Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Yesterday, as the weather took a turn for the worst, pummelling Haras du Pin with over 15mm of rainfall, many of us turned to one another and said one thing: “this is Walter weather.” Lordships Graffalo, the eleven-year-old phenom piloted by Ros Canter, isn’t short of valuable experience in holding, saturated ground — after all, it was the very worst of that flavour of footing that greeted him as he left the startbox at Badminton this spring, and despite that, he crossed the finish line as one of very few horses to still look fresh at the tail end of his experience. Then, of course, he went on to win — and so he wasn’t so much the thinking man’s pick of today’s competitors as much as he was the man-who-doesn’t-really-need-to-think-all-that-hard-to-get-there’s choice.
But even so, after hours of shock moments and gasp-inducing tumbles — including one for overnight leader Michael Jung from fischerChipmunk FRH, who suffered a stumble at the final water, and Tom McEwen from reigning European Champion JL Dublin, who parted company at the same complex — we couldn’t quite have expected just how dominant a force the relatively inexperienced young talent would be. Throughout the day, we saw horses coming home beyond the usual level of tiredness, despite this morning’s decision to remove fences 12–16 and shorten the course by two minutes to 8:19, and double-digit time penalties still remained competitive. And then, as the penultimate pair out of the startbox, former World Champion Ros and her gritty partner proceeded to make the whole thing look, for all intents and purposes, like a bit of a joke. They didn’t just make the time — the only pair to do so today — they crossed the finish line an extraordinary nine seconds inside it, despite mixed emotions in the British team camp following Tom’s fall, Laura Collett‘s missed flag penalty with London 52, World Champion Yasmin Ingham‘s shock 20 at the tough coffin, and individual competitor Tom Jackson‘s 20 at the final water.
But though the round looked like the plainest of sailing on a day when just 51% of the field went clear, amassing average time penalties of 18.1, that faultless, time-penalty-free round still wasn’t easy, Ros explains.
“I mean, it was tough going,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong – I had a near-whoopsie at fence too and that sharpened us both up. The ground out there was hard work, but Walter is just unbelievable in his stamina and his desire to travel through ground like that. He’s so rideable, and that lets me keep travelling and lets me balance, and when you balance he has energy. So I think he’s the best horse in the world when it comes to doing something like this, and I was very lucky and unrelieved that I was able to give him a nice ride.”
Walter was also the fastest horse of the day at Badminton, and that speed — despite tough conditions — is something that Ros says comes very naturally to him, though his very varied fitness routine over the Lincolnshire hills, all undertaken on grass, has certainly helped.
“I think he’s very efficient – he’s very careful but he never balloons, and he never goes green,” explains Ros, who had held silver medal position after dressage. “He always lands travelling, which is very good. He’s extremely polite, which is unusual, to have a horse that travels at his speed that when you sit up, he’s responsive. So when he’s galloping he gallops low, but when you sit up, he punches up and his head comes up and it’s the best of both worlds. There aren’t many that can gallop low and then don’t want to stay down there and aren’t many that have their heads up to jump but then want to gallop low, so I think that’s where he’s just amazing. I’ve never sat on a horse like him that travels so efficiently and is so rideable and and brave — he measures every jump, he reads every jump beautifully, and he seems to know just how much he’s got to give everything. He really does make my job easy, because hand on heart, I’m not normally the fastest rider on the course.”
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
As the fourth on course, Ros had initially hoped to stick to her usual system when there’s a long wait, but the problems caused on course meant she changed her plan and came out to watch much more than she ordinarily would.
“I always have idea that I watch five and then go back the lorry, have a sleep, do something else, and stay in my own zone. The reality is, that didn’t happen,” she says. “I watched quite a few, then I got a bit worried about the last water, so I went down and rewalked it, then I came back to watch a few more — then I got worried about the rail ditch brush, sp I went down and watched that, and then I watched the water again. Then I came back and went back the lorry and managed not to watch anymore. At that point, it was about time to get ready.”
Being fourth to go, she says, “is sometimes a fantastic place to be and sometimes a hard place to be — but I just had to try and stick to my own plan today. I watched quite a bit and supported the others but at the end of the day, there’s only one Walter and I had to ride him today and try and stick to everything that I knew we could do.”
Knowing the issues that some of her compatriots had faced on course, she wasn’t sure whether she’d receive team orders to go slow and steady, or be encouraged to chase the time she thought she might be able to catch.
“Just as we were walking down with Chris Bartle I said, ‘are you still happy for me to go for this?’ And he said ‘absolutely — for the team as well. You must commit; we’re going out to be the best, so ride by feel — but if it feels good, then do your thing.'”
As she crossed the finish, she realised — not for the first time — what a special horse she’s got in her string to fill the huge shoes left by her 2018 World Champion, the late Allstar B, even despite his young age.
“I think we’re still coming across situations that are new to him, and today was definitely the most challenging ground — we thought Badminton was bad, but I didn’t think it was a patch on how they had to travel through quite gloopy going today. He surprises me time and time again — literally, there isn’t another horse I’d rather walk a course for, and I haven’t found a course yet where I’ve thought, ‘I’m not sure how Walter will tackle this’, or ‘I’m not sure I’d want to have a go on him’. There isn’t a jump I don’t think he can jump.”
Now, Ros will head into tomorrow’s finale with 9.5 penalties — or two rails and four seconds — in hand.
Kitty King and Vendredi Biats step up from overnight ninth to second. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Apparently there’s something to be said for bookending the British team, because while the anchorman snuck in to usurp her at the end of the day, it was British pathfinder Kitty King and Vendredi Biats who held the lead throughout the day after leaving the startbox in the first half hour of the competition. Though she was initially disappointed to pick up 3.6 time penalties, fearing she’d let down the team as a result of them, theirs was one of the rounds of the day — and an extraordinary display of the kind of trust that’s amassed over a long partnership like theirs.
“We know each other inside out, so when he kind of said ‘I don’t like this very much’, I was like ‘it’s okay Froggy, we can do it together’,” says Kitty, who was surprised at how much the difficult ground took out of her Luhmühlen runner-up.
“It was hard work. Froggy lives for his cross country and today he wasn’t enjoying himself quite as much as he normally does, which is a huge shame, just because I know how much fun he normally has. Today he had to really dig deep and try hard, and he kept jumping for me even when he was finding it a little bit trickier. I’m very proud of how hard he tried for me – he’s a five-star horse; he’s done Badminton and Burghley, and this is the tiredest he’s ever finished.”
Kitty King and Vendredi Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Feeling that effect on him meant that Kitty found it prudent to slightly adjust her usual way of riding to prioritise keeping ‘Froggy’ happy and comfortable in his efforts.
“I just tried to keep moving as much as I could as well as just slightly backing off him a little bit at times to try and let him find his feet — he was just unsure of the footing,” she explains. “On the approaches to the fences, he just was a bit more unsure of himself compared to normal, and his stride pattern changed a bit, which I think threw both of us — so when I’d normally set up, the stride would just kind of keep coming up nicely whereas today, we’re always just a bit of a half stride off, either half deep or long, and it was just trying to get our eye in with how the ground took their stride away from them more than normal. I was trying to just give him a little bit of time to find his feet and find his confidence with the ground. He’s normally such a springy little horse, and it just took all his all his spring away from him.”
The footing, which she described as ‘very dead’ and totally different to that of the warm-up, also required her to adjust her lines, too.
“I wanted to put a few more curves in to make some of the lines a little bit easier, but because of the ground he wasn’t as manoeuvrable, so I had to straighten a few things out,” she says. “But I know he’s really genuine, so I wasn’t too afraid that I was taking things on a little bit more of an angle than ideal, just because I know that he’ll be looking for the flags for me and he’s very experienced. So that was okay, but he just hated the ground and he didn’t travel, which was just such a shame. But I went as quickly as I felt he could go to get him home in one piece and without making any kind of horrible errors along the way.”
Sandra Auffarth and Viamant du Matz. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Haras du Pin – astutely nicknamed ‘the house of pain’ by one unnamed media representative who ‘enjoyed’ the famously wet and tough World Championships here — has been as happy of a hunting ground for Germany’s Sandra Auffarth as it can possibly be, considering how tricky it always seems to be in Championship situations: in 2014, she became the World Champion with Opgun Louvo here, and today, in not dissimilar conditions, she dashed home with just six time penalties with Viamant du Matz, helping the Germans cling on to silver medal position overnight and moving her up from eleventh to third.
“I must say, the ground was really, really deep in the beginning of the course, and so that was hard for the horses — but in the end, it did get better, and then I felt I could really fight,” says Sandra. “He’s super fit, so I think he could do the time, but I was a little shy and I didn’t want to risk anything in the beginning. It’s smart that they cut out part of the horse; otherwise, we’d have had a really hard day. Already, we saw a lot of tired horses, so it was the right decision.”
Viamant du Matz also partnered Sandra at Tokyo — though with a blip — and to an Aachen win last year, and their shared experience meant that Sandra was full of confidence today.
“He now has such good experience, and such good overview, and he’s so safe in looking for the next fence — he makes it easy for me. I was looking forward to the cross-country, because I thought, ‘he’s ready for everything’ and we have a super partnership. I’m happy to have him.”
Stéphane Landois and Chaman Dumontceau. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
There’s arguably no nation in the world that embraces eventing quite like the French, and while they were raucous in their cheers for each and every rider that galloped past them today, it was for their own that they reserved the loudest screams of ‘allez, allez!’ — and all 15,000-odd of them determinedly sprinted after them on course, too.
And at the end of the day? What a pair to have leading the home charge, having moved up from 23rd to overnight fourth with just 8.8 time penalties. Not only is this 28-year-old Stéphane Landois‘s Senior Championship debut, he was also the pathfinder for the French with his Chatsworth-winning partner Ride For Thaïs Chaman Dumontceau — again, on incredibly tough, holding ground — but the pair cruised around with a maturity well beyond their amassed experience.
No pair could have had a more committed front riding along with them, in large part because Stéphane wasn’t riding alone — not really. He’s had the ride on the gelding for three years now, taking over from his friend, Thaïs Meheust, who tragically died in 2019 at the age of 22. She’d been riding Chaman at the time of her accident, which occurred at the second fence on the French national young horse championship at this venue – but since then, the gelding has had the chance to help her family and friends see out her legacy in the most poignant of ways. She’d always dreamed of riding at the Paris Olympics, a dream that’s not looking at all far-fetched for her horse now, and this would have been an obvious step along the way, and one which Stéphane is making sure she’s well-remembered at. Along the way, they’re also helping to raise crucial funds for improved safety measures and devices in the sport, via the Ride For Thaïs Foundation that has now become the Selle Français’s namesake.
Sarah Ennis and Grantstown Jackson. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The first horse and rider pair on course delivered one of the rounds of the day, holding the accolade of fastest time — just 2.4 time penalties accrued — right up until Ros left the startbox. That was Ireland’s stalwart team rider Sarah Ennis, piloting Championship debutant Grantstown Jackson. The swiftness of their round saw the very-nearly-pony-sized gelding and his enormously experienced jockey rocket up the leaderboard from 54th to fifth.
“He’s a very fast horse, and we had a bit of ground to make up after our dressage yesterday,” says Sarah. “I knew that these conditions would suit him; he’s very light, he’s out of a Thoroughbred mare, and so speed is his thing, and catching up after the dressage.”
But even in that pathfinder position, Sarah admitted that the ground wasn’t easy.
“It is gluey — like, I was number one out and take off and landings are very sticky. But they’ve done an amazing job — they’ve dug out take offs, put gravel in,” she says, going on to describe the track as “like going round a tumble dryer. Like, it just happened so fast and you’re going round and round and round and round around and then it’s just fast and furious, really quick. I think I was as out of breath as he was coming through the finish line!”
Though the twelve-year-old gelding is relatively short on experience, with just one prior CCI4*-L run to his name, he proved on course what an asset he’s ready to be to the Irish effort, even over the toughest of questions.
“The first water, for me, was just a big question very early on,” says Sarah. “And I was worried about it, I have to say, but he was a good boy. I got one more [stride] coming in than I’d like, but I saw a lovely shot and just, everywhere I pointed him he just kept going. He was incredible. He’s very easy, very sharp. He lands and he wants to go.”
Like Ros and Walter, though, the pair nearly saw their day finish at the second fence.
“He got a bit of a fright at number two. That was the first sticky take off and he really got stuck and wore the fence, and then I was like ‘actually, you know what, you survived it, you learn from it’ — and he did. He knew from then on you have to pull out of the mud, and a couple of times I saw a flying one and I had to just sit back and help balance him a little bit because they weren’t really coming out of it.”
Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Second-placed Germany were once again ably represented by Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S, the up-and-coming darlings of last year’s Pratoni team — and today’s sixth-place citizens after a four-place climb. They added 13.2 time penalties in a get-it-done round that required no shortage of grit.
“To be honest, it wasn’t the most pleasant round I ever had,” says Christoph. “I think it was super hard work for him; starting at fence one, he always felt like he had to dig really deep in the mud. But he’s the most honest horse you can wish for. Every time, I wasn’t really sure where to take off because his stride changed before the fences. He just did it because he’s got a lot of scope, and I can basically trust him with a longer rein that he’ll do his job. I think it was the most sensitive decision by the organisers to take some parts out that would have been even more wet. Even even with the ground being as it is, it was hard work for us and even harder work for the horses. So bless him for being such an honest cross-country horse.”
“There wasn’t a combination that wasn’t [hard work], to be honest,” he continues. “You know, you walk the course and it’s a big, nicely built straightforward, forward course with a lot of combinations that you have an idea about what you’re doing, but then the conditions change everything and the way your horse can cope with the conditions changes again and everything, so for me, I wasn’t really sure what kind of horse I’m sitting on today until he showed me that he’s just the most brave horse you can wish for. Even though he wasn’t the most adjustable horse today, because we basically had one speed all the way around, couldn’t change the gear down, couldn’t change the gear up, but that did everything I asked for.”
Felix Vogg and Colero. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Switzerland’s five-star champions Felix Vogg and Colero moved up from eleventh to seventh, coming home marginally slower than Christoph with 13.6 time penalties at the tail end of the day’s competition.
“It was pretty nice, but it was not the ideal conditions for him — like hills and the ground and all that stuff, but he did an amazing job,” says Felix, who let slip the rather remarkable detail that he uses a horse hypnosis to help Colero find his inner calm — and he, for his own part, took advantage of a long lie-in to keep the butterflies at bay before his late start time. Keep doing you, Felix.
Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
France had two further riders in the top ten thanks to the efforts of British-based Gaspard Maksud, who cruised home with 9.2 time penalties with his Pratoni sixth-place finisher Zaragoza, climbing from 33rd to eighth, and longtime team member Nicolas Touzaint and Absolut Gold HDC, who added 11.2 time penalties to move from 25th to ninth.
“It’s a hell of a job for the horses,” says Gaspard, “but she dug so, so deep. I held her hand the whole way around and after the final water I said, ‘come on, let’s go’.”
Jérôme Robiné and Black Ice. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The top ten is rounded out by German debutant and individual competitor Jérôme Robiné, who proved that his top-ten finish in his five-star debut at Luhmühlen with Black Ice was no flash in the pan. They added 18.4 time penalties, dropping them from seventh to tenth, but keeping them in an extraordinarily impressive position heading into the final day.
As he tackled his debut senior appearance, Jérôme focused on making sensible choices above all.
“I think I started slow, because I felt, okay, the ground is tough for him, we have to get into this course — and I saw some before who started too fast and then at the end it was pretty hard work for them, so I just didn’t look at the watch,” he explains. “Just get your turns and try to really feel into your horse — and I think the jumps were all pretty good. He jumped very good for all the round, and was not getting tired, and of course if you know that you could go a bit faster… but in the end I’m pretty happy.”
That debut wasn’t his only first-time experience today: he also experienced his first-ever hold on course, just before the final water, after Dutch pair Elaine Pen and Divali had a crashing fall that resulted in a trip to the hospital for the rider — though we’re pleased to report that both are fine.
“It’s hard to get into it again [after a hold],” reflects Jérôme. “But all the coaches were in the ear pretty fast and told me what to do — just walk, and then start strong again, start quick, and I think he could breathe and start again pretty strongly. It’s never ever happened to me, so then that’s a good thing when people come to you just telling you what to do. You can really concentrate on all the other things and don’t have to focus on anything. I think on that point, it was positive because he really could come back a bit stronger especially for the last hill and for the finish. He could breathe a bit, so it was a bit better. I think for the final water it was not that good, because I had to go on the outside line, and actually I wanted to go on the inside line which is a bit faster. But in that moment I came on the outside because I thought, okay, just going the bit longer way is the right decision.”
That help during the hold is a reflection of the experience that the young talent, who’s based at the German Federation’s Warendorf training centre, has been living all week.
“The team just help me a lot; they are very experienced,” he says. “We all sat together yesterday evening. And there’s Michi, there’s Sandra, there’s Christoph, who have all been through these courses a few times and they just say ‘look after this, look after this. Sometimes that happens’. So yeah, that’s perfect for young guys like me.”
The field is down to a scant 38 from 56 starters, with three pairs opting to retire on course, and 13 eliminations. Three of those were horse falls, though none have been reported as injurious, and fence 18, a left-handed corner off a sharp turn into the second water, caused the most issues: six riders picked up a 20 here, while a further two fell from their horses. Otherwise, though, issues were well spread around the course, with 14 elements on course causing jumping penalties of some sort through the day.
Great Britain remains at the forefront of the team competition, sitting on 98.7 even after penalties for both Yasmin Ingham and Laura Collett, while Germany lags behind on 126 — or six rails and change. France sit in bronze, currently, just 0.2 penalties behind Germany, while Ireland is waiting in the wings in fourth on 136.4. The team bids for those two Olympic qualifications, which began as a four-way race between Italy, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands, has been sewn up: after none of the Austrians completed, and two Italians failed to complete, it will be Belgium and the Netherlands who will head to Paris next year.
Tomorrow’s finale begins with the final horse inspection at 9.00 local time (8.00 a.m. BST/3.00 a.m. EST), and will be followed by the first jumping session, fielding just thirteen horses and riders, from 12.00 to 12.30 (11.00 a.m. BST/6.00 a.m. EST). The top 25 will jump from 2.00 p.m. local time (1.00 p.m. BST/8.00 a.m. EST). As usual, you can watch on ClipMyHorse — and tune back in to EN for all the news as we crown our new European Champions. Until then: Go Eventing!
The individual top ten after cross country.
The team podium at the end of a dramatic day of cross-country at the European Championships.
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