Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH add another accolade to their roster — and the ‘perfect preparation’ for Pratoni. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

How must it feel, we wonder, to be Michael Jung, Ze Terminator himself, who has won everything there is to win and still just keeps on keeping on? Does it get boring, all this victory? Does the idea of taking a wire-to-wire win, as he did this week with fischerChipmunk FRH, fail to inspire him these days?

“It’s never boring,” he laughs, just after his win with the gelding, which saw him add 2.8 time penalties yesterday and nothing at all today to his dressage score of 20. “It’s always a new game, always a new competition, and we all start, always, from zero. We start with the dressage, and it’s just an amazing feeling with this unbelievable horse, how he performs everything so calm and powerful, everything together and everything on the point.”

Even as the winningest man in the world, though, the pressure was on today. He went into the ring without a rail in hand, and with just three seconds to spare — and there was every chance he would need them, because the clock was the real enemy to vanquish in this final phase.

“The time was quite short, and that makes everything a bit more stressful,” he says. “You go a bit more forward, and think ‘time, time, time’, and then quickly there’s here a mistake, there a mistake. If you just looked at the lines or jumps today, it wasn’t that spectacular, but all together with the time, and the way the place is up and down, it wasn’t so easy.”

Though Haras du Pin is the final World Championships selection trial for Germany, as for several other countries, Michael didn’t have anything to prove to earn his spot here — but the hilly, open, galloping course, which is designed by Paris 2024 designer Pierre le Goupil, is the ideal prep run for Italy’s rolling hills, and one that Michi rates for all his horses as part of their ongoing education.

“We’re here to prepare for Pratoni, and it’s a very nice place to do so. I like it, because it’s much nicer to gallop a cross-country horse on a hilly place, because the horse gets more quickly into the cross-country rhythm,” he says. “Directly at the first hill you lose a little bit of power, so then you can start to drive a bit more and not just sit on the brakes all the time. It’s nice balance work up and down the hills, too; you can use the hills to push the horse a little bit, or you can stay a bit quieter. For the young horses, it’s very important to learn this. Here, they also have interesting combinations with the hills, the angled ground, and everything, so this feels like real cross-country.”

Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden take a decisive second place, having hold the spot all week. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“He knows when he needs to leave the fences up,” laughs 24-year-old Mollie Summerland after her clear round with Charly van ter Heiden, which secured her the second place position she’d held all week. “He’s just getting them out of the way at the other shows!”

Though Mollie is quick to proclaim that this phase is her weakest, there’s certainly something to be said for her theory: it held true last summer at Luhmühlen, when the pair led from pillar to post, and it was the case again today, even with the 0.8 time penalties they added along the way. But today’s round was a testament to the work she’s been putting in with the thirteen-year-old Hanoverian, which has included putting plenty of weekends aside to skip the ‘fun stuff’ — which, as Mollie is truly a rare breed of event rider, includes dressage — and going to jumper shows instead with her string. Where her round at Luhmühlen last year was gutsy but occasionally a little too thrilling to watch, with a stumble mid-course and plenty of jumping by Braille on the way around, today’s round was considerably smoother. In fact, the only rail they touched was the first part of the treble combination, which soared inches into the air in slow motion, and then landed back in its cup as the gathered crowd exhaled.

“I’m literally on cloud nine — he’s just my absolute horse of a lifetime,” says Mollie, who has owned Charly since she was sixteen and produced him throughout her first steps into a career as an event rider. “He’s not an out and out jumper, but he jumps clear when it matters. I felt pressure going in there today, but I tried to just remember how he jumped at Luhmühlen — and actually, I think he jumped a better round today. He just felt amazing.”

Mollie had made the decision to come to Haras du Pin’s packed CCIO4*-S, rather than staying home in England and competing at the relatively local Hartpury CCI4*-S, partly because the continental style of event suits her horse — and partly because the eye-watering quality of this field offered up a unique challenge.

“When I saw the field and the calibre of riders that were coming here — I mean, it’s basically most of the riders that are going to be at the World Championships, bar our Brits back home,” she says. “So I definitely thought that if I could get a top ten finish here, that would be a serious achievement among most of the world’s best. But this is definitely more than I expected. That horse just has so much to give and it’s just so exciting — even in the dressage, I actually think he has more to give, which is just phenomenal to be able to say about a horse that’s just pulled off a result like that. I’m so grateful to be able to ride him and be able to get all this enjoyment out of him. He just goes in the ring and he’s a showman; he rises to the occasion.”

Mollie celebrates a super result with Charly van ter Heiden. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Mollie led the first day of dressage with her excellent score of 22.5, and though Michael Jung pushed her into second on Friday when he posted a 20, she kept the pressure on him in each phase. In yesterday’s cross-country phase, she added just 0.8 time penalties, never missing a beat around a tough track designed by Paris Olympics designer-to-be Pierre le Goupil.

“The time was tough out there, and while I was obviously riding competitively, my main aim was for Charly to finish confident and sound, and for him, it was definitely a tough enough course, because he can be a little bit green into waters — and there are some serious waters here,” says Mollie. “So just to finish with him confident and sound was my main priority, and he gave me a great feeling.”

Mollie praised Haras du Pin’s organising team, who rallied to draw lake water from nearby sources and were thus able to keep the ground sufficiently watered, despite a drought and a water crisis in the Normandy area.

“The ground was amazing, and we were really lucky with how hard they worked with it,” she says. “It meant we could run our horses competitively, and actually, it was even a little bit muddy first thing in the morning after they’d watered it through the night. That’s just a credit to the whole team here; they’ve managed to get the conditions so perfect, considering the lack of rain.”

Now, Mollie’s looking ahead to an end-of-season goal that’ll require her to brush up on her (admittedly terrible) French once again: she and Charly are aiming for a return trip to Pau, where they made their five-star debut in 2020, finishing tenth.

“I wanted to see how he ran here, but he feels in great form and I think he could be competitive there,” she says. “He loves these foreign events, the twisty galloping courses with arrowheads and corners and things. They’re right up his street, and he likes getting to do dressage and jumping on a surface, too, so I think Pau’s a great event for us to aim for.”

Alina Dibowski and Barbados 26 continue to prove themselves against the best in the world. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“I think I need some time to process it — I think in a few days maybe I can feel it,” says Alina Dibowski with a laugh. And fair enough, too: at just 21-years-old, she finished third in this extraordinary field, bettering even the excellent sixth-place finish they notched up in Germany’s National Championship CCI4*-S back in June. For a rider who’s technically not even aged out of Young Riders yet, she’s certainly making a major impression in the Senior rankings, proving a force to be reckoned with alongside Barbados 26, with whom she successfully contested several Junior and Young Rider European Championships. Now, she’s showing she has what it takes to play with the big boys.

“At the moment, it feels unreal — standing next to Michael Jung on the podium is kind of incredible,” she says. “It’s a very nice feeling — and one I could get used to!”

A long partnership with the Polish-bred 13-year-old gelding has certainly helped to make plenty of Alina’s dreams come true along the way.

“I have an incredible horse,” she says. “I just can’t say that enough — I’m very happy to have him, and very grateful and thankful, especially to my parents. They’re here with me with just me riding, and they’re putting so much effort in; it’s very nice.”

It’s not often that you get an Olympian in his own right on groom duties, but father Andreas, who’s been a stalwart of the German team, looks right at home at the end of the leadrope as spicy Barbados is led around the collecting ring.

“My horse is a little special with the celebration thing,” laughs Alina, “so my dad has to be supergroom!”

Though Barbados might have his quirks on the ground, though, he’s certainly an exceptional athlete by anyone’s standards under saddle, and consolidated his first-phase 27.4 with two totally penalty-free rounds, moving up from 11th to third.

“My dad told me before I started cross-country that it’s possible to beat the time, so that gave me some confidence, because I know my horse can be fast,” she says. “We gave 10o%, me and my horse, and today was the same — I was very calm, and I felt my inner peace, and when I was on the last three jumps, I had a very good feeling. It was going very smoothly, and then I heard someone — I don’t know if it was my dad — but they gave me a little push and I was like, okay, the time is good or it can be beaten! In the end, I looked at the score and I was so happy.”

Best of the French is Gaspard Maksud, who pilots his enormously impressive Zaragoza to fourth place. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“If,” I posited to UK-based Frenchman Gaspard Maksud, “I had told you on the ferry the other day that you’d finish fourth in this, a world-class field, what would you have said?”

Gaspard thinks for a moment, and then replies: “I’d have been disappointed not to be on the podium,” he says with a wink.

But for all he jokes about it, this — a career-best finish for the 29-year-old — is a serious milestone moment, forged from the fire of hard work that saw him leave his home country over a decade ago in pursuit of eventing excellence.

“I might get a little bit emotional talking about it,” he says, and right on cue, his eyes start to dampen. “Zaragoza is just fantastic; she did a very good event. Aachen was a bad day, but going back out in a big field again, you try to put it behind you.”

Last month’s CHIO Aachen, which saw Surrey-based Gaspard and the nine-year-old mare make their French team debut, had started well enough, with a top ten dressage and a storming cross-country round — right up until the final minute, when they fell in the water after a particularly exuberant jump in. But although the disappointment was enormous, horse and rider’s faith in one another never wavered. They added nothing to their dressage score of 27.4 yesterday, and jumped an attacking clear today to add just 0.4 time, moving up two places in the process.

“You work hard for this moment, and when it happens, it’s just lovely,” he says. “She’s got such a big heart; it’s like she’s going to war, and she just wants to go and do well. Even today, she just tried so hard. She’s probably not the scopiest horse, but actually she just tries and tries. She’s got some other qualities; she always does the best she can for me.”

For Gaspard, returning to his home country for his greatest success so far is an interesting experience – it’s special, of course, but after so long in England, he’s much better known to his UK friends and compatriots.

“The French probably don’t necessarily know me — the riders do, but some of the people who come here to watch will never have heard my name before,” he says. “But then I’m announced as a French rider, and the pressure is there.”

For Gaspard’s owners, Jane Young and Martin Thurlow, the result is also particularly special: Zaragoza is a homebred of Jane’s, and a testament to the power of stolid faith in a very good horse.

Julia Krajewski and Amande de b’Neville round out the top five. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Olympic champions Julia Krajewski and Amande de b’Neville capped off the top five after delivering three excellent performances to finish on their dressage score of 27.9, boosting them up the leaderboards from a first-phase fourteenth place. Though the mare has had a reasonably quiet year, a win at Wiesbaden CCI4*-S, ninth at Aachen, and now this excellent result in the final selection trial — not to mention that individual gold medal last year in Tokyo — should ensure them a spot on the German team for the World Championships next month.

Beyond that, though, there’s plenty for the German selectors to think about. Julia, Michi, who are each in Tier One of the shortlist, should be just about set in stone, barring an eleventh hour catastrophe, and their fellow Tier One rider Sandra Auffarth looks to be on pretty safe ground with her Aachen champion Viamant du Matz, despite a reasonably steady round yesterday and a rail today granting her a middle-of-the-pack finish. For the two remaining sets, though, competition remains fierce: Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S have had some excellent results, including second at Luhmühlen CCI5* last year, a great run at Badminton this year, and seventh place at the European Championships last year, but their showjumping this season has something of a question mark over it, which will have been compounded by two rails today, which dropped them from fourth to eighteenth. Sophie Leube and Jadore Moi are relatively low-mileage at four-star, but they did win Boekelo CCIO4*-L on their second run at the level last year, and they’ve twice been top ten in the pressure cooker of Luhmühlen; on their day, like Christoph and Carjatan S, they’re strong shouts for an individual medal, but an early retirement in their CCI5* debut at Luhmühlen could yet count against them. Arguably the obvious third candidate for one of the spots is Dirk Schrade and Casino 80, who are on a real upward trajectory; they finished second in the German National Championships CCI4*-S at Luhmühlen in June and were fourth at the level at Marbach in the spring, but they’ve also had a shock fall in the water at CCI3*-S in May and a 20 and a retirement in the CCI4*-S at Jardy since that Luhmühlen success. This week, they finished ninth and looked excellent doing so, adding just 2 time penalties across the country and 0.4 today, but they, too, have question marks to consider.

Still, before the hard work of final selections begins, the Germans will need to take a moment to celebrate their wire-to-wire win in the Nations Cup this week, which saw the team of Alina, Sophie, eleventh-placed Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K and 27th-placed Nicolai Aldinger and Timmo lead the way by a landslide throughout, proving that Germany has more strength in depth than, perhaps, it’s been given credit for in recent years. Behind them, the French team of Gaspard, 19th-placed Cyrielle Lefevre and Armanjo Serosah, 21st-placed Stephane Landois and Chamant Dumontceau, and 39th-placed Heloïse Le Guern and Canakine du Sudre Z took an ebullient second place, and the perennially successful British team of Mollie, 28th-placed Wills Oakden and A Class Cooley, 56th-placed Kirsty Chabert and Opposition Heraldik Girl, and 30th-placed David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed finished third.

We’ll be expecting team announcements for Pratoni to start flooding in in the next few days, and certainly, there are some riders who’ve all but guaranteed themselves their spot: Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos were always pretty much a sure thing for Australia, but their seventh place finish is a decisive final point. Over in the Kiwi squad, Tim Price has an embarrassment of riches — but 2021 Pau winner Falco looks best of the bunch, adding just 1.6 time yesterday to his 28.6 dressage for eighth place. A rail may have dropped overnight third placed Maxime Livio and Api du Libaire to 15th, but the pair — who were sixth at last year’s Europeans — still look a firm shout, and a thirteenth-place finish for Astier Nicolas and Alertamalib’or is certainly worth a second or third thought. In any case, this week’s competition has certainly been a Pratoni Lite, and a sterling indicator of what could play out on the main stage next month. We hope Michi is prepared for the Brits.

The final top ten after an influential showjumping finale at Haras du Pin.

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Britain’s Mollie Summerland, second overnight with Charly van ter Heiden. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We know that weather chat is neither sexy nor zesty in any way, but when you’re at an event that’s been as hot as Haras du Pin — and that’s hot enough that we’ve been listening to regular fire warnings over the tannoys, because much of France is ablaze at the moment — the biggest headline of the morning really is the fact that we’re delighting in a ten degree drop today. What joy! What relief! What a sweet surge of merciful energy that’s reinjecting itself into our veins! We can almost function as normal human beings again. Almost.

Anyway, back to the important business of horsing. There was an early start for everyone today, because although this week’s competition is a CCIO4*-S, it’s being run like a CCI4*-L — that is to say, we’ve had first and final horse inspections, we did cross-country yesterday, and now we’re looking ahead to a showjumping finale that’s going to be seriously tense, because the margins throughout the leaderboard are SO close. Our two-phase leaders, Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH, go into showjumping on a score of 22.8, which gives them just one second, or 0.4 time penalties, to play with over second-placed Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden, who are on 23.3. Third-placed Maxime Livio and Api du Libaire sit 3.4 penalties behind Mollie, and from then on out, the margins are fractional, which means we could see plenty change in this afternoon’s competition — both as far as the final leaderboard is concerned, and in the race for Pratoni selection.

Head groom Lena Steger presents Michael Jung’s fischerChipmunk FRH, who leads the way after two phases. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Foreshortening the field slightly, two horses were withdrawn prior to the start of this morning’s final horse inspection, which was held before the ground jury of president James Rooney (IRL), Nikki Herbert (GBR), and Emmanuelle Olier (FRA). France’s Barbara Sayous opted to pull Opposition Filmstar (62nd place) from the line-up, and Austria’s Dr Harald Ambros made the same call with his Lexicon 2 (82nd), which means that the three-strong Austrian team is now effectively out of contention for the Nations Cup. That gives us a final field of 89 as we look towards the final phase.

Patrick Rüegg and Fifty Fifty: held, but then accepted into the final phase. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

A further two horses were sent to the holding box throughout the course of the morning’s inspection, but both were subsequently accepted after a re-inspection and a couple of tense bits of deliberation: they were Luc Chateau‘s Viens du Mont for France and Patrick Rüegg‘s Fifty Fifty for Switzerland. Malin Josefsson‘s Golden Midnight, representing Sweden, was also asked to trot again, though was then accepted.

China’s Huadong Sun presents his Tokyo mount, Lady Chin Van’t Moerven Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

In the team standings, Germany leads the way on a two-phase score of 86.3, which puts them a full fence and six time penalties ahead of second-placed France, who are on an aggregate score of 92.9. The New Zealand team holds third place provisionally on 94.1, while the Brits are knocking on the door on 94.5. The first batch of riders is due to jump from 11.30 a.m. local time (10.30 a.m. BST/5.30 a.m. EST), and the top thirty will commence from 15.30 local time (14.30 BST/9.30 a.m. EST). As always, you can watch along via FEI TV/ClipMyHorse — and keep it locked onto EN for a full report of all the action and what it might mean for next month’s World Championships.

Here’s another look at that top ten going into the final phase:

The top ten at Haras du Pin after a long day of cross-country.

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Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH cruise home a few seconds over the optimum, but retain the overnight lead. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

For all that Haras du Pin has the reputation of not being a dressage competition, when you get a field of this calibre together to go head-to-head, it does kind of…become a dressage competition. Or at least, that’s how it’s most easily interpreted when looking at the results, which show a totally unchanged top three and a largely unchanged top ten after a long day of cross-country today in Normandy.

105 would ultimately start the cross-country after the overnight withdrawal of Christoffer Forsberg and Con Classic 2, Benjamin Massie and Climaine de Cacao, Ugo Provasi and Shad’OCC, and Remi Pillot and Tol Chik du Levant, and 91 of those 105 starters would go on to complete the course. Among those non-completions were some surprises: Tokyo Olympic partnership Christopher Six and Totem de Brecey, who had looked an almost sure thing for the French team at Pratoni, were eliminated after a rider fall at the penultimate fence — an error that came after a shock refusal at influential fence 7B, too. That was where the day ended for Italy’s Pietro Sandei and his stalwart partner Rubis du Prere, another near shoo-in for the World Championships whose path to Pratoni looks a little more unclear now, and throughout the day, the fence continued to cause problems across the board.

The USA’s Kimmy Cecere makes easy work of the influential combination at 7AB with Landmark’s Monaco. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

7B was a colossal downhill drop fence, immediately preceded by an airy upright at 7A and followed swiftly by a log drop into the water at 8A, after which horses needed to find their way to, and over, an angled brush in the water. The four-part question, which was numbered as two two-part questions, caused a not insignificant number of horses to hesitate and peek over the edge of 7B or 8A, before committing — or not. Other notable pairs who ran into trouble here were France’s Karim Laghouag and his own Tokyo mount Triton Fontaine, who he ultimately retired after fence 10A and Swedish five-star partnership Malin Josefsson and Golden Midnight, which will give selectors much to ponder ahead of the final Pratoni call.

Though Haras du Pin’s course is unique to Pratoni’s, it does have important similarities that have made it a useful exercise in preparation and selection today: like Pratoni, it’s a course that combines open galloping space with tight technical questions, and walking the course here does feel rather like walking a long-format instead of a short. It’s not as hilly as the Italian course will be, but it does make best use of several significant undulations, peppering serious questions at the top or bottom of them to ask riders to take responsibility for the canter and balance. And while Pratoni will likely be mercifully less hot than it was today, it will still be plenty warm — and so, though many of us worried about the potential ill effects of running four-star cross-country over the hottest part of the day today, it’s also been informative to see how horses cope and recover, if they’re given the right tools to do so quickly and fully.

Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden don’t quite catch the time, but stay comfortably in second place nonetheless. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We saw sixteen combinations make the time today, with France’s Heloïse Le Guern and Canakine du Sudre Z — this year’s Bramham under-25 CCI4*-L winners — the first to do so. The leaderboard after dressage was so tightly packed that making the time — or, indeed, coming home just outside it — could cause a real game of Chutes and Ladders on the leaderboard, but although our top two didn’t quite make it happen, they made best use of the buffers they’d created with their excellent tests to stay in situ at the top. Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH remain the overnight leaders, though their 2.8 time penalties gives them just a second in hand over second-placed Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden, who added just 0.8 time penalties.

Maxime Livio and Api du Libaire round out a wholly unchanged top three. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

France’s Maxime Livio is the highest-placed rider not to add time penalties today, despite his assertions yesterday that he wasn’t necessarily intending to run the fresh Api du Libaire to time — rather, he wanted to feel how the gelding, who hasn’t run since May’s Pratoni test event, was out on course, and make his decisions from there. The pair certainly didn’t look short of match practice, and they ultimately romped home two seconds inside the 6:21 optimum time to hold third, though a healthy 3.4 penalties behind Mollie.

Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S are on flying form in their first run since Badminton. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S surely punched their ticket for Pratoni with today’s excellent round — their first since Badminton, where the gelding lost a chunk of hoof that’s taken aching months to regrow. This is the sort of track that suits the rangy Holsteiner: with its dimensionally big fences and good galloping lanes, interspersed with technical, continental questions, it’s a course that Christoph had hoped he’d sink his teeth into with aplomb. He certainly did just that, coming home bang on the optimum time to break the three-way tie for fifth place that the pair had been in after dressage with fellow Germans Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K and France’s Gireg le Coz and Aisprit de la Loge, the latter of which picked up 15 penalties halfway around the course for a missed flag.

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

Though Christoph moved ahead of her into fourth, Malin Hansen-Hotopp won’t be disappointed to find herself still in fifth place with the ten-year-old Carlitos Quidditch K, who has truly come into his own this season. Malin and the young horse are long listed for Pratoni on the third tier list, so while they aren’t likely to pinch a spot on the team from the likes of Tier One ranked Michi, Julia Krajewski, or Sandra Auffarth, nor, indeed, Tier Two riders Christoph, Dirk Schrade (now fourteenth with two time penalties with Casino 80) or Sophie Leube (twentieth with 4.8 aboard Jadore Moi), it’s still a very exciting position to put herself in with Paris 2024 in mind. Certainly, the rangy Holsteiner by Quiwi Dream is establishing himself as a consistent, reliable competitor — and his early round today saw him add just 0.4 time, with bigger and better things yet to come.

Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The last time we saw Gaspard Maksud and the exceptional, fiery nine-year-old Zaragoza, they were finishing up an exceptional team debut at CHIO Aachen with an unexpected swim in the main arena after a flamboyant jump in. We can’t quite tell you that the flamboyance has left the building — Zaragoza still very nearly audibly shouted “WEEEEE” every time she faced a drop fence today — but the clever mare has certainly worked out how to keep gravity on her side, and the exciting duo were among the sixteen pairs to best the clock, coming home with four seconds to spare and a point well and truly proven.

Alina Dibowski and her Junior and Young Rider Europeans mount continue to impress in Senior ranks. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

If keeping an eye on the heirs apparent to the current crop of superstars is your thing, Alina Dibowski certainly deserves a bit of your attention. As the daughter of Olympian Andreas, she’s well-bred for success, but she’s also an extraordinarily hard-working rider – and at 21, she’s just graduated from the Young Rider rankings and into the big leagues, with serious results so far. She followed up a great run in Luhmühlen’s CCI4*-S German National Championships, where she finished in the top ten, with another stonking performance aboard Barbados 26 today, climbing from 11th to seventh after adding no time or jumping penalties, and just squeaking ahead of eighth placed Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin, who climbed one place after adding 0.4 time and go into showjumping a tenth of a penalty behind Alina.

Astier Nicolas’s Alertamalib’Or proves he’s as good as he ever was. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Astier Nicolas made his best effort to ensure the top ten wasn’t too German, moving up from first-phase thirteenth to overnight ninth with his 2017 Seven-Year-Old World Champion Alertamalib’Or, who’s been in and out of the spotlight in the intervening years due to injury. Now, though, he looks back on form — and, potentially, an enormous asset for France in the years to come.

Julia Krajewski and Amande de b’Neville. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Finally, Olympic champions Julia Krajewski and Amande de b’Neville hopped four spots up the leaderboard to take overnight tenth after recording the second-fastest round of the day — a bit of proof in the pudding that the still young and relatively inexperienced mare has come on leaps and bounds in strength over the last year. (And yes, it was Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos who were the fastest, in case you were wondering. They came home in 6:09 and leapt up from 21st to 13th place.)

Tomorrow morning brings us a few things: a more than ten degree temperature drop, thank god, a bit of rain, thank god again, and an inexplicable final horse inspection, even though this is a CCI4*-S. We’ll be cracking on with that from 8.30 a.m. local time (7.30 a.m. BST/2.30 a.m. EST), with content and a report to follow, and then the showjumping will commence from 11.30 a.m. (10.30 a.m. BST/5.30 a.m. EST) with the first group and from 15.30 (14.30 BST/9.30 a.m. EST) for the top 30 horses and riders. We’ll catch you, as always, on the flip side.

The top ten at Haras du Pin after a long day of cross-country.

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Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH deliver one of their best-ever tests to take the overnight lead. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We’ve got to give credit where credit is due: 24-year-old Brit Mollie Summerland certainly put the pressure on the maestro. Her score of 22.5 with Charly van ter Heiden, which saw her take a decisive day one lead, wasn’t close to being usurped for much of the day today, even with many of the world’s best among the 109 competitors delivering first-phase performances. But if you’re going to be beaten by anyone, it’s probably not too disappointing when that ‘anyone’ is Herr Michael Jung and his Kentucky champion (and veritable superhorse) fischerChipmunk FRH, and it’s got to be even less disappointing when he only actually managed to beat you by a piddling 2.5 penalties. Which isn’t, of course, to say that a first-phase score of 20 isn’t wildly impressive — of course it is, even by Michi’s standards. In fact, it slides right into his top ten all-time best tests, which is saying something when you consider that he once dropped a 15.5 at Strzegom like it ain’t no thang.

“Chipmunk was very nice to ride today in the dressage; he was very relaxed and listening very good,” says Michi, who was awarded an 81.9% and first by both James Rooney at C and Nikki Herbert at M, but just a 76.19% and third by Emmanuelle Olier at E. “It was everything like I hoped and wished, so it was just fun today to just enjoy riding him.”

While Haras du Pin is in the spotlight for its role as a selection trial for Pratoni, Michi is, perhaps, the only person who can come here to focus on the fun of competition — it’s hard to imagine any circumstances in which the pair won’t be selected for the World Championships, though we reckon second-placed Mollie will be hot on his heels tomorrow.

Maxime Livio and Api du Libaire lead the way for the home nation, sitting third overnight. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The home nation got a big boost in the form of stalwart competitor Maxime Livio, who piloted his 2021 European Championships top-ten finisher to an excellent 26.7 — good enough for third, though by a margin of over four penalties off second-placed Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden. But although his mark puts him in an enormously competitive position after 109 tests, Maxime felt that the work was lacking in just a touch of match practice, and eking out the best possible marks was an exercise in tactful, sympathetic riding.

“He was a bit excited — not tense or worried, but just excited to compete for the first time in a long time,” says Maxime, who last ran an international with the gelding back in May, when they finished ninth at the Pratoni test event CCI4*-S. “But he was so focused and he gave his best; it wasn’t so comfortable for me, because I could feel that excitement, but the horse was ready to do it well. All his halts were very square, and he was very generous in the extended movement and very focused, so I’m very happy with him.”

The gelding, who dipped down to 21.3 at last year’s Europeans, is certainly a not-so-secret weapon for the French, but nevertheless, Maxime doesn’t intend to leave the start box tomorrow with a point to prove.

“I know that when he’s a bit more relaxed he can be better, so hopefully with this competition and the new competition plan I have for the rest of the season, he’ll have the same mind but with less excitement. Then he’ll be easier to ride for me, but I was very pleased with his test — and I think tomorrow, too, he’ll be so excited, so maybe I’ll take my time and make it a bit smooth and easy for him. I won’t be riding for the time as the priority; it’ll really depend on the way he feels, because I want him to restart the new part of the season with a good round. I’ll ride the time depending on the way he is.”

Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S join an impressive German front in the top ten. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Germany’s Christoph Wahler probably hadn’t quite intended to wait until August to run his Badminton ride, Carjatan S, again — “but we had to wait until he regrew a part of his hoof that’s still at Badminton!” he says. The rangy grey, with whom he finished second at Luhmühlen CCI5* last season, could have been justifiably fresh as a result today: we’ve often seen him fizz up in this phase in the early part of the season, when he’s not had a huge amount of exposure to atmosphere, but today, he emerged as a consummate professional. That allowed Christoph, whose family business of breeding and producing high-performance dressage horses means he’s something of a master craftsman in this phase, to push Carjatan’s expressive movement very nearly to its fullest potential, earning himself a 26.9 and equal overnight fifth in the process. It’s not a shabby start, considering what’s on the line — Christoph, who finished just outside the top twenty at Badminton with Carjatan, is one of a small number of very good German riders who are fighting for a World Championship debut next month, and it all hinges on this weekend.

“We’d thought about Aachen with him, but he’d barely done any canter work at that point, and as a German, if you go to Aachen you want to be competitive,” says Christoph. “And looking ahead for Pratoni, I didn’t want to show him in not his best condition. So I’m happy with the way he is now.”

Though Haras du Pin has quite a unique arena set-up, in which horses warm up in an adjacent space in the main arena, that suited Carjatan perfectly as he was able to do his final moments of work in the same atmosphere he’d face during his test.

“I think it’s a perfect arena, actually, because there’s not too much atmosphere and they all seem to be pretty calm,” says Christoph. “[Warming up in that way] was good for him, even though I was early because they were running ahead of time, so he was alone in that final warm-up. But that didn’t seem to make much difference. And I have been taking him to other shows just to ride a bit — not to compete, but just training, so for him, it feels like he’s far into his season, and that’s when he gets better and better.”

For Christoph, getting a ‘clear round’ test — which Carjatan typically begins to deliver after the mid-point of the year, when he’s settled into his season, was the highlight of the day.

“We all know he can be very spectacular, but when I put the pressure on him to make the trot even more extravagant, that’s when he can get a little bit tense — but for me, actually, we had probably the best walk he’s ever done today, and all the halts were good. I wasn’t super happy with the lateral work, because we led with the hind legs for a couple of meters in the half-pass, but we did get it back.”

Now, Christoph is looking forward to a run around the typically tough cross-country track, which blends European-style technicality with British-style dimensional boldness and galloping lanes – a combination that should suit the gelding perfectly.

“I don’t like it when courses don’t have big fences but they just twist and turn all the time, but this is very big — it does feel almost like a British course,” he says. “That usually suits him, and it’s good to have several undulations, too, which will be super good for getting them fit for the hills at Pratoni. That’s important for him, because this will be his only run before the World Championships if we’re selected — but I think it’ll prepare him well.”

Gireg le Coz’s Aisprit de la Loge looks better than ever en route to a spot in the top ten in the first phase. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Another Badminton runner to make his first international start since his trip to Gloucestershire is Gireg le Coz‘s 12-year-old Selle Français Aisprit de la Loge. The pair took eighteenth place at Badminton, which was their debut at the level, and though they couldn’t quite rival their 26.7 there today, they nearly made it: they posted a 26.9, which sees them hold equal fifth with Christoph and Carjatan, as well as German duo Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K, who did their test yesterday.

Jerome Robine makes his second appearance in the top ten this week, this time with Black Ice. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

After taking a top ten spot yesterday with Brave Heart 10, who now sits 22nd on his score of 29.8, 24-year-old German up-and-comer Jerôme Robiné made it happen again today, coming forward near the end of the day with his excellent Black Ice. The gelding, with whom he finished fifth in Luhmühlen’s German National Championship CCI4*-S in June, delivered a very good score of 27 — the same he’d earned at Luhmühlen. That was enough to see them take overnight eighth going into tomorrow’s cross-country, though they’re just a tenth of a penalty behind ninth-placed Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin. Another tenth of a penalty is all that separates Tim from overnight tenth-placed Kevin McNab and Willunga, who lead the way for the Australian contingent in this truly global (though arguably German-heavy) leaderboard.

Tomorrow sees the CCIO4*-S competitors take on a bold, technical cross-country course designed by Paris Olympics designer Pierre le Goupil, though there’s been some consternation in the ranks — justifiably so — by riders concerned about the extreme heat forecast for tomorrow. But although the officials were lobbied to relocate the afternoon cross-country session to the morning, which would mean displacing the CCI2*-L to the afternoon, or even consider moving it to a considerably cooler Sunday, they were firm in their resolve, citing the FEI’s heat index guidelines as justification for their call. That means we’ll see the CCIO4*-S cross-country run from 12.30 p.m. local time (11.30 a.m. BST/6.30 a.m. EST) to an estimated 18.00 local time (17.00 BST/12.00 p.m. EST) — and you’ll be able to follow along with all the action via the dedicated livestream.

Until next time: Go Eventing!

The top ten at the culmination of the dressage phase at Haras du Pin.

Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden dance their way to a 22.5, putting them at the front of the pack by over four penalties. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Few riders have captured the public’s collective heart so wholly as 24-year-old Mollie Summerland, who became Luhmühlen’s youngest-ever winner last year with her longtime partner Charly van ter Heiden, and who has been so open about her mental health journey. But far from just being a pair that inspires deep sentiment, they’re also an enormously formidable duo — particularly in the first phase, for which they receive valuable help and training from pure dressage riders Carl Hester and Olivia Oakeley. But while it might come as little surprise to her many fans that she scored a 22.5 today to take a 4.3 point lead, Mollie actually arrived at Haras du Pin wondering if she might be in too deep with such a high-calibre field. Since settling into her surroundings, though, she’s embraced the challenge with a smile on her face, viewing the chance to compete against most of the world’s best riders as an exceptional educational opportunity.

“It definitely is the toughest field that we’ve ever competed against — probably on a par with the standard that was at Badminton, but obviously here we’ve got the Germans out in full force,” says Mollie. “So I’m trying to use it as a really good experience, just to be inspired by the way that they work their horses, and having the opportunity to compete against some of the world’s best. I’m trying to spin it on its head and look at it really positively!”

But although she’s learning from the riders around her, Mollie is determined not to change anything for her thirteen-year-old gelding, who comes here off the back of a comeback win in Barbury’s CCI4*-S last month.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to see some of the best riders in the world and how they work their horses and their ringcraft whilst they’re in the arena. I’ve seen people like Michael Jung and Julia Krajewski working their horses and lunging them, and I’ve tried not to let that dictate what I do with Charly — because at the end of the day, I know him best and what works for him, and the system I use to get the best out of him. It’s quite hard not to be tempted to try what other people are doing, but at the end of the day, everyone has their own system for their horse. The dressage is something I definitely have a lot of confidence in, and so I can trust that system.”

Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Despite the soaring temperatures, which tipped into serious heatstroke territory today, Charly has been particularly fresh since his arrival on Tuesday evening — which required some serious planning for this morning’s exercise sessions.

“Yesterday, he was a very different horse — he was quite lit up in the trot-up. There were bad flies around, and he’s actually quite sensitive to things like that, so I had to make a plan so that he was definitely as rideable as he could be in the arena today. That obviously really worked, because he’s a different horse today,” says Mollie.

That meant that Mollie could use Charly’s residual spice to her advantage — particularly when she realised that Haras du Pin, unlike most other events, has riders complete their final warm-up in the main arena, with all of its considerable atmosphere.

“It’s quite a strange set-up that they’ve got here — it’s unique,” says Mollie. “You can work your horse in an arena that’s right next to the one in which you’ll do your test, and I think for some horses that’s not going to work, because they might switch off and lose that bit of sparkle that they’d normally take with them into the arena. So I was quite conscious of that, and I kept doing lots of walking in the arena next door, because I didn’t want him to lose that bit of wow factor. I was definitely not tempted to do too much in there, and I was also very conscious that the more I did in the heat, the more sweaty he’d get, and the more the flies would come after him — that was something I was really conscious of. When he foams up and starts getting irritated by the flies, that’s when things like the walk work become really difficult.”

That had been an issue that plagued the pair in their nonetheless leading Luhmühlen dressage test last year, but they had no such issues today, and never scored lower than the odd seven throughout their test.

“He felt brilliant in the test,” she says. “I’m always such a perfectionist that I’ll pull it apart and think there’s things that can be better, but apart from the left shoulder-in, which I need to learn to ride better, I couldn’t pull it apart too much. He did everything I asked of him and he was very rideable. His halts were very good, which is nice, because it’s actually quite a difficult movement for him, just to stand still and square.”

Though their test went much smoother today than at Luhmühlen, it was that experience that provided much of the intel Mollie needed to prepare her horse today. Today’s temperatures reached a balmy 33 degrees Celsius — that’s 91.4 Fahrenheit — but even they weren’t a patch on Luhmühlen’s weeklong highs of 96.8, which the gelding coped with remarkably well, despite his blood percentage of less than 25%.

“Whenever I feel myself worrying about the heat or the flies, I try and think about what situations I’ve been that have been similar, and I take confidence from that. I know he’s gone in seriously hot weather a few times before, like at the Fontainebleau Young Rider Europeans and at Luhmühlen, so I just use that to reassure myself that we’ve done this before and we can do it again,” she says. And, of course, it’s a real confidence-giver to be back abroad, where the tracks have a very different flavour to those in the UK — and it’s one that suits the German horse down to the ground.

“Foreign tracks always have plenty of places where you can run out — it’s lots of things like corners and arrowheads,” says Mollie. “I think there’ll be plenty of places where people will have 20s; it definitely won’t be a dressage competition, but every time I come abroad I feel that these tracks really suit Charly. He’s not strong and he’s easy to turn, but equally, you have to be on your game the whole way around. It’ll definitely reward the riders that have good partnerships with their horses — and hopefully that’s us!”

Sophie Leube and Jadore Moi make a great start to their final bid for Pratoni selection. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The German entry at this year’s event is arguably the most formidable national front, and so it comes as little surprise to see their team lead the Nations Cup by a healthy 7.4 points — but the competition within the German rankings, of course, remains formidable, as they each fight for their chance to go to next month’s World Championships. One of the ‘new’ faces looking to join the ranks of Michi and Julia is Sophie Leube, a former apprentice rider for Ingrid Klimke who made headlines when winning Boekelo last season with Jadore Moi — in just a second-ever CCI4*-L run for both horse and rider. Those in the know, though, are achingly aware of the rider’s exceptional talent, which has seen her pilot the hot, clever mare to the dressage lead at Aachen in 2021 and follow it up with a fifth place finish there this summer. Arguably, she’d have been the one rider to go head to head with Mollie today – but such was the accuracy and expression in our overnight leader’s test that even a very smart bit of work and a 26.8 wouldn’t see them top the board on day one. Sophie and Jadore Moi will head out of the start box on Saturday in second position for the German team — but with their eyes firmly on a prize that could come to fruition in five weeks’ time.

Malin Hansen-Hotopp’s expressive Carlitos Quidditch K impresses a tough ground jury for overnight third. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

German team pathfinder Malin Hansen-Hotopp got the team’s day off to a super start, posting the first of just nine sub-30 scores with her expressive ten-year-old, Carlitos Quidditch K. Though the day felt, by and large, like a tough-scoring one, their test was a significant international personal best of 26.9, proving that the rangy gelding is really coming into his own this season as he gains in strength.

Tim Price ends the day with two in the top ten — including last year’s Pau winner and Pratoni pick of choice Falco. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It was a good day in the office for Tim Price who, along with wife Jonelle, brings a packed lorry of contenders to this event. He’s finished the day with two in the top ten, taking overnight eighth with last year’s Pau winner Falco and fourth with the ten-year-old Selle Français Coup de Coeur Dudevin, a former Chris Burton ride who did two internationals with Jonelle last season before joining Tim’s string. They earned a 27.1 today, easily besting their only previous international score — a 31.7 earned at Millstreet CCI4*-L in June, where they finished second.

Gaspard Maksud and Zaragosa. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

UK-based Frenchman Gaspard Maksud has been floating around at this level for a couple of seasons now, accruing mileage with his first four-star mount Cado Louvo, but it’s since debuting the excellent Zaragoza at the level that he’s really stepped into the spotlight. Though she’s just nine years old, she’s picked up some seriously exciting results since making her debut at Bicton’s tough CCI4*-S last year: she finished twentieth there in an enormous field, wherein the final Tokyo selection trial was taking place, and followed it up with tenth in Blenheim’s eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S. This year has seen her take fourth place in Burnham Market’s CCI4*-S and Saumur’s CCI4*-L, and she was Gaspard’s partner for his French team debut at Aachen last month, where the pair were on excellent form until they had an unlucky stumble in the final water. It’s hard to hold that against her, though, particularly when you consider that the mare had not only never faulted previously in an FEI event — she’d also made the time in eight of her ten international runs.

Today, aware that the eyes of the selectors would be upon them, they upped their ante even more, delivering a 27.4 that puts them in equal fifth and represents their best-ever international score.

Alina Dibowski delivers another competitive test with the excellent Barbados 26. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

They’re joined in fifth place by Germany’s Alina Dibowski, the supremely talented 21-year-old daughter of Olympian Andreas Dibowski. She partnered Barbados 26, her former Junior and Young Rider Europeans mount, to a characteristically smart test that very nearly rivalled the 26.8 they earned when finishing sixth in Luhmühlen’s hot CCI4*-S in June.

Jesse Campbell and Diachello overcome a near disaster to earn a 28.1. Photo by Bruce Haskell.

New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell has an undeniable talent in his Olympic ride Diachello, who particularly impressed at Kentucky in 2021, where he finished 11th — but the first phase hasn’t always been smooth sailing. The 12-year-old Holsteiner can fluctuate between excellent scores in the 20s and tenser efforts in the mid-30s, even nipping up into the 40s at the test event at Pratoni — but it’s evident that his rider has been putting in the hours behind the scenes to settle him into his work. That effort was put to the test today when, early on in the pair’s test, an enormous parasol from the neighbouring bar took flight, soaring ten metres and taking out a group of spectators (and one startled German Shepherd). Though no one was hurt, it would have been enough to send most horses running for the hills — but Diachello didn’t so much as flick an ear in its direction, instead continuing his smooth course to a 28.1 and overnight seventh, just ahead of fellow Kiwi teammates Tim Price and Pau winner Falco, who were typically excellent for a 28.6 and eighth.

The top ten is rounded out by a German two-hander, and it’s one that represents either end of the experience spectrum: former World Champion Sandra Auffarth and her 2022 Aachen winner Viamant du Matz sit in equal ninth place on a 29.8 with 24-year-old Jerôme Robiné, who’s part of the German federation’s Warendorf training system, and Brave Heart 10.

Germany leads the way in the team competition, followed by the Kiwi contingent in second place, and Great Britain third out of the twelve nations contesting this Nations Cup, which concluded its first phase today.

Tomorrow sees another whopping line-up of individual horses and riders come forward to battle for the Haras crown — and, of course, coveted spots at next month’s World Championships. You can watch along via the live feed, and tune back in for more updates from Normany right here on EN.

The individual top ten at the halfway point of Haras du Pin’s enormous CCIO4*-S dressage.

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