. I didn’t think I’d be in contention for the World Championships, but I also wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“The first three months of 2022 was a disaster for me. My horse had broken his wither on top of everything else, so to have the fall season that I’ve had from Pratoni on has been really special. I have a huge, wonderful support team, and I know that we’re all just ecstatic about this accomplishment.”
Tamie Smith and Danito. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Her best-ever five-star finish isn’t the only affirmation Tamie got from her result today: finding herself between two of the most prolific competitors in the world was also a particularly special feeling.
“These guys are legends in the sport, and it’s an honor to be up here with them,” she says, nodding to Tim and third-placed Oliver. While they’ve been career winners nearly from the beginning of their careers, Tamie’s finish is a different kind of testament to resilience: she began her path to the top after working her way through college as a young single mother, making her hard-won result a beacon of hope for aspiring competitors whose lives have followed a trajectory that’s not quite linear. In a way, it feels a little bit as though she’s won — and no doubt, that moment is coming soon.
“I did say to Tim, ‘you couldn’t have had a frickin’ rail?!’,” she laughs.
Oliver Townend and As Is round out the top three with a sterling clear round inside the tough time. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Four combinations managed to finish on their dressage scores in this year’s field, and the highest-placed of those was Oliver Townend, who, like Tim, has recorded a podium finish in both runnings of this new event. Though his eleven-year-old Spanish-bred Sport Horse As Is occasionally looked a bit green in the ring, and gave the fences a fair amount of airtime as a result, they stayed on the right side of the clock to take third place, climbing from first-phase tenth through the weekend.
As Is, who was formerly campaigned by Andrew Nicholson, is owned by Sir John Peace of Caunton Stud, for whom Oliver began riding earlier this year.
“I’m highly delighted with him, and [this result] is very special for me — it’s the first time I’ve had a job since I was 21, so to deliver results for the people that are employing me for the first time this year is very special to me,” says Oliver. “There’s a lot of people behind the scenes at Caunton, and at home at Gadlas, so it’s been a very different year this year for me — but one that’s just been so, so positive.”
Oliver began riding As Is just this spring, and has had a spate of exciting results with the gelding already, including a placing at another Ian Stark-designed event at Bramham CCI4*-L in Yorkshire.
“For us to deliver the result that we thought he was capable of… you never know, he’s a new horse and it’s five-star, so anything can happen,” he says. “He went out a little bit green yesterday and a bit careful and I just thought last night, ‘well, let’s just hope he’s as careful in the show jumping tomorrow as he is on the cross-country course, and we’ll be alright’.”
This isn’t the first horse Oliver has taken on from longtime friend and mentor Andrew, from whom he’s previously inherited top horses such as Cillnabradden Evo, Swallow Springs, and Armada — but today, he knew he had a particularly stellar jumping record to live up to.
“I actually felt a little bit of pressure,” he says. “I said to Andrew Nicholson on the phone that I used to feel no pressure going into showjumping on Armada, because we all knew he used to destroy the place, but to know that you’re on such a good jumper, it was down to me to press the right buttons and get the right distances. But he was, I think, very, very special in the ring today, and it’s just hugely exciting for my team at home and the new team at Caunton that we have a horse of this caliber.”
Phillip Dutton and Z take fourth place. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It felt a little bit like 2008 at Kentucky all over again when Phillip Dutton and Z crossed the finish today, well inside the time and clear to boot. Though that didn’t quite clinch them the win, it did allow them to take fourth place, a healthy climb from the eleventh place slot they’d occupied after posting a 30.5 in the first phase.
“He’s a great jumper, it’s just that sometimes we lose a little bit of the rideability because of tension,” says Phillip, who was delighted to find that the experienced 14-year-old Zangersheide felt well-settled in the atmospheric main arena after a great warm-up with show jumper Lauren Hough. That was particularly necessary, because the unique arena and tough course at Maryland demanded so much of the horses while constantly testing their focus.
“It rides harder than it walks, certainly size-wise, and it’s all pretty related and a smaller arena,” says Phillip. “I mean, I think every venue is a little unique; you know, all the five-stars throughout the world. And this is unique: it’s a bit smaller, but the really good horses win anyway. The atmosphere is great.”
Even more moving than the excellent result was the memory of his late coach and mentor.
“I was a little bit emotional because my good friend Richard Picken was here last year, and Michelle Kauffman said to me, ‘it’s bringing back memories’ — so I started to flood over, but luckily I was able to pull it back together,” says Phillip. “He was a great friend, and my showjumping coach, and he had a big influence on me.”
Jennie Brannigan and FE Lifestyle step up to fifth place. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Jennie Brannigan put a cap on an excellent week with her duo of rides, finishing fifth on her dressage score of 31.5 with FE Lifestyle and sixteenth after a trio of rails with Twilightslastgleam, both of whom she rides for longtime owners Tim and Nina Gardner.
Jennie Brannigan and FE Lifestyle. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Having two rides in the class allowed her to make great use of the intel she gleaned the first time around with her second ride, FE Lifestyle — but those were just two of many rides she had this week, a decision that, in hindsight, might have been a touch too much.
“I’m exhausted,” she laughs. “Riding five horses here was probably a little ambitious! But it was a beautiful week, and this is my hometown event, so it’s been great.”
Will Coleman and DonDante. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Sixth place went the way of Will Coleman and DonDante, who had a frustrating, rare rail but nevertheless climbed from 10th place after cross-country, on which they were clear inside the time yesterday.
“I’m obviously bummed about the pole, but my horse tried really hard,” says Will of the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse, who was fifteenth here last year and seventh at Kentucky this spring. “I think he didn’t have his best stuff today — he was a little stiff from galloping up all those hills yesterday. But he gave me everything he had and just toed one, and I can’t be too upset. It is what it is, and you do what you can do. I’m very pleased, and now we’ll look to the future and try to be better.”
For DonDante, who came to Fair Hill to compete in the Young Event Horse Championships as a five-year-old, it’s a full-circle moment to come back here and finish in the top ten — and a testament to how productive the young horse pathways in the US can be.
“It’s cool; it’s very gratifying. I really enjoy that,” says Will, remembering that first trip here with the gelding. “You know, we’ve had most of ours we’ve had since they were young, which does make it pretty rewarding, and each step you get like a little adrenaline from. Then they do their first three-star; they do their first four-star… I think that’s cool, and I think we’re just constantly trying to get better at raining them well and bringing them along confidently and happily. It’s a big part of what makes this whole game worth doing.”
Harry Meade and Superstition put a positive spin on a tricky start to the week. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Great Britain’s Harry Meade had a tricky start to the week with Superstition after a disruption to his warm-up meant that the horse was nervous and reactive to the point of explosiveness in the dressage ring, scoring an enormously uncharacteristic 37.4 to sit 21st. An easy clear inside the time yesterday, though, boosted the pair up to fifteenth — and though the relative lack of influence of Saturday’s competition precluded a higher climb, today offered a stiff enough challenge to see significant movement on the board. That meant that their clear round inside the time today was enough to catapult them to a final seventh place.
“I’m thrilled with the horse and thrilled with how he was all week,” says Harry. “Sometimes, you’ve got to make just make the best of the hand you’re dealt; we didn’t have a nice time in the build-up to the first phase, but that’s by the by. You forgive and forget.”
Harry was one of several riders to levy constructive criticism at the event, particularly for its uninfluential cross-country phase, a trend that continued on from its inaugural running.
“The cross-country, like last year, was a bit of a non-event,” he says. “I can’t fault my horse; he was absolutely beautiful, and that’s a long way to go to not even scratch the surface — he feels as though he’d be great to go to Pau in two weeks’ time! But it’s always lovely to finish on a clear showjumping round — it means everyone goes home on a high.”
Today, though, he was pleased with the influence and difficulty of the course.
“You want the jumping phases to separate the really good horses, and this was a really interesting course,” says Harry. “One to two was quite open, and actually, the terrain in the arena is more extreme than you might think, so heading down to fence five was super short. It didn’t walk short, but it rode short. Then, after the treble, you had to turn up to the square oxer — it was a big fence up a hill. It was a great course and it sorted them out — we saw such a high standard of jumping out there, and it made for a great end to the competition.”
Allie Knowles and Morswood clinch Allie’s best-ever five-star result. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Allie Knowles earned herself her best-ever five-star result, taking eighth place with the excellent Morswood after tipping just one rail late in the course. That’s her second personal best of the week: her first came in the dressage, where she earned her best five-star score, a sparkling 28.8 that put the pair into third place going into cross-country. Though their 6.4 time penalties dropped them out of contention into twelfth place, Allie was delighted to make the climb back up the order today — though already, she’s thinking about what’s next to work on.
“It was a great week, but I’m quite critical, so there was room for improvement in all three phases,” says Allie. “But that’s a could-a, should-a, would-a type of thing, and that’s my best result in a five-star. He did everything I asked, so I’m super happy overall, and I’ll be looking forward to the next opportunity to do it better! But it’s cool to know that I’m on a horse that’s so suited to doing something like Badminton in the future.”
Doug Payne and Quantum Leap secure ninth place. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Doug Payne and Quantum Leap might be the most seasoned pure jumpers in the ring — in fact, most of the gelding’s competition mileage this year has come at jumper shows — but Ken’s tough course was tricky to conquer even for them. They tipped the first and had a pole down at the ninth fence, positioned on a rollback turn, but were ultimately able to stay in the ninth place spot they’d occupied after cross-country, wherein they’d added 2.4 time penalties.
Hannah Sue Hollberg’s veteran competitor Harbour Pilot bows out on a high in tenth place. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Finally, the top ten was rounded out in fine style by Hannah Sue Hollberg and Harbour Pilot, who retired from competition at the impressive age of nineteen after his round, which saw him rub two poles but only slip two places.
“I’ve been riding him since 2008, so he’s been with me forever, and it’s weird to think about not competing him anymore,” says an emotional Hannah Sue, who has tackled eleven previous five-stars with the gelding. “He doesn’t feel his age at all — he feels the same as he did five, seven, ten years ago. He’s a tough horse, and I’ve tried to take care of him really well by not running him if the footing’s bad or if he’s not just right at the show.”
Hannah Sue Hollberg and Harbour Pilot. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Hannah Sue had made the decision to retire ‘William’ at the end of this event well before it started, which meant that throughout the week, she was constantly reminded that each phase was her last with him by commentary over the tannoy. That announcement was exactly how her showjumping round began, too, which made the practicalities of actually jumping the course a little tough.
“I started crying before I started, which wasn’t very helpful!” she laughs. “But I didn’t really mind — I felt like that all week, and I was just proud to be on him and finish his career like that.”
Lauren Nicholson and Landmark’s Monte Carlo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Just one odd moment marred the afternoon’s sport: Lauren Nicholson, who had been sitting seventh with Landmark’s Monte Carlo, was awarded 13.2 time penalties in her one-rail round due to some confusion with the starting bell, and despite appealing to the officials, she was unable to get the penalties removed, which pushed her down to seventeenth place in the final standings.
“Patty produced a really lovely round today, but sadly his popularity resulted in confusion at the start,” writes Lauren in a post on her Instagram account. “Due to the crowds [sic] cheers, the bell was not heard by myself (and from what I understand, no one in the crowd either). Despite my multiple salutes, gestures of confusion, and asking the crowd if they had heard the bell, the clock was started and we were given a devastating 13 time penalties, knocking us from 6th place to the bottom of the field. After an extremely long discussion with the ground jury, which was headed by Christian Landolt, they decided that they would not remove the penalties. The ground jury acknowledged that it was clear that I had not heard the bell, and that I had made multiple gestures waiting for it to be rung. The head of the ground jury stated he could not have rung the bell a second time even if he wished to because it was not legal. Although, we presented them with a rule clearly showing they could ring the bell a second time at their discretion. Which he admitted to not knowing that rule but tough nuts for me.”
It’s been a beautiful — and educational — week of five-star competition in the sunshine here in Maryland, and already, we’re curious and excited about how this buzzy, vibrant new event will further develop for its third renewal next year. We’ll be back with more content from the weekend that was, but for now — Go Eventing, and Go Tim Price!
The top ten at the conclusion of the 2022 MARS Maryland 5 Star.
Overnight leaders Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Phew. Is there anything more bum-clenchingly tense than a final horse inspection? Even here at the MARS Maryland 5 Star p/b Brown Advisory, in which horses have enjoyed exceptionally good going and looked to finish brilliantly yesterday, this morning’s proceedings weren’t without dramatics.
Hannah Sue Hollberg and Harbour Pilot: the sole hold of the morning, but accepted on re-presentation. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Just 21 of yesterday’s 22 finishers presented to the the Ground Jury of Christian Landolt (SUI), Gretchen Butts (USA), Judy Hancock (GBR), following the overnight withdrawal of Canada’s Lisa Marie Fergusson and Honor Me. Three horses warranted a second look during the course of the morning, though just one was sent to the holding box for further investigation and a second inspection: that was Hannah Sue Hollberg‘s nineteen-year-old Harbour Pilot, who sits eighth overnight on 31.8 in what will be the final event of their long, storied partnership.
Tamie Smith and Danito. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Fortunately, we’re delighted to report that they were subsequently accepted into the competition, as were Jennie Brannigan‘s FE Lifestyle (6th on 31.5 and presented for his rider by Great Britain’s Harry Meade, who snuck a curtsey to the ground jury in there!) and Tamie Smith‘s Danito (2nd on 29.4), who were both asked to trot a second time.
Harry Meade tips a curtsey to the ground jury before presenting Jennie Brannigan’s FE Lifestyle. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Our compact, classy field of 21 heads into the showjumping finale, designed by Ken Krome, from 2.00 p.m. Eastern time (7.00 p.m. BST/11.00 a.m. Pacific). Last year, we saw an influential final phase here, and the stage is certainly set for one again: there’s less than a rail between the top five, and less than two between the top twelve. To add to the excitement, each of our top three — leaders Tim Price‘s Coup de Coeur Dudevin, second-placed Tamie Smith‘s Danito, and third-placed Oliver Townend‘s As Is — are first-time five-star horses, none of whom will have tackled a challenge like this before.
It’ll be a real nail-biter, folks, but us EN-ers have always found special ways to cope with the nerves. We’re thrilled to announce that dressage leader Woods Baughman took us up on our hoedown challenge, and you’ll get to see the results — in all their arrhythmic glory — very soon. If we committed career suicide this morning, at least we went down swinging.
A look at the layout of this year’s Maryland CCI5* track.
THE ESSENTIALS
Length: 6555m
Optimum time: 11:30
Fences: 29
Speed: 570mpm
“Last year, with hindsight,” I must have been insane,” laughs MARS Maryland 5 Star course designer Ian Stark, who has delivered us a new-look, considerably tougher track for this year’s renewal. “It was my first five-star, and a greenfield site that had never been used. I didn’t know how the terrain would affect the horses, so I probably backed off more than I’d have liked. Some horses finished full of running and others were really, really tired, so I hope riders learned about the terrain and have their horses fit enough.”
One of the major changes that Ian has made is relocating the start and finish, which are now located in the centre of the course.
“That was the most important thing for me this year, and I think it gives the course a better flow,” he says. “It avoids them finishing up the hill from the bottom of the middle field almost right up to the main arena, which was a fair climb at the end of the course, and some of the horses finished really toiling at the end. So for me, this gives it a better flow, and also allows me to maintain the five-star standard all the way through. I felt from the bottom of the hill last year in that middle field, I had to back off — so it was a three-and-a-half to four-star on the way home. There were still technical difficulties, but I felt I couldn’t give five-star dimensions and big spreads, because horses would be getting weary.”
There’s plenty to see on the course — not least, a menagerie of inexplicable dinosaurs and one robust longhorn in situ on the track. But if you’re hoping this might be a nod to some sort of diplodocus discovery at Fair Hill, we’re sorry to report that their presence is just the result of Ian being, well, a bit weird.
“I kept driving past the dinosaurs at the garden centre down the road when we were going to Mario’s for lunch, and I said to [course builders] Tyson and Barney, ‘I want them on the course!’,” says Ian. “So they went in and chatted the guy up, and he delivered them for me, which was incredibly kind of him – they’ve got nothing to do with the course, but I love them, and they give people something to look at!”
Anyway, Ian, we like your style. And so, friends, we recommend giving yourself a bit of easy listening while you walk the course with us.
Fence 1.
The course begins on a patch of flat ground over a wide, welcoming table, but from the word go, riders will need to be on the ball: the galloping lane from 1 to 2 and thereafter runs parallel to the warm-up arena, which will be a tough test for horses who are prone to napping and want to stick with their pals.
“The start is on the top of the hill, so it’s a bit flat,” says Ian. “The first fence is off a bend, and I deliberately put it there because if anyone gets too sneaky and tries to cut around that corner, they could easily have 20 penalties by running out of the first fence. I’m kind of hoping that they’re on the case but they’re not getting too excited at the start.”
Fence 2.
There’s not a huge amount of space between fence 1 and 2, which makes it feel like a related distance — and it’s a downhill approach to the second fence, which is a relatively narrow trakehner. That’s a classic rider frightener fence, so it’ll encourage an attacking ride from the get-go — no bad thing when there’s plenty of major questions to come.
“To me it’s just an inviting, kick-on fence,” says the man who proved he has some of the biggest cajones in the sport when navigating the tearaway Murphy Himself around the world’s biggest courses. “I had planned to have it in the warm-up area, but when I walked down from the start, it was in the way, so it became fence two! So there was nothing really great in the imagination, and some of the riders were a bit concerned that there’s a ditch at fence two.”
This is the first sign on course that Ian has really stepped up the intensity — but it’s also a useful way to ensure that competitors are taking the job seriously in the first minute.
Fence 3.
From fence two, they move on to a classic five-star run-and-jump fence, which has a friendly rolled profile and a brush on top, and will encourage an attacking rhythm and a confidence-building bit of airtime.
“This is going to give them a real big feel – it’s a lovely fence that’ll get them way up in the air and running away on the landing,” says Ian. “They’ll be fairly travelling down the hill and around the corner to the first water.”
Fence 4A, with 4B visible on the other side.
The first chance to get their feet wet comes up quickly, and involves two skinny birds that are reminiscent of Luhmühlen’s famous Danger Tit, which was situated in the water at the 2019 European Championships and caused plenty of problems. These birds, though, are both on dry land, as Luhmühlen’s has been since 2019, and so shouldn’t be as influential — but they’re accuracy questions that do demand respect.
“It’s a friendly-ish first water but the birds are not to be ignored,” says Ian. “You need to take your time and jump them straight on and accurately. If you try for an angle you could easily leave a leg and get tipped out the side door. They’re not difficult, but they do need to concentrate.”
This first water also means that horses can land on the dry and then carry on into the water, rather than being expected to jump straight in — so done well, they’ll boost horses’ confidence and let riders fine-tune all those canter gears they’ll need further on in the track.
Fence 5.
When you get to the fence 5, a wide, brush-topped table, you get your first taste of the ‘no thanks’ — this thing is seriously big. Of course, if you have a touch of insanity running through your veins, you might feel a bit differently.
“What I would give to have a horse here to just gallop up to this on – it’ll give a great feel,” muses Ian, a man who’s made a fine art out of having admirable insanity in the bloodstream.
If someone has an unlikely mishap here, though, there’ll be no harm done: “It’s perfect ground — it’s like walking on a carpet! It’s amazing. Even if you fall off, it’s quite cushioned,” says Ian, startlingly unreassuringly. “But it’ll be great to just wing up to that and get a real good feel before you head to the arena.”
Team EN, thinking about the ‘real good feel’ this fence will give.
Fence 6.
New to the Maryland track this year is a tour through the main arena, which gives a continental feel to proceedings and allows spectators to pause from shopping to fill the grandstands – so expect a wall of sound and some serious atmosphere as they enter through the left-hand side gate.
Ian was keen to include this loop, but as he explains, not everyone was initially on board with his vision: “It’s the first time in the arena and it took a bit of persuading to get them to let me change the course around, and then a little bit more persuading to get them to let me go in one gate and out the other,” he laughs. “They said, ‘can you not get them in and out though the same gate?’, but I’m a pretty bloody-minded Scotsman, so I had to stand my ground! But they’re always very generous and incredibly nice to me here.”
The first of the three elements in the arena is a rolltop at six, which will give horses the chance to get up in the air without a mentally taxing question as they adjust to the fishbowl effect of being surrounded by enthusiastic fans.
Fence 7ab.
Pretty quickly, though, they’ll need to land and adjust, because as they turn to fence 7a — an enormous brush box — they’ll be gazing right into the hospitality stand, and they certainly won’t have time to peruse the open bar through the windows.
“When you approach the big brush box you’re looking straight into the grandstand, and some horses won’t notice the people, but others will be backed off,” he says. “A few of the riders have said that they’re thinking of sticking to the left of this fence and jumping a bit left to right over the first, which will get them to the second in three strides. What I’ve said to them is that the bogey here is this: you may plan the three strides, but if a horse is backed off and lands a bit steep, it may not be there. They’re going to have to be able to react to however the horses jump the first element, but I don’t anticipate problems.”
After that, it’s “a good winging out” of the corner of the arena and back down the galloping lanes in the direction they’ve just come from, and Ian hopes that they’ll take the opportunity to really travel — because the next combination they’ll meet will ask them to be really positive in their canter.
Fence 8ab.
Fence 8ab features a pair of bum-clenchingly big tables on an offset left-handed line, which is set on a long two-stride distance. The point here? To balance at speed, and have power, pace, and positivity on side — classic cross-country riding, in a nutshell.
“There’s two big strides there, so if anyone gets a bit showjumping minded, they’ll struggle for the two, so they need to be travelling – then they’re quite inviting,” says Ian.
Fence 9.
If they’ve ticked the boxes Ian wants them to at those tables, they’ll hit the ground running and be able to catch a couple of seconds on the clock as they travel down to fence 9, which is the first time we’re seeing MIMclips safety devices on the course. This time, they’re the classic red ones, which aren’t as easily activated as the yellow variety we’ll spot later on, and although there’s a pretty straight shot down from 8b to 9, there’s a little bit of a set-up turn to get straight to this, which will help riders get their horses back on their hocks to make a neat job of it.
“They have to jump in carefully, because of the clips, but I don’t foresee any problems here,” says Ian.
Fence 10a, with the direct b element just visible and the direct c, a narrow brush box, beyond it.
Taking the time to jump that oxer with care, and reassess how well they can get their horses sitting on their hind ends, will serve them well when they reach 10abc, which Ian tells us is the first major question on the course. It’s also a spot that offers a few options for those who don’t think they’ll make a tidy job of the direct route, which features a skinny box on top of a step mound, a downhill five-stride run to the middle of three brushes over a ditch, and then a three-stride line to a skinny brush box.
Fence 10bc — the direct route is the left-handed of the two brushes featured here, with the direct c visible behind.
“There’s a long route, and I’ve put a whole load of trees and pumpkins out to stop people mixing them up but they could still do whatever they want there,” says Ian, who has individually lettered each element, which means a mix-and-match approach wouldn’t result in a technical elimination.
Fence 11abc.
Once they’ve successfully negotiated that serious elevation change and accuracy question, it’s time for water number two — and this time, they nearly do have to jump into the drink. Or, at the very least, it’ll look that way to the horses, who’ll take a leap of faith over the first boat.
“The first boat is supposed to be on dry – it’s being worked on,” says Ian, who scaled back the dimensions of this fence after realising that maximising the size made it an almost unjumpably tough question.
“It’s a big jump in, with a big spread and a big drop. That was last year’s three-star fence in the water, and I tried putting a five-star fence there, but suddenly the course went from a five-star to a ten-star. Even I didn’t have a big enough pair of you-know-whats to do that! I’m expecting a big jump in over the A element, four strides to the boat in the middle, and then three to the lighthouse out at C. There’s an alternative B element if they scramble on the way in, but I don’t really anticipate them using it.”
Fence 12.
Would it be a five-star without a ditch and brush you could park a sedan in? We think not — and Ian agrees. We’re pretty sure the riders will be delighted to know that the brush side of fence 12, though, is significantly lower than it was just a few days ago.
“The other day it was 25cm higher than it is now, and it was a bit like trying to have a conversation with William Fox-Pitt — I was just looking straight up at it!” laughs Ian.
This’ll be an ‘easy’ run-and-jump fence, but for Ian, it was nearly the site of his own grisly demise.
“I’m completely superstitious,” he explains. “The first CCI4*-L I designed was at Bramham, and I found a four-leaf clover [while I was designing it]. Everywhere you go, except California, obviously, you can find clover in the grass, so I have to find a four-leaf clover. I was hunting for one while the boys were cutting the brush down, and after I found it, I got there and I said to them, ‘it’s too small — you’ll need to make it bigger!’ I think they thought about hitting me with their chainsaws!”
Though this is a ‘gimme’ fence, if such a thing exists in top-level eventing, the approach adds an interesting element here.
“The straight line has a rollercoaster approach ,which could muck up your distance — but if you come on an angle it’s a flatter approach. It’ll be interesting to see which riders have been paying attention there.”
A live view of Ian in the riders’ tent, watching to see which line they pick.
Fence 13.
There’s not an awful lot of time to think before they get to fence 13, and honestly, that’s probably for the best. This ramped rolltop, which has a downhill landing and a real ‘into space’ feel, is visually one of the most imposing single fences we’ve ever laid eyes on — but remarkably, Ian says, “it looks enormous, but it doesn’t even measure maximum height for a 5*!”
Fence 13.
Let’s take another look at this chunky thang, with EN’s Sally for scale. For context, she’s 5’5, and we’re all clenching our bums.
Fence 13.
And once more, for good measure, from the landing side. Thank you, but no.
Ian Stark, rn.
There’s an opportunity to catch up on the clock a bit after that absolute monster at 13, with a beautiful gallop stretch that’ll see them hit their six-minute mark — just over the halfway point — midway along it. What a nice opportunity to catch a glimpse of the fall foliage, maybe.
Fence 14.
After that galloping stretch, Ian has placed a capacious open oxer with MIMclips off a turn, which is a useful opportunity to get the horses back before the coffin complex, and should be used wisely.
“It’s just there to set them up for the coffin – I expect them to jump that and then get the coffin canter, which I’m always gone on about; that short, bouncy canter.”
Fence 15ABC.
That coffin canter, unsurprisingly, is the key element to jumping a coffin, which they get at 15abc. The direct route here makes savvy use of sharp terrain, with a MIMclipped rail on a slight downhill to the ditch at b, which is followed by a sharp uphill to a small log at c, which replaces last year’s brush.
“If they don’t set them up, they’ll be flying through there and probably dislodge the MIM at the coffin rail,” says Ian. “But the fact that they’re going downhill will mean that the horses are propping, so I’m expecting them to be really good there.”
If they do get a funny jump over the ditch, they can reroute around the mound to another log on the flatter ground, which will cost them valuable seconds on the clock.
The feeling of riding the coffin, encapsulated.
Fence 16AB.
There’s another short run to the next combination, a pair of colossal tables on a positive three strides to a left-handed brush corner four strides away at 16abc. Here, there’s an alternative option for the brush corner on the right hand side, but it’s only intended to be used after a run-out, as the line isn’t as clear if they try to tackle this directly from the second of the tables.
“There is a right option but for me, it’s only there for if they have a runout at the direct corner. I think they’d struggle to jump and turn right, because it’s sort of uphill and speed would take over, so they probably wouldn’t get there if you did it as a line. Tyson, who built these fences for me, has been having sleepless nights over the tables, because he thinks they’re huge – but I think it’s great! I love big fences like that down a hill, and what I really want to do is stand on the landing side of the second table just to get a photograph of the expression on the riders’ faces, because normally they’ll go with their mouths wide open and their eyes popping!”
Ian Stark, once again.
Fence 17.
After that, there’s a proper galloping stretch to get that rhythm going again and give those gutsy horses a big pat, before a single fence at 17 that somehow looks — dare we say it? — quite small.
“It’s maximum height and spread for the level, but it looks like a training fence, and the reason for it is it’s so wide,” says Ian. “Next year I’m planning to take a chainsaw to it and make it two fences, and then it’ll look taller and be a double.”
Fence 18ab.
The uninfluential gates of last year make a return, this time without a floral groundline.
“They’re very upright timber chase fences, but the ground is rising up to these fences, and I don’t think they need the groundline, so I’ve removed the plant pots and got approval from the ground jury and the technical delegate,” says Ian, before adding, reflectively: “Maybe I’ve been a bit mean!”
Fence 19.
Fence 19 is another single fence, which is a galloping jump that’ll still require plenty of respect, because this sucker is big.
Fence 20.
Then, it’s a left-handed turn to another water, though this time, they won’t need to actually enter the pond at all. The direct route here is two imposing ditch corners at 20 and 21, though there’s a pair of owl holes on a longer line if riders want to mix and match.
“The corners are pretty huge, and we’ve got seven truckloads of water going in there. What I wanted was all the dirt under the corner to be covered by water – I don’t think I’m very popular with the boys, having to find all that water,” says Ian. “Then there’s the option of the owl holes, and Doug Payne said to me, ‘thank God we don’t have to jump them’ – he’s so tall he thinks he’ll decapitate himself on them!”
Fence 21.
This leads onto one of the flattest bits of the course: “the flat bit of ground here lets the horses recover before the big water,” says Ian.
Fence 22.
On their way to that big water, they’ve got another single fence to jump, which will just add a bit of confidence and fun to the equation before another mentally challenging task.
Fence 23AB, with 24ABC visible on the left-hand side.
And what a task it is! The main water complex has been turned around this year, and the famous crab jump in has been moved out from the bank, which will require a wider jump in — and this time, they land on a dry ramp before cantering into the water, swinging a left, jumping a bank up to a log on a bounce distance at 24AB and then finding a seriously accurate line to a steeply angled brush at 24C. What makes the crab at 23AB so imposing is that you can’t see it until the last couple of strides: the approach up to this water is a steep, short hill, and two strides out, its terrifying face appears with the noise and distraction of the VIP tent behind it on the other side of the water.
“The approach means they can’t see what they’re jumping until they run up that ramp, and then they have two strides to assess it,” says Ian. “It’s a big drop and then they’re looking into the MARS sponsors tent, so there’s a lot to see. It’s at nine and a half minutes, so it’s late for a big water – but I hope that having a lot to look at will sharpen them up again. I put a ramp in the water because it was way over a maximum drop, and it doesn’t worry me that they’ll land on the dry.”
Fence 24ab.
The line from the hanging log at 24B to 24C is a tight three, and it’s a wide-open door for horses to run out to the right if the riders aren’t on it — but the long route through this water is so long that those who are in close contention will need to take the risk if they want to stay at the business end of the leaderboard. And with just over 12 penalties separating the entire leaderboard? That’s an opportunity for just about everyone.
“They’re not going to win prizes if they go the long way, but hopefully at this stage on the course if horses are getting a little fatigued, then their riders can think and go the long way and help get their horses home.”
Fence 25.
Ian’s given them a downhill run from the water, which helps tired horses bowl along without taxing them too much. There’s some set-up to be done for fence 25, which is a pseudo-Vicarage Vee, but he’s made the approach totally obvious: a line of trees puts horses right where they need to be, which is on the small, straight bit of revetting on the ditch lip.
“This was a corner last year, and I’ve taken the back rail off because I feel like this is four fences from home, and the corner was too big a question this late on course,” says Ian, who has fitted the fence with sensitive yellow MIMclips. “I’ve used trees to put the horses on the line – they’ve got to stay straight, but I’ve taken a lot of the guesswork out. It’s up to them to get the right striding, but the line is there. I do think we’ll get the odd run-out, but if we do, there’s a long route over a trakehner for them.”
Fence 26ab.
The final combination on the course is the striking rollercoaster combination at 26ABCD, and this year, the first element has been pushed closer to the big drop at the B element. Then there’s a pair of houses at 26d and 27 on a pretty stiff angle, which gives riders a choice in terms of their line.
“I’m hoping that they’ll jump off on the right side as they’re approaching the drop and turn to the first one ,and then turn in the air to the second one,” says Ian. “If they try and go on a straighter line [between the houses] I think it’s quite a big ask, but people have to decide what their horses are capable of and what they see in their own eye and from their own point of view.”
The view from 26c to 26d.
Here’s another look at that line from the drop, which Ian hopes to see riders jump on the right hand side so they can get a direct shot to the first of the houses.
Fence 27.
And, for good measure, a look at the houses from the landing side, again using a #SallyForScale. They’re not the biggest fences on course by a long stretch, but this is still enough of a question — but once again, there’s a slower, less intense route for those who just want to nurse their horses home.
Fence 28.
There’s a big old table to jump at the penultimate question, but this single fence is on a downhill, which Ian hopes will give horses some engine back as they coast down.
“It’s not maximum spread and it’s got a lovely 45 degree front on it, and it’s downhill a bit on the approach so that if they are getting a bit tired, they can get a bit of energy back on the downhill,” says Ian. “Then the riders can ride the fence before they come back into the middle field.”
Fence 29.
Once they’ve made it back into the middle field, they’ll see every rider’s favourite fence: the final one.
“It’s a very bright, cheerful last fence, because I want the horses to see it and pay attention,” says Ian. “Finishing in the middle field means they then go on to the quiet back corner for the vet box, and then they can just walk back through the trees to the stables.”
Honestly, that’s the only bit we’d be happy to volunteer ourselves for.
As it turns out, Ian was the T-rex all along.
CCI5* cross-country kicks off from 2 p.m. Eastern time (7 p.m. BST/11.00 a.m. Pacific). You can check out what the competitors themselves think of the course here — and keep it locked on EN for all the news, views, and updates you need. Go Eventing!
Tim Price pilots the ‘unknown’ Coup de Coeur Dudevin to a close second place. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Yesterday’s MARS Maryland CCI5* leaders, Woods Baughman and C’est La Vie 135, had arguably the worst possible conditions to deal with for dressage, battling through driving sheets of rain that were so thick you could scarcely spot them in the ring — but that grit and toughness that characterises event riders won out, and even with the perfect conditions today, nobody could usurp their leaderboard-topping 27.2.
But several riders in today’s set of 12 gave it a good go — and the newly-minted World Number One Tim Price, who sits second overnight on a 27.4 with five-star debutant Coup de Coeur Dudevin, was quick to acknowledge his luck in missing the deluge.
“I felt so sorry for Woods yesterday, because it wasn’t just the heavy rain, but the wet surface, too — but in a way, it makes the determination of the rider come out, and you really kick on,” he muses. “But I was really pleased to have sunshine today — not least for my groom, Kerryn Edmans, because she puts so much work into making [my horse] gleam, and it was nice that she could show that off.”
This is just Tim’s third international outing with the ten-year-old Selle Français (Top Gun Semilly x Tiebreak Combehory, by LePrince des Bois), and only the horse’s third-ever long-format competition — and so, although this is essentially a fact-finding mission, it’s one that’s intended to act as a foundation for big things to come.
“He’s a really talented horse, and I really believe in him as a proper five-star horse for the Badmintons and Burghleys, and now for Fair Hill, which I’d put in the same category as those other famous ones,” says Tim. “That’s why he’s here — you know, he’s inexperienced, but he’s here to get some education on the job, and all I want from him in that department is to be relaxed and to show himself in the true light of where he’s working. And that’s what he is: he has a few mistakes, and he’s a bit unestablished, and a bit comes and goes, but the quality underneath it all and the relaxation is what makes me very happy with him.”
Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tim rides the gelding for breeder Jean-Louis Stauffer, who originally sent the horse to Swiss talent Robin Godel for his early production and then placed him with Australia’s Chris Burton, with whom he competed up to CCI3*-L and finished seventh in both the Six- and Seven-Year-Old World Championships.
“Chris subsequently stopped eventing and went showjumping, and that’s about the time the horse came into our stables. Jonelle started with the horse last year, but he’s just got so much power that she found it quite difficult. She’s small, so she got thrown about a bit and just didn’t feel totally at home with him, so she — reluctantly! — suggested he came my way, because she always knew he was going to be a proper horse for the job. It was quite difficult for her to offer him up to me!”
The talent he possesses is undeniable, and his results with Tim have been exciting, including a second place finish in his sole CCI4*-L run at Millstreet and 12th in a huge, competitive field at Haras du Pin CCIO4*-S in August — but even so, Tim acknowledges that tomorrow’s trip is something of an unknown.
“I’m kind of taking a leap of faith, because he’s so short on experience — but what he has done, he’s done extremely well,” he says. “He loves a big fence, and he does it all with a smile on his face, so it’s my job to give him a good experience all the way around the course and maintain that enjoyment at this level.”
Allie Knowles makes it happen with Morswood. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Allie Knowles and the former Piggy March and Susie Berry ride Morswood, with whom she finished eleventh here last year, stepped into third place overnight in fine style, putting a 28.8 on the board — a score that isn’t just a personal best for the gelding, it’s also an all-time five-star PB for Allie herself.
“That feels great,” says Allie with a big smile. “We’ve definitely been working towards that. He’s always had it in him, but he’s a much stronger horse this year. Last year was his first year at the five-star level, and he did a great performance, but this year he’s just more mature and stronger in the hind end, stronger in the back, and his self-carriage is certainly more than it was before. You know that kind of test is in there, and then you have to sort of hope that it comes out at the right moment.”
Allie Knowles celebrates with her team and supporters after her test. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Katherine O’Brien’s fourteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Ricardo x Princess in Arms, by Present Arms) has been a part of Allie’s string since early 2018, and in that time, he’s firmly established himself as the biggest personality in her barn.
“He is a straight pony, through and through,” she laughs. “He’s a ginger pony; an Irish puppy dog. He’s a nuisance all the time, but in the best way! He’ll follow us around like a dog; he’ll try to escape his stall — I came out of the ring and he was all excited, but the second we hit the first blade of grass, his head was on the ground and he was ready to eat! He’s all heart and personality, but he is funny. He’s gentle with [my daughter] Addy but fierce on cross-country — he’s just a good pony.”
One of the things that makes their partnership tick so well is that Allie and Morswood’s respective strengths complement one another to a tee.
“He enjoys every minute of [cross-country] all the time, and he’d prefer to do that every day, so he’s a great fit for me,” says Allie. “I wouldn’t be the most aggressive cross-country rider — I love dressage, and I love working on showjumping, so to have a horse like him complements my riding really well. So for the last couple of years, it’s been a steady progression of confidence and strength on his part and physical strength and confidence for me on cross-country. At this stage, we’re a very close partnership, so I have complete faith in him and I think he has complete faith in me. It makes every event very fun and something to look forward to.”
Doug Payne and Quantum Leap make a, well, quantum leap in first-phase performance. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Yesterday’s second, third, and fourth-placed competitors, Astier Nicolas and Babylon de Gamma, Liz Halliday-Sharp and Cooley Quicksilver, and Tamie Smith and Danito, now sit fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively going into cross-country, while seventh place goes to Doug Payne and Quantum Leap, who delivered a sparkling 29.5.
Though the eleven-year-old German Sport Horse (Quite Capitol x Report to Sloopy, by Corporate Report) certainly isn’t short on experience, with three five-star completions and two placings to his name already, he’s historically struggled with this phase, and this is only the second time in his 20 FEI runs that he’s broken into the twenties. But his sudden uptick in performance on the flat is no accident: instead, it comes down to some savvy schooling from Doug, who has minimised his eventing outings and maximised his exposure to, well, a little bit of productive chaos.
“He didn’t need to go to that many events, but we’re taking him to all the bigger environments we can, and so he comes along jumping with us a lot,” says Doug. “We’ll jump a couple of days that week, and through that, I’ll try to find the most chaotic corner possible and go flat him there! So he’s just turned the corner where he’s gotten strong enough that he can hold it, and when he can do that, he’s super comfortable. The thing that makes him the most uncomfortable and the most tense is when he struggles to rise to the expectation. He’s an overachiever, so he tries too much, almost.”
The gelding’s newfound confidence in this phase was certainly tested, though, by a bit of a false start to their test, which saw them enter at A and then promptly exit again after a slight mishap from the hard-working volunteers in the ring.
“They opened the wrong gate, so I wasn’t on the centreline,” laughs Doug. “I was like, ‘that’s a little off, but whatever!’ and then all of a sudden they’re ringing the bell again. I’m like, ‘okay, I guess we’re starting over!’ The poor little girl, though, was almost in tears — but it’s fine, stuff happens all the time!”
Hannah Sue Hollberg’s Harbour Pilot looks at his best in his swansong test. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It’s a tightly-packed leaderboard heading into the pivotal phase, and equal eighth-placed Hannah Sue Hollberg and her stalwart partner Harbour Pilot sit just three-tenths of a penalty behind Doug on their score of 29.8.
“He was awesome — I was really happy with him,” says Hannah Sue. “I was struggling with him in the last few weeks with the ridiculous trot work movements where you have to go sideways and change directions and stuff, because he gets kind of scrambly with his legs. So I asked David to help me this afternoon and he gave me some good pointers, and it really paid off in the ring.”
“I thought it was pretty good — I mean, the canter work was excellent, and the trot work was pretty good. It was just the halt — he didn’t really want to stand still, but otherwise, it was good!”
“Show him the love!” Hannah Sue interacts with her loud and enthusiastic fanbase in Maryland’s capacious grandstand. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
At nineteen, ‘William’ is the elder statesman of the Maryland field in a year that has seen high-profile horses of this age thrive on the world stage — and for Hannah Sue, that means she can ride for every mark in the ring.
“He feels the exact same, but a little bit quieter,” she says. “Sometimes he can still kind of freak out, but he’s more reliable, I would say, than he was when he was younger!”
Getting him this far in his career, and still thriving, has been all about consistency — and a horse-first approach, above all.
“I’ve always put him first. If the footing isn’t great, I wouldn’t run him. I love him, so I always took care of him — if something didn’t feel right, I wouldn’t push him. I’ve maintained him the same all the way through.”
All good things must come to an end, though, and as Hannah Sue and William finished their test, it was to one of the biggest cheers of the day from a crowd of fans who were keen to bid him adieu with the send-off he deserves.
“This is going to be his last run, and it’s really crazy, because I never really thought about it ending until now — and now I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, this is horrible!’,” says Hannah Sue. “But I’m so happy to make this decision ahead of time, rather than something horrible happening. It’s special to be able to take care of him his whole career and do the right thing for him — he’s Capitol HIM’s best friend and field mate, so he’s just going to hang out with me. He can go retire at Ms Mars’s beautiful farm in Virginia, but I’m not quite ready for that yet!”
Buck Davidson and Carlevo wrap up the dressage and step into the top ten. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Sitting pretty alongside them in equal eighth is Buck Davidson, whose second ride of the week, Carlevo, also posted a 29.8 to best stablemate Sorocaima, seventeenth on 35.7. That 29.8 puts them in a very competitive position, just 2.6 penalties off the lead, but sees them hit a mark that’s not quite on the money of their six-run average of 27.
“He’s always good, but it felt like the ground got really tacky in there,” says Buck. “It felt different from the warm-up, and that made it feel like it was hard work. It just felt like the second half of the medium trot, it was like he was pulling himself out of the mud, and it didn’t feel that way in the warm-up. But whatever, it is what it is — that’s the sport! He did the test he always does, and he’s always good; we’ve just got a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
Oliver Townend and As Is take tenth place in the first phase. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Oliver Townend rounds out the top ten with the five-star debutant As Is, who scored 29.9 in his first five-star test. The Spanish-bred eleven-year-old (Meneusekal x Paraca, by Lacros) joined his string this season, having been previously produced by Andrew Nicholson.
“He’s obviously a very new horse to me, and we’re working on the progression, but the brain is beautiful,” says Oliver, who returns to Maryland after finishing second in the inaugural running of the event with Cooley Master Class. “He goes in and he does his job, and we’re working on getting him stronger and a little bit more flash, but that’ll come. Next year, he’ll be in the top three after dressage.”
As Is joins the likes of Swallow Springs and Cillnabradden Evo as horses that Oliver has inherited from his longtime friend and gone on to compete at the top level with.
“I’ve ridden plenty that have come from Andrew,” he says. “He always produces horses to be professional, and it’s a real pleasure to get on a proper professional’s horse. I’m not particularly a fan of getting on horses that have been produced to a high level by amateurs, because the buttons are all over the place — but you know that with Andrew’s horses, whether you’re doing the trot-up or the dressage or whatever, they’re professionals at it, and they’ve been treated that way since they were four years old. It makes my job a lot easier.”
Coming back to Maryland, Oliver says, was an easy decision after his experience last year, even with the unknown quantity that is a five-star first-time.
“It’s an amazing event, and the prize money in Pau wasn’t good enough,” he says. “We came here last year and the people are fantastic; the organisers are great; the Ian Stark course was very special; and the American people are lovely to ride in front of. I’d be in America every week if there was a five-star every week.”
Now it’s time for everyone’s focus to shift to Ian Stark’s big, bold, tough cross-country challenge tomorrow, which will get underway from 2pm Eastern (7.00 p.m. BST/11.00 a.m. West Coast) tomorrow. You can find full 5* ride times here. We’ll be bringing you a full course preview, plus riders’ reactions to the new-look, seriously beefed up track — but until then, as always, Go Eventing!
The top ten at the culmination of dressage in the MARS Maryland CCI5*.
It’s been a short and sweet day at the MARS Maryland 5 Star — and at the very end of the day, in the most torrential weather of the day, we got ourselves an overnight leader in Woods Baughman and C’est La Vie 135. You can read all about it in Sally’s full report this evening, but for now, whet your whistle with this very soggy replay of the test that set the standard. Woods, we salute you!
Getting to a CCI5* is an extraordinary accomplishment, and one that many riders will spend a lifetime working towards. Tens of thousands of hours; blood, sweat, tears; moments spent lying in the arena dirt wondering what on earth the point of it is — all of that leads here, to the first horse inspection at one of the biggest competitions in the world, and the validation that you did the right things, pushed through the tough times, and gained entry into the most elite club of all. If you trotted up a horse at the MARS Maryland 5 Star yesterday, know this: you’ve made it. But also know this: I am now going to make fun of you, with love and admiration. Keep on scrolling to meet this year’s Golden Chinch Award winners at the penultimate five-star of the year.
The Golden Chinch for the Rider Most Likely to Run a FinDom Empire
Hannah Sue Hollberg and Harbour Pilot. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
EN boss lady Sally Spickard and I sat out by our little fire pit at our Delaware AirBNB last night, sharing a cigarette and some crab fries (no, not a euphemism) and winding down after a long course walk at Maryland.
“I have a friend,” she told me, pausing to take a long, luxurious drag, “who’s a financial dominatrix.”
I looked at her, my interest piqued.
“She verbally abuses men, sends them a photo of her feet, and then gets a thousand bucks from them,” she explained.
Now, Hannah Sue Hollberg definitely isn’t a financial dominatrix, because who actually has time for taking feet pics when you have a load of horses to ride every day and a very, very nice new husband to hang out with, too? But something about this eye-catching, body-skimming head-to-toe leather outfit tells me she could if she wanted to, and she’d be making a heck of a lot more than a thousand bucks doing so, as well. It’s all a bit Velvet Underground — shiny, shiny boots of leather; whiplash girl child, and all that — honestly? I’m here for it.
The Golden Chinch for When You’ve Got a Trot-Up at 1, But You Need to Wrangle Those Dogeys at 3
Woods Baughman and C’est La Vie 135. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
I’ve met Woods Baughman exactly once before this week, and that was in the Burghley mixed zone, where everyone suddenly went really silly and quite odd when it came time to interview him, mostly because he is, let’s be real, very good-looking. He is also a brave, brave boy when it comes to footwear choices. I almost didn’t clock these cowboy clodhoppers as he line-danced his way down the trot-strip, because in my head, I’d already written him off as yet another man in a staid suit. Snore, thought I. More fool me! Woods Baughman is here to put a boot in yer ass, ‘cuz it’s the American way, or something like that, anyway, and he’s got a handy-dandy hoof pick on his belt, too, because what are cowboys if not practical chaps who are ready for just about anything? I, for one, hope that the suit and cowboy boot combo takes over from the regrettable suit and baseball cap situation that has plagued US eventing for far too long. Woods, if you’re reading this, I’ll be wearing my own, very silver, cowboy boots to the final horse inspection — I’ll meet you there for a hoedown. Again, I cannot stress enough that this is not a euphemism.
I’ve been brushing up on some cowboy lingo in preparation, which has been An Experience in and of itself, and so, Woods, let me offer you some sage advice: you’ll never feel more above snakes than you do while competing at a five-star. It can be a hog-killin’ time, or it can be a bit of a bad box, but no matter which hand you’re dealt, don’t be a yellow belly. Try not to get busted off, definitely avoid chewing gravel, and remember that you’re better than a lick and a promise. If you’re angry at me for victimising you in my jog awards, you can crawl my hump at five p.m. today. Ooo-er.
The Golden Chinch for Being the Nicest Boy in Peaky Blinders
Will Coleman and Dondante. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Peaky Blinders fever has swept the eventing world, which always makes me laugh, because event riders — as tough and ballsy and undeniably cool as they are — are about as far from Brummy gangsters as you could possibly get. They enjoy the finer things in life, like, um, dressage (although ‘enjoy’ might be a strong word for most) and cocktail parties. I don’t think Will Coleman has ever ordered anyone to be brutally murdered, although I’m willing to concede that I don’t know everything about everyone and I could be totally wrong there. The flat cap tells me that he’d like to think he has a touch of the crime boss in him, but I think what we’ve got here is a walk-on extra role, in which a smiley, sunny Will drives his milk cart up to the Blinders’ den of iniquity and kindly offers them the choice between full, semi-skim, and gold top. It’s important to ensure that one’s calcium levels are tip-top before a long, hard day of doing naughty things. And you know what? Will’s Got Milk? campaign is working on me. Pour me a tall one, chap.
The Golden Chinch for Hair That’s Booking a Ticket to That Blink-182 Reunion Tour
Jennie Brannigan and FE Lifestyle. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
If there’s one thing you need to know about me, it’s this: I am a die-hard Josie and the Pussycatsapologist. I truly believe that the 2001 Rachael Leigh Cook-led ensemble piece is a work of fine art; perhaps one of the greatest film ventures of all time, like Casablanca or Gone With The Wind. This is a hill I will die on, very happily. Josie and the Pussycats awareness is, I think, the mission I was put on this earth to fulfil. And in the year of our lord 2022, I do believe that Jennie B has joined my cause.
First, there was her outfit at Kentucky this spring, which might have been my favourite trot-up outfit of all time. Like many riders, she came out in head to toe Holland Cooper, but instead of wearing the British brand in the Kate Middleton way, she punked it up, pairing a cropped tartan blazer with a pair of skin-tight leather trousers and a heeled ankle boot, looking as though she was ready to pick up a swoopy-fringed boy in the back of a Hot Topic and then maybe snog him in a mosh pit or something. Today, she went full Punk Rock Prom Queen, pairing a Sunday school skirt and scarf combo with a very tarty boot and stocking situation. I cannot explain to you how intensely I intend ‘very tarty’ to be a compliment.
The piece de resistance? That newly pink mane of hair, which says “look, I could do things your way. I could be the president of the National Honour Society. I could sell bon-bons for French Club in my free period. Or — and just bear with me for a moment here — I could start a thrash band with a name like ‘The Riotous Womb-Sluts’ and I could also, maybe, at a push, kick your ass.”
The Golden Chinch for Chaotic Sock Abandonment
Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
New Zealand’s Tim Price can do what he likes, really, because he’s the World Number one, and I’m pretty sure that grants you diplomatic immunity from internet piss-takes. HOWEVER. He’s been a very, very rogue boy here, and has brought forward a look that I am never quite sure about. That look? A sockless loafer situation; very trendy, admittedly, among the slim-trouser-and-quaffed-hair chaps of the UK scene, but one that always, regrettably, makes me think a bit too much about the practical logistics of the thing. I just know it smells extraordinary in those loafers, unless, of course, Tim is hiding a secret sock in there. Then, of course, I have to take a moment to picture Tim wandering around in those cheeky lil’ toe condoms, and I’m honestly not sure which option makes me feel more uncomfortable. Perhaps Tim, too, is shilling feet pics on the side. Perhaps EN just started the rumour of the century. Perhaps.
The Golden Chinch for Egregious Flirtation with the Colour Wheel
Astier Nicolas and Babylon de Gamma. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Look, there’s a lot of blues going on here. A real spectrum of blues. The problem is that none of them are even in the same family. We’ve got a periwinkle trouser, an aqua windowpane, a baby blue shirt, and a Dennis the Menace tie that harks back to the days when the cool thing to do was either have your school-issued tie six inches too long or twelve inches too short. It’s a chaotic ensemble, and one that only a Frenchman who’s posed for Givenchy could pull off. Astier allez-ed les bleus, for sure, but perhaps he allez-ed les bleus too close to the sun.
The Golden Chinch For Refusing to Fetch the Milk, MOM
Doug Payne and Quantum Leap. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Doug Payne is a sharp dressed man, don’t get me wrong. But something about his whole vibe here tells me that his mom just got home from the local Piggly Wiggly and shouted up to his bedroom that she needs some help bringing the groceries in, right as Doug was about to hit an all-time kill streak in a fierce COD blast-off. Last time he fobbed her off she took his X-Box privileges away, so he’s going to do it this time, but he’s also going to make sure she knows just how unhappy he is about it. Don’t worry, Doug. She got you a can of Monster for your troubles, and that sweet, sweet rage nectar will ease your pain and fire you up for even more wanton machine gunning. Go pwn those noobz. Pwn them hard.
The Golden Chinch for Actually Just Legitimately Nailing the Brief
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Cooley Quicksilver. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
I know I’m here with one mission, and that is to gently lampoon, but truly, I have nothing funny to say about Liz Halliday-Sharp’s smart, flattering, flared jumpsuit. It’s giving Studio 54, but on one of the rare nights in which Bianca Jagger didn’t ride in naked on a horse. Liz consistently rocks some great looks for trot-ups, but this one wins the prize for her best yet, and the look of the week here at Maryland. Go forth and conquer, LHS.
Every course designer has a different set of priorities and a different modus operandi — and understanding your designer is key to unpacking what it is they’re looking for from your round. Lucinda Green explains this concept, and teaches you how to walk like a pro, in the latest instalment of her XC Academy.
Supplements you can count on from Kentucky Performance Products.
When it comes to keeping your horse happy and healthy, you can depend on your friends at Kentucky Performance Products (KPP). Our company is owned and operated by horse people just like you. That means we’re out in the barn every day dealing with the same challenges you are. We’re committed to producing the best nutrition supplements possible because our horses use them too!
The nominations for this year’s FEI Awards are live, and we’re delighted to see two members of the eventing family in contention! Kerryn Edmans, groom to Tim and Jonelle Price, is up for the Cavalor Best Groom Prize, while 20-year-old British 5* rider Alice Casburn is nominated for the Longines Rising Star prize. Give them your vote here!
National Holiday: It’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Read more about how Native Americans have been intertwined with horses here.
US Weekend Action:
Morven Park Fall International CCI4*-L (Leesburg, VA): [Website] [Results]
There’s a name you might not recognise on the Maryland 5 Star entry list — that of New Zealand’s Hayley Frielick. But this girl’s got a serious story, and once you read it, you’ll definitely be cheering her on as she tackles the event with her horse, Dunedin Black Watch. [Meet her here]
Short girls, unite! It often feels like the horse world has been wholly designed to cater to long-legged ladies, and to be fair, as a 5’7 gal, I’ve definitely benefited from that. But if you’re short of leg, you deserve to have breeches that fit without bunching, too. (Although you do get a more comfortable ride on planes, so you win there). [An ode to the shorties]
If you’re a Fairfax and Favor fan, you may have wondered where the iconic boots came from. The answer? Two chaps in their 20s, who had a long-time friendship, a deep appreciation for all things country, and a failed bouncy castle company idea behind them. [From zero to heroes]
And finally, after watching Alyssa Phillips make her team debut at Boekelo, it’s time to get to know the girl behind the performances. At just 25 years old, she’s living the dream with her three beautiful horses and a longtime training partnership with Jennie Brannigan. [Chasing the dream]
Want to follow a rider on his way to the top, and get plenty of robust motivation along the way? Then you need to follow Italy’s Pietro Grandis, who recently left his longtime role as Michael Jung’s stable jockey to pursue his goals.
Morning Viewing:
How incredible is this archive footage of the US Olympic team in training for the 1948 Olympics?
And just like that, another Boekelo was over — but not without a generous helping of drama right down to the last seconds of the competition.
Just 14 of the 53 starters would deliver clears inside the time on Kris Van Gelder‘s track, and so tightly packed was the leaderboard that a rail — or a clear — would send competitors tumbling down or shooting up the leaderboard. And so when Tim Price delivered the goods — and one of eight FODs in the class — with his 2019 Seven-Year-Old World Champion Happy Boy, he was delighted — but he wasn’t thinking much further than that he’d secured himself second place. When two-phase leader Laura Collett took a late rail with Dacapo, then, it didn’t quite hit him what had happened.
“It’s not sinking in very quick,” laughs Tim, who refers to the ten-year-old as the literal and figurative dark horse of his yard. “I focused so much on jumping a good clean round, and I put the rest to one side — and Laura jumps clear round after clear round in her career on any given horse, and Dacapo is a very good jumper. So I just thought, ‘well, I’m very happy to be on the podium!’ I never thought I’d win it, but he’s a great little horse — he’s the consummate all-rounder for eventing. He’s just really nifty; he comes out and does his best in each phase.”
Tim Price clears the last to an enormous roar from the packed house of spectators. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The win comes just two days after the recent double bronze medallist was announced as the World Number One — followed by his wife, Jonelle, in second.
“It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? I’m such a slow starter in the year; I fumble and muck it up for half the year,” he muses. “It’s a bit like me in the mornings, really — it’s like a stretch into the year. I need until about 1pm to get going! But that was really cool, and I’m so lucky at the moment. I’ve got some nice horses, and there’s so much hard work that goes on behind the scenes. You’re training away for years and years, and I think that’s what’s really on display. It might look from the outside like we just step on and step off week after week, but like this guy, I’ve had him since he was four, and you just chip away and try to make the right decisions along the way and place them well. On days like this, you feel like you’re reaping the benefits of a lot of hard work and planning.”
Tim Price and Happy Boy celebrate a red letter week for the Price clan. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tim and Jonelle, who came to the UK in the early 2000s with very little to their name but a dream and a heaping helping of tenacity, have pushed through their fair share of tough times and tricky competitions — but self-belief, he says, is the key for young riders hoping to follow in their footsteps.
“Don’t think too much about the work ahead — just keep your head down and carry on quietly, and stay focused on what you want to do in the sport,” he says. “I was talking to a young rider earlier, asking me a question like that, and I think you’ve got to tell the people around you that your ambition is to get to the top. You’re not really trying to sell horses; you’re not really trying to duck and dive — but you might have to to get there. Let it be known, and the more you put that around yourself, the more it can become reality one day.”
One of the most admirable things about the Price family is the diversity of their time: rather than remaining tunnel-visioned on riding at every moment of the day, they make time for the other things that make life great, including family, holidays, and taking the time to explore the many places they travel to while competing. And that, too, is crucial to avoiding burnout, says Tim.
“You’ll get pretty floored after a bad competition, so you’ve got to build yourself up again and again. You just get good at refining the timescale to do that — two or three days and then you get going again. But really, you’ve got to live a healthy life; a fairly well-rounded life. We’re not pure athletes; to be honest, we can live a little with our lifestyles and things, and you’ve got to keep that healthy balance so you can bounce back and get enthusiastic about what’s around the corner. I think that’s what the real key is: that we love it so much that we can let that filter in very quickly.”
Amen to that, Mr. Price.
Tom McEwen takes second — or ‘equal first’ — with new ride JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“I’m going to call that ‘equal first’,” jokes Tom McEwen, who finished in second place — though on the same score as the winners — with new ride JL Dublin in their first international run together. They lost out on the tiebreak by hundredths of a second after finishing yesterday’s cross-country in 10:06 — a second faster, but a second further from the 10:10 optimum time, than Tim and Happy Boy.
“He was amazing, but obviously I was getting a bit nervous on the time yesterday,” he says. “I had every opportunity, but the horse was epic.”
For Tom, there was the added weight of a different kind of pressure this week. JL Dublin is best known for his partnership with Nicola Wilson, with whom he won last year’s European Championships — among a spate of other major wins — and while Tom is struck by his good fortune at getting to deputise for her after her accident at Badminton this year, he’s eminently conscious that in happier circumstances, there would be another rider in the irons for today’s prizegiving.
“It all comes down to Nic,” he says. “She produced him, and to come here on two intermediate runs and come second — that’s all down to her, and actually, if she’d been on him, he’d have flown around and won quite comfortably. He’s phenomenal, and it’s all thanks to her and all the hard work she’s done for years and years with him. So I can only say thank you: thank you to her, and thank you to her owners for trusting me with such an incredible horse.”
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Before heading out on course yesterday, ordinarily icy-veined Tom was nervous — after all, he’d had very few runs with the horse and only a couple of months to get to know him.
“The first three fences, I was gauging where I was at, because we’ve only done two OIs,” he says. “I was a bit nervous in the morning, but as soon as I set off, I was like, ‘no, we didn’t need to anything more than those’. He was phenomenal. At the tricky combinations he flew; I had to add at the two overs, so I made sure we balanced to the water, but to be honest, we went around in a hand canter, which is why I found getting closer to the time so difficult. He was coming out of the main arena at the end of the course and I was trying to slow him down, but all he wanted to do was carry on galloping. He’s a machine, and he’s world class — there’s not many like him. Even though we came here to do well, at the same time it was very much a learning experience, so to come out like this is fantastic.”
Laura Collett and Dacapo slip to third after a frustrating late rail. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“If you’d said we’d be third coming here, we’d all have been delighted, but obviously it’s a bit gutting dropping from first to third,” says Laura Collett, whose late rail at the tenth fence with Dacapo cost her the lead she’d held on 21.9 through the first two phases. But the week has still been a victory, in a way, for the mercurial gelding, who tends to either place or push himself right down to the bottom end of the pack with occasional naughty moments across the country. Like stablemate London 52, whose career turning point came after his confidence-boosting win here in 2019, the week has looked to be a very positive one for the 13-year-old gelding, with whom Laura has simply focused on enjoying four-star outings this year in a bid to sustain his focus and push him toward the path of least resistance. In that respect? It’s been mission very much accomplished.
“He’s had a great time and performed brilliantly,” says Laura. “He hasn’t had a wobble all year, and he’s had a bit of a funny prep coming here — he’s run in intermediates, and he’s been to Burghley and done a demo there, and things like that. He obviously just likes to have a bit of change, and the main thing is that he was brilliant on the cross-country. Any horse can have a fence down, and unfortunately, he had one today, but it doesn’t take away from how good he’s been this week.”
World Champion Yasmin Ingham closes the book on a super week with Rehy DJ after a tricky start. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Newly-crowned World Champion Yasmin Ingham had another super week, this time with the sweet, stalwart Rehy DJ, who is also owned by Banzai du Loir’s owners Sue Davies and Janette Chinn. He’s performed in his usual, reliable way despite an unfortunate incident after the first horse inspection, in which a water bowser was turned on as he walked by and he got loose, slipped, and sustained a superficial graze, which resulted in his withdrawal from the British Nations Cup team to allow an extra day of observation. That call paid off, and he’s looked at his best since, climbing from first-phase ninth place after finishing on his dressage score of 28.7.
“It’s gone from not so good to really, really good, so I’m very happy,” says Yasmin. “It wasn’t the best start to the week with our little incident, but his graze has healed up miraculously quickly thanks to the help of [team GB vet] Liz Brown and [groom] Allison and all the team here. He’s had the best of care and attention, and he’s feeling fantastic. He jumped his socks off today, and he really deserved the clear round — he tried so hard.”
‘Piglet’ is becoming something of a Mr Consistency in Yasmin’s string, and so consistency is the watchword in how she prepares him, too.
“We know how he works now, and we know what to do in the warm-up so we can get him feeling his best for the showjumping, so we stuck to our usual routine and he delivered. I’m very proud of him.”
For 25-year-old Yasmin, it’s a slightly surreal feeling to be announced into the ring as the World Champion every time she performs — but she deals with the pressure in her usual, sunny way.
“It’s a little reminder every time like, ‘oh yeah, that happened!’ But then I’m like, ‘don’t tell everyone before I jump, though, because it might go really badly!'” she laughs. “
Liz Halliday-Sharp proves she has an Olympic talent in the excellent Miks Master C. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Though Liz Halliday-Sharp is still getting to know her ride of just five months, Miks Master C — “I’ve tried him in new bits for all three phases for the first time this week,” she laughs — she knew from the word ‘go’ that he was a talent of huge proportions, and he certainly proved that in spades this week. The pair initially sat in sixth place after an expressive test for 26.2, which looked expressive and fluid despite the gelding’s current tendency towards a bit too much power, and dropped down to eighth after that strength meant that Liz added 3.2 time penalties while setting up for the fences. But today, all the pieces came together, and the very fresh US-bred ten-year-old, who she rides for Ocala Horse Properties and Debbie Palmer, produced an easy clear inside the time to take fifth place.
“He’s such a fabulous horse, and we’re still figuring stuff out about him — like, today’s the first day I’ve ever jumped him in that bit in the ring in my life,” says Liz. “He was a bit strong with me in my last run, and I think he fought even harder on the last day, so I couldn’t be happier to jump double clear and finish in the 20s with him in our first long format together after just five months.”
Today was a major test for the gelding, and Liz called in the big guns to help her get the job done in training for the final day.
“I’ve kind of had him piss off with me in the ring before, so I was so thrilled with how he just fought for me the whole way. I’ve had a lot of help from Peter Wylde and Erik Duvander, and that’s been really great. I think we’re on the right path forward with him, and ready to step him up the next level next year.”
While there are still some minor mysteries to solve on the path to greatness, several major points have been confirmed for Liz this week — including that of the horse’s stamina.
“He was so fresh today — he came out like, ‘eh, I didn’t do anything yesterday!’ He was wild this morning — he’s some machine. He had three more minutes in him when I finished yesterday; I just ran out of brakes, which is why we were slow, so I need to reassess that this winter. At the moment, he changes at every show, but it feels like we’re getting closer and closer to figuring each other out — and a great week like this puts me in a good, happy place to get on the road to Maryland 5*, too!”
Ros Canter’s Izilot DHI steps up to the plate at Boekelo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Coming to Boekelo is a big ask for a horse that’s naturally starstruck and spooky, but Ros Canter‘s Izilot DHI proved that quality wins out, and watching him gain in confidence and boldness through the week has been enormously exciting. He came to the event already a considerable success in his own right, with wins in CCI4*-S classes at Burgham and Bramham under his belt this season, but as a nine-year-old making his CCI4*-L debut, he was still unproven in many ways — and taking the pressure of expectation off was a huge part of Ros’s gameplan for the week.
“We’re over the moon with the way he’s coped,” says Ros. “Just to be here on the final day is a win in itself with Isaac, but he’s proved how much he’s grown up, and it makes it really exciting for next year. I didn’t really have any intentions about where we could be placed or anything like that — I mean, we all know he’s an out-and-out winner on his day, but this was really about trying to give him an experience that he enjoyed and building for his future. He’s had two big wins this year already, and hopefully this will build him up for another four long next year — and then we’ll see where we go after that!”
Ros and Isaac began the week in exceptional style, taking third place after the first phase on a score of 25, but a smattering of time penalties yesterday pushed them to ninth. Their clear inside the time today boosted them back up the order, and they took sixth place in the final standings.
“In the past, he’s been quite a flighty horse; if he’s been spooked or a bit nervous, like he was at Le Lion d’Angers, then he can go quite fast in the wrong direction,” says Ros. “But he was really good on cross-country. He was definitely a bit shell-shocked at first, and he didn’t really gallop towards the crowds for the first half of the course, so we struggled to stay on the minute markers right from the beginning because he was just drawing back a bit. But the thing I was most proud of was how honest he was at the jumps, even when there was so much going on, because that’s historically what he’s struggled with. He learned a lot from it — he’s tired, mentally, because he’s never experienced anything like this. It’s been a big week for him, and he’s ready for his holiday now!”
Boyd Martin and Fedarman B realise a dream for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
No horse in the field has been as roundly cheered on as Boyd Martin‘s Fedarman B, who he rides for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate in honour of the eponymous late rider who produced the talented gelding to the upper levels. Each step of the way, he’s given Annie’s family and friends an enormous amount to celebrate as their horse makes his debut for Team USA: they sat in the top ten after the first day of dressage, and top fifteen after the second on their 29.8, then moved up to tenth after a clear round fifteen seconds inside the time. Today, though, was their star turn, as they delivered an impeccable clear inside the time to claim seventh place.
“We’re building a partnership, and we’re against some very, very good horses here, so to finish in the top group is something to be proud of — and I think that in our next international, we’ll be even stronger,” says Boyd sagely. “He’d be one of the best jumpers I’ve ever sat on; he’s got power, and scope, and bravery, and carefulness, and he’s just amazing quality. I’m very, very honoured and privileged to ride him and to be here in this company, and to finish on his dressage score gives us a lot to be proud of. It’s great having such a nice group around him, and Annie’s parents here, too.”
Boyd Martin and Fedarman B. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Boyd, who was part of the silver medal-winning team at the World Championships in Pratoni last month, worked closely with Erik Duvander and Peter Wylde this week, alongside his teammates — and while he’s enjoying the afterglow of that historic success, the stalwart team member is always thinking of the marginal gains for his adopted nation.
“I think all the Americans had a great trip, and we’re still just a fraction off the best in the world, but we’re getting closer. We do still have to get a little bit better — I measure myself, personally, against the likes of Tim Price, and he’s part of that group that’s still just a notch better in their riding. I think that part B [of the US rebuilding project] is just getting ahold of the best horses in the world; I think there’s a handful of riders in America that are so close, and if we keep grinding away, I think we’ll get there.”
Susie Berry and the inexperienced, hugely exciting Clever Trick. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
When Ireland’s Susie Berry entered the ten-year-old Clever Trick for this event, it was with one goal in mind: give the inexperienced mare an education in the imitable atmosphere of Boekelo, and don’t worry a jot about the result along the way. But the Irish mare by Financial Reward has only gotten better and better throughout the week, capitalising upon a confident first-phase result of 31.8, which put her 28th, by adding nothing across the country yesterday and just 0.8 time penalties in today’s tough showjumping to take a final eighth place.
“She was kind of an unknown coming in,” says Susie, “but she was class in all three phases, to be honest. She’d be really green on the flat, but she was just as good in the ring as she is at home. She didn’t care about the atmosphere or anything; she just got the job done.”
The pair finished nine seconds inside the optimum time yesterday, making light work of a twisty track that flits through arguably the party of the year around the busy cross-country course.
“I knew she was fast and very good across the country, but it was the other two phases where she’d be pretty green,” says Susie, who took over the ride from fellow Irish rider Alex Donohoe over the winter. “This is actually my first four-star with her — we’ve done an Advanced and a CCI3*-L, but it was all very unknown. I’d hoped she’d perform, but I didn’t expect to be in the top ten, that’s for sure! It just felt like we were singing off the same hymn sheet this week. Going into the jumping I thought she’d be a bit tight, but she was so relaxed, and as long as I stayed relaxed with her, she felt so loose and chilled.”
Sandra Auffarth and the inexperienced but exciting Rosveel add another four-star placing to their 2022 resumé. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
2014 World Champion Sandra Auffarth dropped from sixth to ninth place after tipping a rail with the young Rosveel, but was delighted to add another placing to the Polish-bred talent’s resume after a third-place finish in the German National Championships CCI4*-S at Luhmühlen in June.
“He’s just nine years old, and every four-star he’s done he’s been clear in the cross-country — he’s so honest, and very special, I must say,” she says. “I’ve had him since a six-year-old, and he was always nice across the country, and really doing a good job with the dressage and jumping as well, so he’s really good and an exciting horse for the future.”
Stephane Landois and Chaman Dumontceau. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
France’s young talent shone through this week, with exciting performances across the country yesterday from a number of their riders under 30 — and it was the joint-fastest of the day, Stephane Landois and Chaman Dumontceau, who topped the bill and rounded out the top ten today. Looking no less fresh for his speedy round, which saw the pair finish 18 seconds inside the time, Chaman Dumontceau pinged his way to a one-rail round, moving up one space from eleventh as a result.
“It’s been a very good week – it’s just his second CCI4*-L, and he finished so well,” says Stephane of the ten-year-old gelding, with whom he won Lignières CCI4*-S a year ago. “He’s been very focused, so I’m so happy with him.”
Alyssa Phillips and Oskar finish off their first trip to Europe in fine style. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Alyssa Phillips put a cap on her first experience competing in Europe when she posted one of the few clear rounds in this morning’s first showjumping session, boosting herself and the talented Oskar, previously produced by teammate Liz Halliday-Sharp, from 48th to 44th. The pair, who had been awarded a 20 yesterday for a circle between elements, impressed through the week on their team debut.
Janneke Boonzaaijer took the Dutch national title with her ebullient Bouncer, despite two rails and 3.2 time penalties that put her within a penalty of second-placed Beau Posthumus and Smokie. They finished 37th and 38th, respectively, in the overall leaderboard, while third-placed Adriaan Smeulders, making his return to Boekelo for the first time in two decades, finished 48th with Ekow.
The top ten after an exciting finale at the 2022 Military Boekelo CCI4*-L.
The British are back on top in the 2022 Nations Cup finale. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The British team sealed the deal with a decisive win in the finale of the Nations Cup series, which they’d led from pillar to post with the team of Laura Collett and Dacapo, Ros Canter and Izilot DHI, Sarah Bullimore and Evita AP (20th after three rails), and Kirsty Chabert and Opposition Heraldik Girl (46th). They finished 6.2 penalties ahead of New Zealand, while France took the bronze position.
Germany, who finished fourth overall, took the 2022 series title in a three-way race between themselves, Italy (6th), and reigning champions Sweden (8th). Their team was largely made up of up-and-coming talent helmed by former World Champion Sandra Auffarth with Rosveel, Libussa Lübbeke and Darcy F (31st), 2019 Young Rider European Champions Emma Brüssau and Dark Desire GS (23rd), and Arne Bergendahl and Luthien 3 (33rd after cross-country but eliminated at the final horse inspection.)
The US, meanwhile, finished in fifth place after a good showing by the team was marred by a frustrating bit of bad luck saw James Alliston and Nemesis spun at the final horse inspection.
And so it ends, and we bid adieu to eventing’s greatest party, pack our passports, and head onwards to Maryland. Go Eventing.
The final team standings in Boekelo’s Nations Cup finale.
James Alliston and Nemesis bid adieu to Boekelo at the final inspection after delivering an excellent pathfinding round yesterday. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Boekelo, eh? You think you’ve got it sussed, and then it surprises you all over again with — and you can take your pick, here — an inflatable stage in the main arena, a final fence that saw four fallers on cross-country, a middle-aged man determinedly wearing knee-high pink socks and using a duck ringtone loudly in the media centre, and an eye-wateringly dramatic final horse inspection.
Italy’s Umberto Riva and Falconn Sunheup Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Despite the flat, relatively undemanding terrain and forgiving ground on yesterday’s course, a sum total of thirteen horses were sent to the holding box throughout the course of this morning’s trot-up, which was held before a ground jury of president Christina Klingspor, alongside Edith Schless-Störtenbecker and Merel Schurink. Seven of those were British, and included overnight leaders Laura Collett and Dacapo, as well as Laura’s second ride, Bling, who sits 47th overnight. They were both subsequently accepted on re-presentation, as were fellow countrymen Richard Coney and Poetry in Motion (38th), Izzy Taylor and Graf Cavalier (17th), Bella Innes-Kerr and Highway (46th), William Fox-Pitt and Moonlight Charmer (19th), and Ros Canter and Izilot DHI (9th).
Joining them in the hold box were delegates from a number of other countries, too. France’s Benjamin Massié and Edition Fonroy (16th) were held and subsequently accepted on re-presentation, as were Italy’s Tosca Brambilla and Legaland Mood Swing (55th) and Umberto Riva and Falconn Sunheup Z (25th), though the latter were asked to trot a second time in their re-presentation. 53 horses and riders will go through to showjumping, following the overnight withdrawal of Sweden’s Erika Sjöstrom and Mosstown Prince (57th) and France’s Sebastien Cavaillon and Quatchina Blue Z (37th) and Fabrice Saintemarie and Cronos de Pleysse (51st).
Ireland’s Camilla Spiers and BT Angelo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Three horses were sadly eliminated from the competition after re-presenting, and all three were part of Nations Cups teams. The USA’s James Alliston and Nemesis (30th), Ireland’s Camilla Spiers and BT Angelo (13th), and Germany’s Arne Bergendahl and Luthien 3 (33rd) will not continue on in the competition. That means that team USA drops from fourth to fifth going into the final phase, and Ireland drops from fifth to eighth, while Germany, whose riders all completed yesterday’s cross-country without jumping penalties, move up from sixth to fourth and remain at the forefront of the hunt for the series title, for which they’re competing against Italy — currently sixth — and Sweden, currently seventh.
Germany’s Arne Bergendahl and Luthien 3. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The showjumping will begin from 11.30 a.m. local time (10.30 a.m. BST/5.30 a.m. EST), with the top twenty-five to follow from 14.30 local time (13.30 BST/8.30 a.m. EST). You can check out the times in full here, and as always, watch along here. We’ll be back with all the news and views you need to know — and in the meantime, Go Eventing!
Laura Collett and Dacapo maintain their first-phase lead, remaining on 21.9 after Boekelo’s cross-country day. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Today’s cross-country at Military Boekelo CCIO4*-L could be fairly described as something of a day of two halves: on the one hand, despite riders’ assertions that it walked as more difficult than in previous years, we saw 59 of 74 starters complete — an 80% completion rate — and 44 of those jump clear, giving a clear rate of 59%. The optimum time of 10:10 proved not at all difficult to catch, too, with a whopping 19 competitors catching it.
But while it was, in many respects, the ‘softer’ Boekelo we’ve become used to, it still had its challenges — and most pertinent of those today was its final fence. A reasonably wide table-profiled fence, it walked as being wholly innocuous — but throughout the day, we saw three fallers here, including second-placed Giovanni Ugolotti and Swirly Temptress. Though each fall was different, as was each approach, each of the horses fell after leaving a left leg, and though officials tried to paint the top edges of the table white to make them more readable after the third fall, by the fourth, they opted simply to remove the jump altogether to keep horses and riders safe — though, as Technical Delegate Gillay Kyle was quick to remind people, that decision didn’t reinstate those four fallers.
One of those nineteen clears inside the time belonged to Laura Collett, who remains in the lead following the pivotal phase with Dacapo.
Longtime followers of Laura’s, though, will be just as familiar with the 13-year-oldDacapo for his misdemeanours as they are for his successes. He’s got plenty of major accolades under his belt, including second place at Aachen last year, but he’s also lost out on plenty more after silly runouts – an occasional habit that Laura hasn’t quite found her way to the bottom of.
“You never know what day he’s going to have, but he was amazing the whole way around,” she says. “You have absolutely no idea [when he’s going to be naughty] — it comes out of nowhere. He’s either going or he’s not, and there’s not a lot you can do about it! When he’s good he’s amazing, and he has his ears pricked and looks like he loves it, so you never quite know what’s going on in his head! When he’s like he was today, he’s mega — he never runs out.”
Dacapo certainly made Adrian Ditcham’s track look easy, coming in a hundredth of a second under the optimum time and never wavering in his approaches, even in the face of 60,000 enthusiastic partiers in close proximity to the tightly-roped track. But then, for all his quirks, Dacapo is a bit of a showman — and it’s that love of the spotlight that Laura hopes will buoy him to greatness tomorrow in the main arena where stablemate London 52 experienced the great turning point of his career.
“He’s a good jumper, but he can have a lazy rail here or there. He loves an atmosphere, though, so I’m hoping he rises to the occasion and tries a little bit harder,” says Laura. “Hopefully it’s his time to shine — he’s been in Dan’s shadow for long enough!”
Tim Price and Happy Boy. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Three days into his tenure as the newly-minted World Number One, Tim Price puts himself well in contention for another international title, stepping up from equal fourth to overnight second with his 2019 Seven-Year-Old World Champion, Happy Boy. That movement came after the shock elimination of second-placed Giovanni Ugolotti, who fell at the final fence from Swirly Temptress, and the relocation within the top ten of third-placed Ros Canter and Izilot DHI, who added 4.4 time penalties to slip to ninth.
“He’s a great little horse,” says Tim, who came home three seconds inside the time with the ten-year-old Dutch-bred gelding. “He’s still getting used to this level; it’s only his second time around a course like this, but this is definitely the biggest challenge he’s seen in his career. I was really happy with him — he just kept coming and taking on all the questions.”
Though Happy Boy has previously experienced busy crowds at the Young Horse World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers, Boekelo’s atmosphere adds a whole new dimension — and something of an edge. When the long-term goal is to build a team horse for the future, though, that’s a valuable educational asset.
“I haven’t been here in about three years, and the course designer has changed in that time, so it’s pretty different. It’s a bit more gradual to get you into the technicality element of the course, and it feels a bit bigger, but the thing we get here every time is the crowds everywhere. For a young horse — and even for some of the more experienced four-star horses — they’re looking to the left and looking to the right, just clocking all these people leaning over the strings. It’s a brilliant feeling, but it’s a bit off-putting for the inexperienced ones. It’s what it’s all about, though, and it’s why we’re here — to get them used to this sort of thing.”
Tim’s round helps propel the New Zealand team into overnight second place in the Nations Cup, up one place from their post-dressage third — though still 11.1 penalties behind Great Britain, who continue to hold the lead after two phases. For the Kiwis, though, it’s all part of a recent, much-welcomed uptick in team fortunes.
“We’ve been a bit wavering over the last few years, but we got a great shot in the arm at the World Championships at Pratoni a couple of weeks ago,” says Tim. “It’s all about a bit of momentum, and then when you have someone else come into the frame that wasn’t there, you can pick them up and run with it, so it’s really exciting for the team.”
Tom McEwen pilots Nicola Wilson’s European Champion, JL Dublin, to a clear inside the time and overnight third. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Another factor allowed Tim to move into second place, and after the brief frustration of Pratoni, at which he lost out on a tiebreak by being further under the optimum time than Boyd Martin, he’ll have breathed a sigh of relief to have been the victorious party this time. He and Tom McEwen both remain on 25.6 going into tomorrow’s showjumping, but as Tim was three seconds inside the time, it allowed him to inch ahead of now-third-placed Tom, who was four seconds inside the time on new ride JL Dublin.
While both rider and European Championship-winning horse is enormously experienced in his own right, this is their first significant competition in tandem: they’ve contested a couple of Intermediates, and used the CCI4*-S at Little Downham this month as a combined test, but have never yet run in an international. The partnership, helped along by the eleven-year-old gelding’s former rider Nicola Wilson, looked to be coming along in fine style, though.
Sarah Bullimore’s Evita AP is the best of the eight-year-olds in the field and will sit fourth overnight. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The Boekelo field is always well-stocked with very young four-star horses, and the best of those today was Sarah Bullimore‘s eight-year-old Evita AP, who stepped up to the level just this season and was second in the prestigious eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S at Blenheim just last month. Though Sarah no longer has two horses in the top ten after an educational round with a 20 for the inexperienced Irish Trump, who slipped from seventh to 44th, she was delighted to secure fourth place overnight with the young mare, who also contributes to the British team effort. Their clear round, six seconds inside the time, boosts them from eighth after dressage.
“I had a fantastic ride – my mare’s only an eight-year-old, and she was fabulous,” says Sarah. “She’s just got a great, great brain on her, and she was out there ready for the next fence with her ears forward the whole way. She had a lovely time, and I’m chuffed to bits with her. She’ll have learnt an awful lot from coming here. They don’t see these sort of crowds anywhere else – it’s quite unique.”
Yasmin Ingham’s Rehy DJ embraces the atmosphere to romp home inside the time. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Though her round won’t add to the British team effort after a last-minute switch-around on Wednesday, World Champion Yasmin Ingham is still well in contention for individual honours with Rehy DJ after a faultless clear 12 seconds inside the time boosted them from ninth to fifth and proved that, despite that Wednesday incident that saw the gelding sustain a superficial graze after being spooked by a water bowser, Rehy DJ is none the worse for wear.
Sandra Auffarth and Rosveel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Speaking of World Champions, the 2014 one put in a none too shabby show today herself. Germany’s Sandra Auffarth steps up from tenth to sixth with a faultless round aboard the nine-year-old Polish Sport Horse Rosveel, with whom she finished third in Luhmühlen’s CCI4*-S this summer. Just behind them, France’s Morgane Euriat and Baccarat d’Argonne jump from eleventh to seventh after a gutsy, attacking round that reminded spectators why exactly they were victorious in their first-ever CCI4*-L at Lignières last October, and just one second over the optimum in their second at Bramham under-25s this summer.
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Miks Master C add a smattering of time but remain in the top ten after a confident, exciting round from the inexperienced horse. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Liz Halliday-Sharp is best of the US team, who slip from second to fourth overnight, despite dropping down two places to eighth after picking up 3.2 time penalties. But for Miks Master C‘s first time competing outside North America, and his first exposure to atmosphere, it’s an exciting milestone in the pair’s five month-long partnership.
“I was a little bit bummed to not make the time because he was quite strong, but honestly, he was fabulous,” says Liz, who pilots the gelding for stalwart owners Ocala Horse Properties and Debbie Palmer. “It was our first four-long together and he really showed he’s a world class horse. I’m excited about his future; I think it was a really good learning track for him. He’s a such a big, bold galloping horse and this is a very tight, twisting track.”
Though five months is barely any time at all in the grand scheme of an upper level partnership, Liz’s time with the gelding has been wholly focused on getting to know him and helping him to build his strength and balance – although sometimes, that strength can be a touch overenthusiastic.
“The biggest thing is he’s gotten so much stronger and fitter, and he’s suddenly realized he’s He-Man now, so he’s gotten to be a lot to hold on to — which is fine, I ride a lot of strong horses. He wants to do the job and he’s a big-striding horse. I was actually 30 seconds up on the time at the last water and I had to just thread the anchor back through the woods because I just didn’t have the control. But I do think he learned a lot; he went through the woods and was a bit strong and then he came back to me. I am quite disappointed about the time because I’m just really competitive, but I can’t fault the horse at all.”
“He’s been a bit of a different horse at every show I’ve done. This has kind of been a learning journey taking him here and finding a horse for the future. I think next year I’m going to have the horse I really know.”
Though Boekelo, with its twists and turns and smaller fences, wouldn’t be the obvious match for the big-striding, bold gelding, that’s partly why Liz wanted to aim him at the show.
“I think horses need to be able to do everything now,” she explains. “I’m trying to prime my horses up for all of the championships, and I think they need to do all the types of tracks. I think this could be a horse for me for the Olympics, but either way he’s proven to me today that he’s going to be a top five-star horse. And they need to prove they can twist and turn as well as gallop and jump.”
Ros Canter’s naturally spooky Izilot DHI steps up to the plate in a big way at Boekelo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Overnight third-placed Ros Canter moves down to ninth place after cross-country after adding 4.4 time penalties with Izilot DHI, who has been exceptional at CCI4*-S this season but hadn’t yet made the step up to this level.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” says Ros. “He’s still a very young horse; this is his first CCI4*-L, and he’s quite a sharp, spooky character, so it was a big occasion for him today. He won’t have seen anything like this, and he was a bit shy and nervous at the start, but so honest and genuine at the fences. I couldn’t be happier with him.”
Boyd Martin and Fedarman B. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Boyd Martin rounds out the top ten with the Annie Goodwin Syndicate’s Fedarman B, who moved up from fifteenth place after going great guns around the course and showing how exceptionally his relatively new partnership with Boyd has come along. They finished fifteen seconds inside the time though, as Boyd explains, that wasn’t because he was pushing the horse for any kind of speed.
“When I came into it, I felt like I had him very, very fit because he was sort of the backup horse for Pratoni,” says Boyd. “So I had him galloping a lot early on in preparation and so he was ready for that. He showed me at the Tryon 4* that he could do the distance. This course here is a twisty course, and he’s got so much speed; he just gave me a great ride. I feel a bit embarrassed coming in fifteen seconds under the time! But he’s very light in the mouth and I was just seeing really good shots, and I don’t have to set him up too much.”
After Boyd jumped through the final water complex with the gelding, an enormous roar went up from the sidelines — such is the strength in depth of their support side this week as they ride in honour of the late Annie Goodwin, who passed away last year following a riding accident. For Boyd, it was great to give them something wonderful to cheer about.
“I’ve really only had him for a little over a year. He’s had one rider since he was three years old and that was Annie, so I couldn’t expect to hop on and have him go for me like he did for her. This time last year, we were eliminated at Morven Park, but we’ve gelled together — and it’s been great to have the Annie Goodwin Syndicate here cheering us on. Annie’s parents are here, so it’s just a brilliant atmosphere. Team USA has such great supporters today — and like Pratoni, it’s just an awesome group of riders. I think Liz, James, and Alyssa are some of the best riders America’s got, and it’s an honor and privilege to ride for the country.”
James Alliston and Nemesis make light work of pathfinder duties for Team USA. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Though he was mounted on one of the greenest horses in the field in eight-year-old Nemesis, James Alliston made a fine job of taking team pathfinder duties in his Team USA debut, adding just 2 time penalties and bringing back valuable intel to his teammates. He was able to move up from 55th to 30th off the back of that great round.
“I just wanted to start out getting some good jumps, so I didn’t go blazingly fast,” says the West Coast rider, who rode for his native Great Britain until a few months ago. “He’s a fast horse, but at 4ABC, I kind of picked my way through probably in more strides that any other people. After that, he felt really good and confidence, and as I went, I sort of amped it up a little.”
Though they jumped most of the track brilliantly, they survived a near-miss moment at the last fence, which would go on to catch a number of riders and horses out throughout the day.
“It was maybe a little bit chancy coming home,” he says. “And next time, I’d start out a bit quicker!”
Alyssa Phillips and Oskar negotiate the tricky water complex. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Team USA debutantes Alyssa Phillips and Oskar moved from 24th to 48th after picking up an unlucky run-out in the final water combination, plus a further 18.4 time faults — but the exciting gelding looked to gain in confidence on his way around the track, and will have learned plenty from the experience.
Janneke Boonzaaijer, 40th after cross-country after adding 14 time penalties with her CCI4*-L debutant Bouncer, takes the lead on the hunt for the Dutch National Championship after the retirement of first-phase leaders Tim Lips and Wicro Quibus.
“I am very happy with how it went,” says Janneke, who jumped through the tough main water complex with one stirrup, putting an enormous amount of faith in her inexperienced horse in doing so. “A lot of emotions; it was really insanely beautiful. In some places it all went just fine, like on the second water. It wasn’t easy; I really had to fight, but the result is great.”
Great Britain remains in the lead in the team competition, followed by New Zealand in second, French in third, and the US in fourth. Just three teams are in contention for the series title: Germany, who currently lead the standings, sit sixth, while Sweden is eighth of ten teams and Italy is seventh.
We’ll be back bright and early with all the news from the final horse inspection, set to take place from 9.30 a.m. local time/8.30 a.m. BST/3.30 a.m. EST. Until then: Go Eventing!
The top ten after cross-country at Military Boekelo.
The team standings at the close of the second phase in the Nations Cup competition.
Boekelo has historically had a reputation for being one of the ‘softer’ CCI4*-L options, purely because its very flat terrain and dimensionally smaller fences don’t herald comparison to the likes of Bramham. But to underestimate Adrian Ditcham’s challenge today would be remiss: one of the things that makes Boekelo such a showpiece event is its extraordinary atmosphere, and the twisty track runs through a course-wide complex of bars, party spots, restaurants, grandstands, and very nearly nightclubs, all of which are right up against the ropes and give inexperienced horses plenty to distract their focus. It’s an exceptional educational experience for the championship horses of the future but, as Tim Price explains, “it’s a bit of a jumpers’ course — there are some things that aren’t particularly big, so your proper five-star horses might end up going a bit like the proper five-star horses did at Pratoni.” For his young horse, Happy Boy, who sits equal fourth going into cross-country, it’s perfect: “there’s lots of ground lines and obvious profiles, and he’s an honest horse, so if I give him a good placement everywhere, it should be alright.”
Newly crowned World Champion Yasmin Ingham returns for the first time since 2019, again riding her stalwart Rehy DJ — and this time, she’s one of many riders who reckons the course has been beefed up in its intensity and technical challenge.
“It looks hard enough,” she laughs. “There’s lots of skinnies, but when you think about the course, you also have to think about the atmosphere and the audience that’s there clapping and cheering. Rehy DJ has experience with atmosphere now, so he shouldn’t be too bothered about that side of things, but it’ll take some riding. I was watching the videos back from 2017, and I personally think it’s come on a lot in difficulty from that, and from 2019. I’m looking forward to getting out there!”
Reigning Dutch National Champion Tim Lips, who’s currently at the forefront of the race to regain his title, praised the course as the best he’s seen in his long tenure competing here.
“For me, it’s absolutely the most beautiful I’ve seen here,” he says.
The course will run to an optimum time of 10:10 over a 5789m track, with Dutchman Thierry van Reine taking pathfinder duties at 10.45 local time (9.45 a.m. BST/4.45 a.m. EST) with ACSI Harry Belafonte. You can watch along here — and tune into EN for all the updates and reports you’ll need!
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin are the best of the second day in their international debut as a partnership. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
After yesterday’s team-focused day of dressage at Military Boekelo CCIO4*-L, there was a serious first-phase gauntlet thrown down: Laura Collett and Dacapo delivered an excellent 21.9, earning them the lead and posing a serious challenge to all those who would follow. And in today’s line-up of individuals? No one could quite manage to catch them — but a few of her fellow countrymen gave it a jolly good go.
Best of today’s line-up was Tom McEwen, who comes to Boekelo just off the back of running the London Marathon in just under three and a half hours — and there were plenty of eyes on his ride today. This marks his first major competition with the reigning European Champion JL Dublin, who took that honour with Nicola Wilson at Avenches last year, and with whom she fell at Badminton this spring.
Throughout the summer, speculation was rife about which rider might end up with the eleven-year-old Holsteiner, and ultimately, owners Deidre Johnston and Jo and James Lambert made the call to send him to Tom to ride a couple of months ago. Since then, he’s quietly gotten to know the gelding at home and in a couple of national level shows, and the pair made their international debut at Little Downham’s CCI4*-S last week, withdrawing as planned prior to cross-country.
“We’ve done two Open Intermediates and had great, great fun, and then did Little Downham just to see where we’re at,” explains Tom. “He’s obviously a true competition horse, and he’s at his best when he feels that people are watching him.”
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Today, they produced a very likeable test, albeit with wobbles in the flying changes, earning a 25.6 to sit equal fourth with Tim Price and Happy Boy.
“He was absolutely mega, but I just made a few mistakes,” says Tom. “They’re learning mistakes, which is a shame, but he was fantastic. This is our first proper show together, so I was delighted — obviously we’re going in there to do as well as we can, but he was phenomenal.”
Those mistakes, as Tom explains, are par for the course when getting to know a new horse — particularly one that has been produced to this level by another rider.
“He was absolutely nailing the changes outside, and then we absolutely fluffed them inside, so that was fantastic,” he laughs. “And there are just a few other little areas where I could balance him and show him off more. You can show him off for a 9 in every movement, but if you don’t quite get that balance then it won’t be as good as it could be. So it’s just little teeny things, really; a couple of holes and bits and bobs and just finding out where to balance. But he’s so genuine, and so rideable, and that’s all down to Nic, really. She’s done all the work, and I’m just getting to enjoy him now. The power, and the balance, and just the presence he’s got is phenomenal, really.”
Tom is keen to ensure that her part in the horse’s story remains as much of a starring role as it ever was: “Nic really wants me to get on and learn him myself, but every single bit of advice from her is so important. I really want it to be that if she wants to be a part of it, she is; it’s a horrible circumstance, and I’m unbelievably lucky to have the horse — so for me, she’s one of the owners, really. I’m very fortunate to have her backing behind me.”
Sarah Bullimore’s Irish Trump impresses despite some costly mistakes to give his rider a second horse in the top ten. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It was certainly a good day in the office for Britain’s individual contingent, and particularly for Sarah Bullimore, who now has two exciting debutants in the top ten going into cross-country. Her first came yesterday, when eight-year-old Evita AP put a 28.4 up for the British team, which sees her in eighth place — but today’s ride, the nine-year-old Irish Trump, went one better. He earned a 27.5, one of his best-ever international scores, and will go into cross-country in seventh.
His excellent score came after a fluid test with an expensive mistake: he changed legs while turning before the second flying change across the centre line, and then, much less expensively, had a moment of hesitation in the transition to the extended trot. But, as Sarah explains, he’s not been the most straightforward character — and his performance today felt like a victory in itself.
“He’s such a nervous, introverted little person — he looks like he’s really relaxed, but there’s this inner turmoil going on, which means he’s taken quite a while,” says Sarah. “He can just sort of shut himself in his box, and then you’ll be using your legs and using your reins and nothing happens — he’s like, ‘I can’t hear you, I’m in my box!'”
His pre-test schooling sessions hadn’t necessarily filled her with confidence for today, either: “I’m chuffed to bits, because that’s the most rideable he’s been, especially considering that yesterday he decided he couldn’t do a change at all — and then today he was so good at them that he threw in a couple of extras!”
Irish Trump finished twelfth in the eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S at Blenheim Palace last month, which proved a valuable stepping stone in helping him to gain confidence in busier environs.
“That was certainly the biggest atmosphere he’d seen up until now, and he was fab there, but there were a couple of little mistakes where he sort of dropped me — whereas actually, even though he still made mistakes today, he actually stayed in front of me and it felt like he’d really come on from the experience,” says Sarah, who bought him as an unproven rising six-year-old in Ireland, where he’d been produced by an amateur rider.
“We’d been over to Ireland to the sales, just for a bit of a jolly — but you’re always looking out for something. A friend out there who does a lot of sales said he had one at home, but he said ‘it’s raw as raw and isn’t ready to come to the sales, but come and have a look at it, because the talent is there’. And he was raw, but I loved what he had there.”
His early education has meant that his progression has been necessarily slower, in order to fill in the blanks in his foundations.
“There were quite a few basics missing, so he’s had to relearn a few things,” she says. “When I first got on him, he didn’t know about going on the bit, and bend was completely alien to him — we literally could’t canter a circle as he’s got such a huge, powerful canter. It’s taken a long time for him to learn to actually hold it together and sit, and it’s still a work in progress. Hopefully the older he gets, and the stronger he gets, he’ll be able to hold it more and more. It’s been a long process, because it’s often slower to undo and redo the basics — it’s very different to the mare I have here, who’s a year younger but I’ve had her throughout, so it’s all straightforward and there’s no crossroads, it’s always a one-way street in the training. Whereas he questions it — he goes, ‘well, I used to do this’ — so I have to work on deleting those bits. If I can crack him, though, I really do think he’s seriously talented — he’s a proper five-star horse.”
Yasmin Ingham and Rehy DJ step into ninth place after a topsy-turvy start to their week. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The bustling crowds were delighted to get a chance to watch the newly-crowned World Champion, Yasmin Ingham, in action, and she certainly didn’t disappoint, piloting Rehy DJ to a 28.7 and first-phase ninth place. The twelve-year-old Irish Sport Horse, who Yasmin rides for longtime supporters Sue Davies and Jannette Chinn, looked on super form — a relief, certainly, after a near-miss incident after the first horse inspection on Wednesday. En route back to the stables, the gelding was spooked by a water bowser being turned on and got loose, ultimately sustaining a superficial graze to his elbow. Out of an abundance of caution, and to give his veterinary team the opportunity to ensure the graze wasn’t atop any further injury, the decision was made to pull him from the British Nations Cup team and run him as an individual, which meant that his test would take place this afternoon, rather than part of yesterday’s line-up.
“We were very much a bit touch and go, but he feels good now, and that’s the main thing,” says Yasmin.
Unlike many of the horses who come into Boekelo’s atmospheric main arena and get a bit starstruck by the buzz, ‘Piglet’ has plenty of experience in these sorts of environments, having competed with success here previously and at Aachen this summer — and so his default response is the opposite.
“He did feel a bit lazy today,” admits Yasmin. “I felt like I was having to kick him along a bit. He’s very different to Banzai — they’re almost polar opposites, actually, so it’s funny getting on a really sharp one and then moving on to Piglet, who’s not sharp at all in this sort of atmosphere. But he was very good in the test, even if we made a couple of small mistakes, like shaking his head a little bit before the first change, which then upset that a bit — it was clean, but it was very late, almost around the corner.”
That natural relaxation, though, means that Piglet thrives in a part of the test where many event horses flounder: “His walk was a real highlight,” says Yasmin. “It’s so funny, because that’s his best pace — we always laugh that his walk is the best. He gets his neck really loose — he loves his little walk. And he was much better in his canter work — the medium canter was very good. We’re still working on the medium trot, because he hasn’t really got the uphill paces naturally; he’s a little bit downhill and on the forehand, so he just kind of scoots along a little bit. We’re trying to get him a bit more uphill and flicking his toes a bit much, and it’s all getting a little better. I think it was a solid test to start with, and his jumping phases are the best bits, so we can look forward to that!”
Pietro Grandis and Scuderia 1918 Future. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Throughout the morning, no one was able to crack yesterday’s top ten — and so there was a great buzz of excitement when, just before the lunch break, Italy’s Pietro Grandis and Scuderia 1918 Future posted a 29.2, which is their second best-ever four-star score and put them right in the mix. Though they were shunted just out of the top ten by the end of the day, their very good performance sees them go into cross-country in 12th place, just 0.3 penalties behind France’s Morgane Euriat and Baccarat d’Argonne.
“He’s an outstanding horse, and I’m really looking forward to the winter break to put in some good dressage work, because he really has the potential to put us on top in this phase,” says Pietro, who spent several years working as Michael Jung’s stable jockey before moving on to focus on building his string this year. “I really want to be able to come here and [deliver that score] for him, and for the owners, because everybody involved deserves it. But so far I’m happy — it’s such a great competition, but in the end, it always ends on Sunday, so this is just the beginning.”
For Pietro, who bounced back from a nearly career-ending injury years ago, every day is a learning opportunity – and a step closer towards the long-held goals he’s been focusing on. His first Boekelo experience, and just his fourth CCI4*-L after several years focusing on accruing mileage on horses such as fischerTakinou, Highlighter, and fischerWild Wave, certainly feels like a milestone.
“I’m really looking forward to this great cross-country course, and for me, what I’ve missed is the chance to ride in this atmosphere, with these crowds of spectators,” he says. “I’m finally here, and I love it. I want to test myself and my horse to see how we get along with it all — but so far, it’s really exciting. This atmosphere, and what these people organise and put on for us here, it’s what makes you wake up at five o’clock in the morning and go muck out stables. We spend a lot of time riding young horses and being put on the ground, and if there wasn’t something like this to aim for, it would be hard to keep that fire inside. So I’m really grateful to all my supporters for giving me this opportunity for us all.”
Scuderia 1918 Future, who was originally produced by Ellinor Björk and Erika Hakanson of Sweden and then briefly ridden by Great Britain’s Holly Woodhead, has been his competitive partner since 2020, and though he’s not one of the youngest horses in the field, Pietro is looking forward to a bright future with the gelding.
“He’s not really young — he’s fourteen, but he’s a pretty green horse. He came out late at this level and has definitely never competed on a stage like this, but he’s a very fresh horse, so with a bit of work and some more training, I think we’ll be hearing about him in the next years.”
“I like to call him Manny the Mammoth, like from Ice Age, because he really looks like him — in the winter he puts on this coat that makes him look like a mammoth,” he laughs. “He’s a big boy with a small head and a cute eye, and he’s really friendly — not very respectful of the people who take him grazing, but he’s fantastic. He puts on what I call the track mode, like a Ferrari, and then he switches off after he’s performed and just stands around wanting a cuddle. He’s very sweet, and he’s been a great horse for me, because he’s always with me — even if we change things, he’s never let me down.”
Tomorrow sees our focus turn to Adrian Ditcham‘s cross-country challenge, which has taken a step up in difficulty from its previous, slightly softer years. We’ll be taking a closer look at the test to come later on, and cross-country itself will commence from 10.45 a.m. local time (9.45 a.m. BST/4.45 a.m. EST) in the morning. Check out the times here, and until next time: Go Eventing!
The individual top ten following dressage at Boekelo.
The FEI’s magazine show, RIDE, is a great way to dip into the disciplines and see parts of the horse world that don’t necessarily coincide with our eventing bubble — and the newest episode is a particular gem. You’ll get a chance to go behind the scenes at one of the world’s biggest Arab stud farms, plus meet stunt rider Ben Atkinson, whose extraordinary horses have worked on some seriously exciting TV shows and films. Whether you have a short attention span (guilty as charged!) or just want the chance to see a side of the industry that you may not have encountered before, you’ll thoroughly enjoy tuning in.
Laura Collett and Dacapo take the day one lead, and set a tough standard to beat. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
There are a few riders in this game that never, ever throw away a mark unless there’s a figurative gun to their heads, and Badminton winner Laura Collett is one of them. Whichever horse she comes out on, you’d be wise to pay attention to — and although much of the sport’s attention has quite rightly been on her stable star London 52, she’s got some real secret weapons in her string. Among those is the 13-year-old Dacapo, who has flirted with the low 20s on several occasions, and today came into his own in the main arena at Boekelo, putting an unassailable 21.9 on the board to take a 2.5 point lead.
“He’s always promised to do something like this, but he’s a funny one, because he’s so relaxed and laid back but he does actually have a bit of tension, in a weird way,” says Laura. “He thinks he knows what he’s doing, and then he doesn’t like being told what to do, so when you say ‘no, maybe not that’, he gets in a bit of a strop. But he was lovely in there — he just listened and did everything that I asked him to do, which is shocking, really!”
Laura Collett and Dacapo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Laura’s last trip to Boekelo back in 2019 saw her take the win on London 52, which marked an enormous turning point in the horse’s career and transformed him into something of a winning machine — and there’s every chance this week could do the same for his stablemate, who’s been waiting in the wings.
“He’s grown up alongside London and always been slightly in his shadow, but this year, we’ve just taken the pressure off and said ‘let’s just enjoy him’,” says Laura. “He went to Pau last year, and this year we thought we’d just go to some nice four-stars and let him enjoy himself. When he’s on form, he’s very competitive, so let’s try to win some four-stars instead of stressing him out at five-star this year, and then if it goes well here, we can look at stepping him back up again next year. We’re here this week to have a fun time and let him enjoy himself — and so far, he seems to be doing that!”
Dacapo, who has enormous accolades to his name such as a second place finish at Aachen last year, a win at Millstreet CCI4*-L this year, and 11 four-star placings in total, has also been an occasionally tempestuous character — but so far, the approach looks to be paying off, and he’s not been out of the five in FEI events this season.
“The course should suit him him here — he did one of his first four-longs here [in 2019] and went really well, and he’s got a lot more experience under his belt now,” says Laura. “But he’s the kind of horse where if he wants to do it, he’ll do it — it’s not really the course that’s the problem! It’s beautifully built here, as always, and I’m really looking forward to having a crack at it.”
Giovanni Ugolotti and Swirly Temptress step into second place with an expressive test. Photo by Alex Jeffery.
British-based Italian Giovanni Ugolotti looked as though he meant business from the moment he trotted down the chute to the main arena with Swirly Temptress: all power and extravagance, the ten-year-old British-bred mare was a far cry from the spicy mare who reared bolt upright in the mid-test halt in Aston-le-Walls’s CCI4*-S last spring. They were duly rewarded, earning a 24.4 and overnight second — though, as Giovanni explains, the halts are still a work in progress that, once nailed down, will see her trend even lower.
Giovanni Ugolotti and Swirly Temptress. Photo by Alex Jeffery.
“I know she can be very, very good in the dressage, but it wasn’t mistake-free — I think there’s a few marks yet to come,” he says. “But I’m super, super happy with her — she was amazing. I would say the halt is something that I can’t ride her to yet, because she gets a little bit tense about it. She’s an amazing mover, so I need to always be quite precise, because I know she has the ability to actually trot off and canter. The changes are there, and I would say she’s a horse that’ll go closer to 20 next season when it’s all established.”
Ros Canter’s Izilot DHI continues his upward trajectory with a smart test and overnight third. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
There was a long wait throughout the morning for the first sub-30 test, and when they started to come, no one was much surprised to see them coming at the hands of the Brits: Sarah Bullimore and Evita AP delivered the first, a 28.4 that sees them sit sixth overnight, and just after the lunch break, Ros Canter and Izilot DHI posted the second. Their 25 clinches overnight third place and helps the Brits to take a significant lead in the Nations Cup, the first phase of which was completed today.
The nine-year-old ‘Isaac’ produced a fluent, expressive test — something that’s become rather a hallmark for the Burgham and Bramham CCI4*-S winner after an early career that was all about patience, gentle encouragement, and plenty of spooking along the way. Now, he’s becoming a horse that embraces the atmosphere — and Boekelo certainly has plenty of that.
Tim Price and Happy Boy. Photo by Alex Jeffery.
Fourth place overnight is held by New Zealand’s Tim Price and the 2019 Seven-Year-Old World Champion Happy Boy, who makes his third CCI4*-L start after a technical elimination at Lignières last year and a sixth-place finish at Millstreet. Though this is just his tenth FEI event, the ten-year-old has a remarkable record: beyond taking that World Champion title, he was also sixth in this summer’s CCIO4*-S at Haras du Pin, which was full to the brim with well over 100 of the world’s best horses and riders. He’s romped home clear and inside the time in five of those FEI starts, added less than three time penalties in two more, and never had a cross-country jumping penalty — and his performance today, which earned him a 25.6, proved that he’s a force to be reckoned with on the flat as well.
“He’s quite a small-moving horse normally, but he’s a real athlete, so that work is getting more quality as he learns his craft,” says Tim. “And he’s just got a great brain. He’s a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none, but we call him the Dark Horse, because obviously he’s literally a dark horse, but also, he doesn’t make a fuss on the yard, and he’s just there, happy to be doing his job every day. He comes out, goes to work, and then goes to a competition and wins it, and everyone’s like, ‘wait, did Happy just win again?!'”
Tim has been embracing the gelding’s rather Labrador-like nature, which makes him an enormously trainable character: “He’s coming along really well, and I’m very pleased to have him. He’s had a few goes in a bit of atmosphere now, which used to get to him — he used to jog in the walk and anticipate things, but he’s realising it’s easier now. It’s why I love geldings at the moment — some of the interviews we’ve done over the years after horses like Ascona M have been very different, but life’s fun on a gelding. This guy’s all about the path of least resistance, much like myself!”
Liz Halliday-Sharp’s Miks Master C generates a buzz with his expressive test. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Liz Halliday-Sharp leads the way for Team USA, sitting fifth overnight on a 26.2 with Ocala Horse Properties and Deborah Palmer’s exquisite Miks Master C. Though the pair have only been a partnership for five months, there’s an awful lot to get excited about here: the ten-year-old US-bred Swedish Warmblood by Mighty Magic has three top-quality paces and a natural balance that looks set to send him down to the low 20s once the relationship is fully formed. For now, though, Liz is using every ride as a valuable learning opportunity.
“He’s a really, really wonderful horse,” says Liz. “The test wasn’t quite as polished as I want it to be, because I’m a perfectionist, but our partnership is very young and he’s a horse that’s always had a lot of power, but he’s kind of never used this much power. So he’s kind of different at every show.”
Today, that power shone through as expressive, extravagant movement that belied the fact that Liz sometimes felt like she was simply trying to contain the engine.
“There were a few little areas where I was sort of anchoring in because it was all engine and not much control,” she laughs. “But he’s wonderful, and he’s going to be spectacular. I suppose I came here hoping I could do lower than a 25, because I know he’s capable, but there’s still those little bits to polish up — but that’ll come. I’m thrilled with him: he’s never seen atmosphere like this in his life, and he’s never even left North America, so this is a great experience for him.”
Liz, who took on the ride after a period of inaction, is particularly excited to have another great horse in her string for her stalwart owners – particularly as this one, she feels, could be the horse to take her to the Olympics.
“Maya Black produced him up to four-star, and then when she and the owner parted ways last November, the horse was just in the field for a bit,” she says. “Then the owner, Laurie Cameron, who also bred him, called me up out of the blue and said, ‘I have this horse — would you take the ride on him and produce him, ultimately to sell him?’ I thought, ‘sure, he’s a nice horse’, and then I sat on him at Tryon for the first time when we went to pick him up and realised that he’s a very nice horse. He just needed some training, and he was weak, because he hadn’t competed all season — but he’s come such a long way in a few months, and I’m really lucky that Ocala Horse Properties and Debbie Palmer got involved so we could keep him. That’s been amazing — it’s like the universe brought him to me, and I hope he’ll be my Olympic horse.”
Boyd Martin pilots Fedarman B to a poignant Team USA debut and provisional tenth place. Photo by Alex Jeffery.
The US contingent has been unmissable in its support for one another today, with the Stars and Stripes arriving en masse to cheer on each horse and rider — but none had such a large and enthusiastic team of supporters as anchors Boyd Martin and Fedarman B.
Boyd, who arrives at Boekelo fresh off the back of a successful trip to the World Championships at Pratoni, is debuting the 12-year-old KWPN for Team USA for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate, formed in honour of the much-loved rider who tragically passed away following a schooling accident last summer. The pair gave Annie and her family and friends much to cheer about, posting a 29.8 that sees them sit tenth overnight.
Fedarman B: the horse with the biggest, most tightly-knit support team of Boekelo 2022. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“Of course, I always had dreams and aspirations of getting in around a 25, but it’s still a work in progress,” says Boyd. “I’m very, very pleased with the horse — he’s lovely to ride; he’s very relaxed in there and in hindsight, I screwed up both the changes and could have gone for a bit more in the trot, but next year, I’ll be able to clean all that up.”
For Boyd, who worked closely with Annie in a coaching capacity, it’s a particularly special moment to step the gelding up to team duties.
“He’s a horse with a story, and so many people love him,” says Boyd. “Until me, he’s only ever had one rider, and that was Annie – so he’s a real champion horse and a very lovable animal, with a huge fan club in the States. It’s a privilege and an honour riding him, and I feel like our partnership is just gelling.”
“I was lucky enough to coach Annie, especially in the last couple of years, and so I saw ‘Bruno’ progress from Preliminary to Intermediate to Advanced. They were a wonderful pair and it was quite tragic, because she was a rider right on the brink of stardom. So it’s a real honour to continue the work that she put into him. I’ve become very close to her mom and dad, who are here this weekend, and I’ve become close with all her friends and fiancé, too, who all come to the farm just to see him and say hello to him. I’m on a mission to try to make him as great as he can be.”
Alyssa Phillips and Oskar make their team debut. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It’s a team debut for Alyssa Phillips and Oskar, who also make their first trip to Europe this week – and they’ve started in fine style, putting a 31.2 on the board for provisional sixteenth place. They earned a smattering of 8s through their work, and though a break to canter in the extended trot proved costly, there was much to like in their fluent, uphill test.
“It’s so exciting to be here — I’ve worked so hard to get to this point,” says Alyssa, who’s been getting valuable advice from teammate Liz Halliday-Sharp and her own coach, Jennie Brannigan, who have shared their own Boekelo intel and experiences with her. “Everyone on the team has been great. I haven’t been on a team since Young Riders, and that’s been a while, so it’s been so fun so far.”
13-year-old Oskar has been with Alyssa since 2016, when she got him as a six-year-old from Liz Halliday-Sharp, and so the pair come forward for the USA with a wealth of valuable faith in one another – and the ineffable partnership that comes from having climbed the levels together.
“He’s a great horse, and I’m so happy that my first time on a team is with him,” she says. “He’s awesome. I’ve been getting a lot of help from Erik [Duvander] on the flat, and it helps when he also helps me ride him, because he’s a lot stronger than I am. Oskar is coming along leaps and bounds on the flat — he’s just getting better and better, and today’s test, for where he is in his training, is the best he’s gone.”
James Alliston rides with the US flag for the first time, taking pathfinder duties with Nemesis. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
James Alliston sits in 28th overnight on 37.4 with the eight-year-old Nemesis, who produced a promising test peppered with some green mistakes but is, as Erik Duvander enthusiastically seconds, a seriously exciting looking horse for the future. For James, who recently changed his nationality to the US from Great Britain after many years on the West Coast, this is a remarkable opportunity not just for his up-and-coming stable star, but for himself, too.
“He’s a really good boy, and his temperament is lovely,” he says. “US Eventing is really cool about doing this trip – you apply, and then you wait to hear if you’ve made it or not, and I was really excited to find out I could go. I’m so happy to be here, and I’m so excited to represent the US. I moved over after I graduated from university, so it’s been quite a while, and all my clients and the people I teach and the owners and everything are all American, so it just made sense [to make the switch]. US Eventing has always been very kind to me, and the coaches have always been very nice with helping me out, even though I’m not American.”
The combined efforts of the US team put them in second place overnight in the Nations Cup competition on an aggregate score of 87.2, just shy of 12 points behind first-phase leaders Great Britain. New Zealand sits third on 88.4, while Germany – currently in the lead in the series standings and one of just three teams in contention for the series prize, is fourth on 88.8. The other two teams on the hunt for this title, Italy and Sweden, sit eighth and tenth respectively going into cross country.
The team standings following the first phase at Boekelo.
Tim Lips leads the way in the Dutch National Championship riding new mount Wicro Quibus. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The individual and team competitions aren’t the only prizes up for grabs here: also on the line is the Dutch National Championship, which was won last year for the fifth time, and on a fifth different horse, by Tim Lips. At the end of today he’s at the forefront of the race to take it again, sitting 21st provisionally with new ride Wicro Quibus, who he took on from fellow Dutch rider Laura Bergmans-Hoogeveen this season. The 15-year-old KWPN gelding, with whom Tim has just one CCI3*-S under his belt as a partnership, posted a 33.7 to sit just ahead of Janneke Boonzaaijer and Bouncer, 22nd on 34.4.
Tomorrow’s dressage is all about the individual competitors, and will commence from 10.00 a.m. local time (9.00 a.m. BST/4.00 a.m EST). You can check out the times in full here, and to watch along, check out our viewing guide. Until then: Go Eventing!
The top ten after the first day of dressage at Military Boekelo CCIO4*-L.
Can we just take a moment for Jersey MBF? Sanne de Jong’s homebred might have the cutest face of the week at Boekelo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
On paper, if you were going to explain the concept of a horse inspection to an outsider to the sport, it wouldn’t sound fascinating, would it? But there’s something really rather delightful about being in the midst of it all, watching polished, fresh horses and sharply-dressed riders present to the ground jury — and, even better, seeing them at the sidelines, prepping and cuddling and having a catch-up with all their eventing mates.
Despite the collective hangover lingering like a storm cloud over proceedings, yesterday’s first horse inspection at Military Boekelo CCIO4*-L was pure jolliness – and everyone’s joy at being back at the world’s premier party event was palpable. Here’s how the afternoon went, through the eyes of the EN lens.
Team Belgium arrives at the inspection, ready to drop the hottest album of 2022. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“You’ve got a little something right here”: Sarah Bullimore tidies up Evita AP. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Steph Simpson and Fedarman B, the ride of Boyd Martin this week. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It’s a big international outing for Tom McEwen and new ride JL Dublin, the reigning European Champion under Nicola Wilson. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Izzy Taylor and groom Becca Ross head to the trot-up with Izzy’s two rides this week, Carolines Air KM and Graf Cavalier. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Mum’s the word! Jantien van Zon helps daughter Sanne de Jong with her horses. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Meanwhile, Leslie Ingham does the same for daughter Yasmin. Well, when you’re the dam of the World Champion, you’ve got to get stuck in, right? Photo by Tilly Berendt.
And look at her shine! Yasmin Ingham rides the delectable Rehy DJ — or Piglet to his pals — this week. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier’s Hooney d’Arville shows off the ultimate smokey eye look for the first inspection. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Coriander Cousins leads up Liz Halliday-Sharp’s Miks Master C. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Stephan Hazeleger and James Bond provide a splash of colour to proceedings. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It’s photo op time! Team USA convene for those all-important social media snaps after successfully completing the first horse inspection. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Richard Coney and Poetry in Motion make a sharp impression for the ground jury. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The look of eagles: Imogen Murray and Roheryn Ruby keep an eye on their teammates. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“You’re doing amazing, sweetie!” The Ocala Horse Properties boys are out in force to support Liz Halliday-Sharp, and make us all look wildly less glamorous in comparison in the process. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Freelance groom Bettina Cardi stops for a snuggle with her charge for the week, Tine Magnus’s Champagne Pia Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
This year’s Bramham Under-25 CCI4*-L victors, France’s Heloïse Le Guern and Canakine du Sudre Z, sail through the inspection in casual chic style. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Pony power! Kirsty Chabert’s diminutive Opposition Heraldik Girl comes forward for Team GB. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
New Zealand’s Amanda Pottinger and Good Timing pose for a photo with Zara Tindall. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Sebastien Cavaillon’s groom, Lucie, waits with Quatchina Blue Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“Hang on, hang on, show me WHERE on the Zara website you found it”: the conversation we assume everyone was having with Katherine Coleman after spotting her excellent jumpsuit. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Reigning Dutch national champion Tim Lips goes full boy-band mode with new ride Wicro Quibus. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Are you even a horse person if you haven’t made this face while attempting to handle a horse? Cathal Daniels negotiates a rug removal with a very quick-heeled Polly Blue Eyes, who he’s grooming for partner Jennifer Kuehnle. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Denmark’s Sara Bech Strøm and Dicte Aldrup bring forward the outfit of the day. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Ireland’s Sarah Ennis present Grantstown Jackson, while my non-horsey boyfriend who’s never held a camera somehow makes my job look very easy. Embarrassing for me, really. Photo by Alex Jeffery.
Tim Price’s 2019 Seven-Year-Old World Champion Happy Boy gives good angle. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Groom Jade Roberts takes charge of both Price family horses after their inspection. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Olympian Janneke Boonzaijer delivers some serious Dutch spirit in vibrant orange. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The stars, they’re just like us: Pietro Grandis stops to take some photos of his horse, Scuderia 1918 Future (or Manny the Mammoth, to his friends). Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tosca Brambilla’s Legaland Mood Swing doesn’t just have arguably the best name in the field, but also the cutest ears and forelock. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
We’ve ALL been there. Zara Tindall tries to keep all four of fresh Class Affair’s legs in the correct corners for the ground jury. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom McEwen delivers a look that says “I’ve got a trot-up at 5 but the supermarket closes at 7”. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Truly, the stars of the show were these puppies. We don’t make the rules. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Alyssa Phillips is all smiles after beginning her team USA debut with Oskar. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Laura Collett, who was victorious here in 2019 with London 52, pats level debutant Bling before trotting up. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Italy’s Pietro Grandis makes a bold statement in a bright jumper and sharp sneakers from his sponsor, Scuderia 1918, who also own his horse, Scuderia 1918 Future. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Boyd Martin demonstrates how we all feel after the Tuesday night party while presenting Fedarman B. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Team USA is on the ground in full force at Boekelo, with a robust support system cheering on each horse and rider. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Adriaan Smeulders’s Ekow jumps to the left…
…and jumps to the right…
…and does the Time Warp again. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Not to go all Hairdressers Weekly on this gallery, but can we talk about Laura Collett’s hair? Truly the blow-out of dreams. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The most poignant story of the week? Fedarman B’s Team USA debut, which will come with Boyd Martin in honour of the gelding’s former rider, Annie Goodwin. The much-loved rider passed away following a riding accident last year and will be riding along with Boyd on the world stage this week. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
My favourite helmet cam videos are the ones that almost feel like travel blogs – that is, they take me eventing in a far-off land (or, at the very least, across a country border or two). The latest in my digital tourism exploits comes from Germany’s Juliane Barth, also known as Julia Eventer, who’s a real tour de force in German eventing media and vlogs her own exploits with her two horses, too. This super helmet cam video from Hamburg, taken aboard young horse Casper, doesn’t involve any German commentary, so there’s no stress if you’re not fluent in the language, but it does include a pair of very happy ears, a seriously fun looking course, and a bunch of fascinating on-screen performance data that shows the chances in pace that occur throughout a course, shown in both kilometres per hour and meters per minute. It’s enormously interesting stuff, and you’ll want to steal Casper, too!
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Amanda Pottinger and Just Kidding. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Ahh, Military Boekelo, what a place you are. A place full of hyper-fresh horses, spurred on by the sudden chill in the air; a place full of competitive merriness and merry competitiveness; a place where even just making it to the first horse inspection in one piece is a high-stakes sport in itself. Every last moment of the year’s Nations Cup finale, and one of the best-loved CCI4*-L events in the calendar, is exciting and joyful and a bit bonkers, and so it’s fitting that it would start with high drama in today’s first horse inspection, really.
Five of the 75 presented horses were sent to the holding box by the assembled ground jury of president Christina Klingspor (SWE), Edith Schless-Störtenbecker (GER), and Merel Schurink (NED), making it a rather tense affair – not least because most of the folks on site had toasted the start of the world’s biggest party event with the traditional Tuesday night table-dancing session until the wee hours.
Ginny Howe and CHF Archie. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Though those green-gilled riders and grooms may have looked a little greener after being sent to the box, all were able to breathe a sigh of relief upon re-presentation, wherein all were accepted.
Maarten Boon and Gravin van Cantos. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Those held were New Zealand’s Amanda Pottinger and Just Kidding, Great Britain’s Ginny Howe and CHF Archie, Italy’s Daniele Bizzarro and Stormhill Riot, Belgium’s Maarten Boon and Gravin van Cantos, and Sweden’s Sofia Sjoborg and Targa D. Our suggestion to rename the holding box the United Nations has been met with inaction so far, but we’ll work on it.
Camilla Spiers trots a second time with BT Angelo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
A further three horses were asked to trot again immediately: the Netherlands’ Beau Posthumus and Smokie, Belgium’s Tine Magnus and Champagne Pia Z and Ireland’s Camilla Spiers and BT Angelo each took an extra turn down the trot-up strip, but all three were subsequently accepted without making a trip to the holding box.
Tine Magnus and Champagne Pia Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
That means that all 75 of our entrants will continue forward into the competition proper (and this year, too, all will be relieved not to have lost one of their number to a broken leg at the Tuesday night party, as happened in 2021). Tomorrow’s first day of dressage will feature the ten teams lining up for the Nations Cup finale and series championships, while individual competitors will take centre stage on Friday.
James Alliston will take on pathfinder duties for Team USA in his debut for the country. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Dressage begins at 10.00 a.m. local time (that’s 9.00 a.m. BST/4.00 a.m. EST), and the Netherlands will be first in the nations draw, with young rider Thierry Van Reine taking pathfinder duties with his stalwart partner ACSI Harry Belafonte. The formidable Brits sit third in the draw, while Team USA will come forward sixth, led by pathfinders James Alliston and Nemesis. Alyssa Phillips and Oskar will be second for the team, followed by Liz Halliday-Sharp and Mik’s Master C and team anchor Boyd Martin with Fedarman B. You can check out Thursday’s times here, and Friday’s here — plus, for a guide on how to watch the event in full and a preview of the field to come, click here.
Boyd Martin and Annie Goodwin’s Fedarman B. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The full team draw is as follows:
The Netherlands
France
Great Britain
New Zealand
Italy
USA
Belgium
Germany
Ireland
Sweden
Three teams are currently in contention for the 2022 series title, which is awarded for points accrued through the series: Germany sits atop the leaderboard currently on 380 points, with Italy in second on 360 and reigning champions Sweden in third on 330. A maximum of 100 points can be won here, and so fourth-placed France, currently on 270, can’t catch up with the Germans.
Alyssa Phillips and Oskar. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Stay tuned for plenty more from Boekelo, including a jam-packed gallery from this afternoon’s inspection. And until then? Go Eventing — with a hair of the dog in hand if you’re currently in the Netherlands. You’ll need it.
We’ve been loving following Lignières from afar — and the highlight of the week has been seeing France’s Thibaut Fournier back at his best a couple of years after sustaining a traumatic brain injury. We’re looking forward to seeing what the 2018 Pau winner does next — perhaps a return to the site of his biggest ever victory will be on the cards?
Events Opening Today: It’s happened, folks. We’ve hit the first barren Tuesday of the 2022 season.
Some of the coolest eventing folk you’ll ever meet are the ones who stumbled into the sport by accident. You know the ones: the adrenaline-junkie, try-anything-once sorts who reckon just about anything will do as a good anecdote over a cold beer later on. Former reiner Rosie Smith, who finished third in the Training Rider division at the AECs this year, strikes me as exactly one of those riders… not least because her first pony was a former bucking bronco. No, seriously. [Rosie’s our kind of gal]
Speaking of cool eventers who come from slightly left-field backgrounds, how about a Hackney succeeding in the sport? Skelton Romeo has been given a performance award from the Hackney Horse Society for his sparkling debut with British Eventing, which has seen him take to the BE90 (US Novice) and under-18 classes with aplomb since jumping his first cross-country fence last year. [Who says you need designer breeding?]
Thinking of leasing your precious horse out? Whether you need to try to cut costs or you’ve progressed past the competitive level your horse is comfortable with, leasing is a super option to ensure your steed has a job and a best pal while giving you the peace of mind that he’s not changed hands and thus been removed from your care and control. But making sure you dot your i’s and cross your t’s is essential. [Check out this sage advice]
Level with me here, guys: the best part of playing The Sims was building and decorating the houses. Like, okay, yeah, the actual gameplay bit was fun for a while, but after you’ve removed a couple of pool ladders and WooHoo-d the neighbour, it’s all a bit dry, right? But designing homes — that, I can do for hours. This gorgeous little sun trap offers a similarly delightful opportunity: it’s got 5 acres, a gorgeous house and a pool (with ladder firmly installed) — and the equestrian facilities of your dreams are just a touch of planning and designing away. You can make this place exactly what you want it to be, right down to the hanging baskets. Bliss.
Watch This:
It’s not always comfortable viewing, but it’s important to understand the subtle ways our horses tell us they’re hurting — and it’s on us to respond accordingly. Sharpen up your awareness of your four-legged best pal with this education video.
Some pretty enormous kudos have got to go the way of those plucky eventers who ran the London Marathon over the weekend — particularly Jonty Evans, who did so after recovering from a traumatic brain injury that nearly had him written off by doctors, and Tom McEwen, whose pace over the first number of miles was so extraordinarily accurate that he was romping across each mile marker at a pace of exactly 8:01, ultimately finishing in an enormously impressive 3:26. Tom ran in aid of Alzheimers Research UK, in honour of his grandmother, while Jonty ran for brain injury charity Headway. You can still donate to Tom’s cause here, and Jonty’s here. Well done, chaps.
There was one CCI4*-L held last week, heading up a small but sweet weekend for FEI eventing – and that, in Lignières, France, was won by Great Britain’s Georgie Campbell, who took victory with the nine-year-old Global Quest, beating out the home nation in second and third place, held by Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe and Julie Simonet and Sursumcor’or, respectively.
The CCI4*-S went the way of Gireg le Coz and Aisprit de la Loge, who will head to Pau CCI5* later this month, as will second-placed Karim Laghouag and Triton Fontaine. France also enjoyed a win in the CCI3*-L, thanks to Mathieu Chombart and Big Boss Melo, while Germany took the spoils in the CCI2*-S, which was won by Julia Krajewski and the delectable ChinTonic 3, who’s a full brother to fischerChipmunk FRH.
Your Monday Reading List:
Resources to help those affected by Hurricane Ian:
British eventing star of the ’60s – and pioneer for Riding for the Disabled — Jane Wykeham-Musgrave has died at the age of 92. This extraordinary woman lived a life full of horses and service to others, competing in dressage and judging prolifically after her eventing career, acting as director of the British Horse Society, and championing the causes she believed in whole-heartedly and proactively. [Read more about her life and work]
We always admire OTTBs for transitioning between two careers so respectably – but some of them manage more than that. Sage Advice was originally intended for upper-level eventing, and made it to Training level before the unthinkable happened. A shattered hind splint and a grim prognosis meant that the future looked bleak, but after an elective surgery, the mare has returned to the competition ring — this time as a dressage horse. She made her CDI debut at Devon over the weekend. [There’s no keeping a red mare down]
Ireland’s 2023 national budget has been revealed, and it’s a disappointing result for the equestrian industry. Though Ireland’s horse industry generates a huge amount of money for the country – nearly a billion Euros annually, in fact – it’s been allocated just €5.2 million for 2023, leaving professionals grappling in the wake of inflation. [Here’s the full story]
Morning Viewing:
Struggling with your balance in the saddle? It could be a strength issue – or it could be your saddle. Here’s how to find out.
One of my favourite things about being a roving equestrian journalist is those weeks after a major competition, in which I sometimes — if I’m really lucky — find a spare second to enjoy everyone else’s content from throughout the week. Whether that’s scrolling riders’ social media, reading reports in Horse&Hound or COTH, or catching up on vlogs, it’s always great fun to see the angle others choose for their storytelling, and to experience the same week I lived from a totally different perspective.
The FEI is one of those outlets that took a completely different approach to their coverage than what Shelby Allen and I did (not least because they deal largely in video!). They recruited vloggers Lucy Robinson and Megan Elphick to gallivant around the grounds, interview riders, and enjoy la dolce vita in Italy – and it’s jolly good fun to watch.
Eventers are nothing if not a community, and the folks of Ocala and their horses aren’t far from any of our minds right now as Hurricane Ian continues to move across Florida’s peninsula. In the midst of preparing her farm for the storm to come, Elisa Wallace found time to make an educational, instructional video that shares how she secures her possessions and keeps her herd safe in the face of inclement weather. (Spoiler alert: it requires a fair amount of sandbags!)
