Classic Eventing Nation

Fence 1.

Tomorrow’s cross-country course at the Longines Luhmühlen CCI5* has got everyone talking, with several riders reckoning the 11:08 optimum time will be near-on impossible to catch, even with just 28 numbered fences — and that comes down to its intensity and technicality, “like an eleven-minute CCI4*-S,” as Ros Canter aptly put it earlier today. It’s another sterling effort from long-time course designer Mike Etherington-Smith, who’s added some new features this year, including an Irish bank that’s got a few of our German friends feeling a little bit weak at the knees.

First of all, let’s get some real pet-peeve housekeeping out of the way. 

There are a few common blanket statements that I hear time and time again in the eventing world, and one of those that makes me roll my eyes so far back into my head that I can see into Australia is this: Luhmühlen is a soft five-star. 

Is there any such thing, really? No, you won’t come to Luhmühlen and find yourself gulping at the take-off side of the fences, unable to comprehend how anyone can find enough velocity or, indeed, cajones to make it to the other side. It’s not a dimensionally colossal five-star. It’s not Burghley. 

But what it does do very well is make riders think. It’s a very European, very academic track, with plenty of washing machine turnbacks and exacting angles that’ll lead to harmless — but expensive — runouts if riders or horses take their eye off the ball for even a moment. 

This year’s course switches directions from the last couple of years’ tracks – the last time we saw it run in this direction was 2022. In real-world, practical terms, that means that the always very influential Longines water complex in the woods comes up so early that it’s actually the first combination our competitors will meet, and they’ll approach it off a steep downhill run – so from very early on, we’ll expect to see a barometer of each partnership’s ‘readiness’ for this level. 

The first three fences are familiar, friendly ones: there’s the stalwart Luhmühlen flowerbox to get our competitors underway, followed by a table at 2 and a brush spread fence heading into the woods at 3. As at any event, the purpose of these early fences is straightforward: simply, they’re there to allow horses to settle into a cruising rhythm and have confidence-building experiences leaving the ground and meeting the crowds. 

After the third fence, they’ll head into the venue’s peaceful woodland for a surprisingly long gallop stretch – and that, in and of itself, presents one of this competition’s first challenges. The wooded areas on course are hemmed by very tall, slim tree trunks, which create an interesting optical illusion: because they’re so numerous and so slim, they zoom by in the riders’ peripheral vision, creating an idea of high speed that isn’t necessarily backed up by their meters per minute. If a rider doesn’t keep a close eye on their minute markers here, they could be lured into thinking they’re moving much faster than they really are, all the while losing valuable seconds that they’ll struggle to catch up later. But if they’re militant in monitoring their speed, they can make up ground that they’ll be grateful for later on. 

Here’s a look at some of the fences that could play a major role in how tomorrow’s competition plays out — and some that just look very impressive (we’re looking at you, ditch-and-brush).

Fence 4, with the Longines Water beyond.

The Longines Water at 5ABC.

Fence 7.

Fence 8A, which is followed by the B and C elements on a 90 degree right-handed turn.

Fences 8B and C.

Fence 9.

Fence 10AB.

Fences 11 and 12AB.

Fence 12AB and 13.

Here’s a little breather to meet Sam Lissington’s dog.

One of Luhmühlen’s deceptive wooded gallop tracks.

Up the mound to fence 14A…

…and down over the drop (14B) to two angled brushes at 14CD.

Here’s a look at that drop from the side.

The far water at 16ABC.

Fences 18AB.

The brand new Irish bank at 20ABC.

The BC elements of the Irish bank complex at 20.

Fence 21AB.

The corner complex at 23AB.

The coffin at 25AB.

The ditch-and-brush at 26.

Fence 27AB.

The finale at fence 28.

Longines Luhmühlen CCI5* (Germany): [Website] [Entries] [Schedule] [Timing & Scoring] [H&C+ Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]

Yesterday’s first dressage day at the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials was notable mostly for its harsh judging, with nobody across either the CCI4*-S or the feature CCI5* breaking into the 20s (and plenty, to their dismay, flirting – or entering into a committed relationship with – the 40s). 

Today was more of the same, which in a funny sort of way is a good thing: the only thing more demoralising than judges who love the 6.5 button is judges who suddenly see the appeal of the 8 and 9 buttons on Friday afternoon, leaving everyone with an early draw languishing somewhere in the bottom half of the pack despite the actual merits of their performances. 

Just one test in this morning’s CCI4*-S broke us out of our deep existential slump. That was the effort of last year’s Aachen and Boekelo champions (and German Olympic team members) Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Her 25.3 is the only sub-30 in the whole class, and puts her some 5-and-change points in the lead – a distance that can only really be summed up by this text that my friend got from her cheating ex-boyfriend after he abortively tried to FaceTime her ten times in a row last night:

Julia Krajewski to the rest of the field, everyone CCed in. (Name redacted to protect the deeply silly.)

Julia and Nickel will head into tomorrow’s cross-country effectively in their own separate class, though a super effort from New Zealand’s Clarke Johnstone and Rocket Man (30.5 and second overnight) came close to challenging her several times through the course of his test. 

Her eleven-year-old stable star, Julia tells us, is only getting better and better. 

“He felt he’s gotten quite a lot stronger since last year. Again, like every year, I think, ‘okay, maybe that’s the limit’. And the next time, he comes out and is 10% better,” she says. “Last year I couldn’t work him in dressage three days in a row because he would feel too weak in his back. And this year it’s possible to do more work without him getting tired in the top line. I think that’s a really good sign that you finally get the horse stronger, because he’s the most willing horse – he always tries to do well – and maybe he would try more than he could physically actually hold up to.”

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

“That’s why I’m really trying to protect him a bit and not go with his mind, but rather try to go with his body,” she continues. “Because the reason he’s done so much is because he’s got such a good mind, but he’s still a little bit weak-ish, body-wise. It’s why I’m not pushing too much. But I’m just so proud of him – he goes in and he just delivers, and then it’s about tiny things. I think I could have done a bit more here, a bit more there, but overall, if you know you can go into a dressage arena and produce something between very good and very, very good, what more can you ask for?”

Julia with Nickel and Bernd Heicke. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the change in Nickel’s name – formerly Nickel 21, he’s now Uelzener’s Nickel, which has prompted some murmurings about whether he might have been sold. But while Julia is delighted to welcome supporter’s Uelzener to her team – and it really does take a huge team of supporters to make competing at the top levels work out – she still rides the gelding for Prof. Bernd Heicke, who secured him for her after the Paris Olympics, when he was put on the market. And for Julia and Bernd alike, this is a special week: at 90 years old, the longtime supporter of Germany’s up-and-coming eventing riders has never yet been able to support his horse at a show, and today, it was plainly apparent that he was having the nicest day of anyone at Luhmühlen. 

Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This afternoon’s CCI5* dressage saw slightly more competitors break the 30 barrier, but none would rival Julia’s morning effort – not even the extraordinarily reliable Laura Collett and London 52, who produced a typically smart, expressive test but could only coax a 25.4 out of the ground jury. 

“Only,” I hear you sigh. And hey: I’m with you on this. I once burst into tears because I got a 29. It never happened for me again. But for Laura and the sixteen-year-old ‘Dan’, it feels like a rather significant departure from the sub-20 scores they’ve received at the Paris Olympics, the 2022 World Championships, and very nearly right here at Luhmühlen, when they finished on their 20.3 dressage score to win in 2023. 

When you’re working with such hard-to-impress judges, though, it’s all relative – and that 25.4 is still enough to put the pair firmly into the lead going into tomorrow’s cross-country. 

“Look, he’s an absolute dream to ride, and he knows what he’s doing now, so it’s all about trusting the process and not getting too caught up in working too much,” says Laura. “I rode him this morning and he was very, very fresh, but I just trusted that he’s old enough to know what he’s doing now.”

He was, she admits, “on edge in there” – an extra bit of buzz and pizzazz that no doubt came from the ring announcers Beatlesmania-style introduction of the pair, which elicited enormous cheers of welcome from the crowd and had a gaggle of tiny German girls nearly in tears as they squeaked out wishes of good luck at their hero. 

For many horses, that would have been game over, but even though Laura felt the Holsteiner absorb the energy, she was grinning as she made her entrance at A – because, she says, “it was quite an atmosphere, but he loves an atmosphere.” 

While we didn’t see, perhaps, the very pinnacle of the pair’s expressiveness in the ring, it was inarguably the performance of the day, and thrusts Laura right back into prime position as she aims to regain her title. If she can, it’ll mean that Dan continues a remarkable streak that has seen him win every five-star he’s started: Pau in 2020, Badminton in 2022, and, of course, their last go at the level here two years ago.

But does Laura still feel the pressure, even with such an enviable record behind her?

“I’d love to say no, but yeah,” she says. “I came into this year saying that after last year, with the pressure [of the Olympics] that I just wanted to enjoy him and enjoy having him around and not having the pressure. But the closer we got to here, I was definitely feeling it, mainly just because I didn’t want to let him down. He deserves to win every event he goes to, so it’s my job to allow him to do that.”

“Obviously in Paris, he was perfect, so comparing it to perfection [is hard], but he still felt pretty good to me,” continues Laura, who only schools the gelding on the flat once a month in a dressage lesson these days. “Even when he’s on edge now, he remembers to listen and I know I can trust him – a few years ago, he wouldn’t have coped with being that on edge. It was a fine line. But now he knows to go in and do his job, so it makes my life a lot easier and I can just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

Laura also sits 13th going into cross-country with yesterday’s ride Hester, with whom she scored a 33.9. 

Ros Canter and Izilot DHI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Also double-handed in this class is Ros Canter, who piloted last year’s dressage leader Izilot DHI to second place overnight and a score of 26. 

Like Laura and Dan, Ros explains that she now feels more able to trust the process – and her horse – in the ring, something that’s particularly notable with the historically spooky and sharp ‘Isaac’. 

“I feel like we’re much more secure with each other; he’s twelve years old now, and we’ve been together a long time, and so I think he’s trusting me a bit more – and I’m certainly trusting him a lot more,” she says. “I know his quirks inside out now, and I don’t let them bother me anymore, so I think it’s always about building that relationship.”

The numbers on the board aside – Isaac, too, is not a stranger to sub-20 scores in friendlier climes – Ros was pleased with the work she got from the gelding. But, she says, getting it right with him isn’t always something she can work out entirely by feel. 

“I think the work was on a par for him, but he’s got quite a tricky neck to gauge, so I always have to rely on people watching me to tell me how it feels,” she says. “Sometimes he feels elastic and sometimes he doesn’t, and so [I don’t always know] until I go back and watch it. I knew the neck was good because they told me it was good! Sometimes it doesn’t feel that good – I’d love to have him a little bit lower and a little bit rounder, but when you have him in the place where you’d have another horse, he always looks overbent. So with him, I have to just have him a little bit more up and out than I maybe feel comfortable with.”

There were, Ros feels, some tiny marginal gains she could have eked out in the ring for a smattering of extra marks. 

“I think I could always get more elasticity in the canter, and that’s kind of his weakness. He’s very comfortable in trot, and that’s quite unusual for the eventers – most horses do their best work in canter, and he’s more comfortable in trot. He’s much more elastic that way. So I think it’s just always getting that little bit more elasticity in the canter. At the moment, when I get that at home, it’s incredible, but sometimes I make a few mistakes, so today I kept it a bit safer in there.”

Ros’s first horse, the less experienced MHS Seventeen, sits twelfth on 33.5, making the match race between her and her teammate Laura a multilayered one this week. 

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

Third place at this early stage goes to one of the most popular competitors of the day, and the first in the ring in today’s five-star competition. That was Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K, who are tackling their second five-star start after finishing fourth at Kentucky last spring. 

“I just have this horse for five-star, and he’s thirteen now,” says Malin of her decision to contest this class, rather than the German National Championship CCI4*-S, en route to a bid for Europeans selection. “I was like, ‘the press is right – the Germans always ride at the Europeans or the Worlds, and they don’t ride five-star’. And then I thought, ‘he’s a five-star horse, and I want to ride that.’ I don’t know if I’ll ever get another horse like this again, and so for me, it was important to ride the five-star here, because I’ve never done it before. And if it’s a good enough result, then it’s good enough for [the Europeans]; if not, I’ll go to Maryland or to Kentucky or Badminton next year.”

They’re certainly off to a fine start: they put a 28.9 on the board to give us our first sub-30 in the competition. 

“He was just awesome,” beams Malin. “I think he always needs a little bit of a crowd to be ‘on’, and now that he’s older I can really prepare something out of that so he’s just a bit more scopey [in his movement]. It was easy today to just leave him a little bit in front – he was perfect. He came in and was like ‘ooooooh!’ and I knew that if I just stayed cool and rode him, and kept my hands up in front so he could get up, that it would be a perfect feeling.”

Sam Lissington and Ricker Ridge Sooty. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Sitting equal third with Malin is New Zealand’s Sam Lissington, who comes to Luhmühlen off the back of a history making 1-2-3 in the CCI4*-L at Royal Jump in France. This week, she rides the fourteen-year-old Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ, with whom she finished twelfth at Pau last year on his debut at the level. 

Their score today sees them add just a tenth of a penalty to the score they received on that occasion. 

“He’s just so obedient and so easy to ride – like, you come out here and you don’t have a lot to do in the prep because he knows his job so well, and I know him so well,” says Sam. “So it’s more just making sure we’re both sharp enough, which is tricky finding that balance, isn’t it? You want them rideable enough, but then quick enough to be on your aids for the changes, particularly at that tricky point at A, so that was the thing that I was constantly playing with. I want him relaxed and easy and rideable, but not too rideable that I miss a change.”

Over and over again today, all of us on site kept having the same conversation: is scoring like this actually good for the sport? One rider I spoke with this afternoon made an interesting point about the scoring in sports like figure skating: something that keeps it buzzy and exciting and compelling for spectators is that when true greatness happens, nobody’s afraid to hand out a 10, and that means that aiming for perfection is actually achievable, whereas in our sport, we see a score of 20 as something of a pinnacle. But, the rider continued, a 20 is only an 8 – and an 8, in individual marking terms, is only ‘good’. Is ‘good’ the best we can offer our competitors and our spectators? 

Sam – who wasn’t the aforementioned rider, for what it’s worth, agreed that the harsh and oftentimes inconsistent scores across the judges is “disheartening. I know I’ve watched some other tests that I think didn’t get the scores they probably deserved, and I think that’s tough on the riders. It’s tough on the owners, and it’s tough on the event as well.”

Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Fifth-placed Gemma Stevens was one rider who was hit hard by the numbers on the board. She and the very experienced – and often low-20s scoring – Jalapeno produced a very likable test, but the broad smile of pride in her horse disappeared from her face when she heard the announcement of her 29.4. 

“It was honestly the best test she’s ever done,” says Gemma. “I’m thrilled with her, but I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. It’s her best work, and she’s earned 22s before. Her changes were on the button; she was soft over her back, up in the frame, her transitions were amazing. She didn’t make a mistake. She’s normally in the low 20s, and I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve [with the low marking]. What are they looking for in a horse?”

Piggy March and Halo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Her compatriot – and her lorrymate this week – Piggy March delivered her test just a few rides later with the smart little stallion Halo, and was similarly baffled to receive a 29.9, which slots her into seventh place overnight behind Austria’s Lea Siegl and Van Helsing P, on a 29.8. 

“I’ve got no idea how they’re marking. I’ve seen Gemma’s work all morning and it’s been very, very smart, so it’s quite demotivating,” she says. “It’s nice when the judges see something good and give it a mark – there should be an 8 if something’s good. I know [the scores] will stay close this week, and that’s fine, but I’ve said it before: what are you training towards? What’s the standard? It inspires riders [if they understand the standard]. I’ve spoken to ground juries before to try to understand it, but I suppose dressage is marmite – they either like it or they don’t, but at this level, [the inconsistency between judges] isn’t good enough.”

With Halo, though, she was delighted: “I’ve got a cute little horse,” she says with a smile, “and I’m really interested to try and learn from the week. I’m really proud of him today; he felt cute, his brain was with me, and he tried really, really hard. There’s little bits where he’s certainly not the finished article, and in two years time, I think he’ll be another horse again – he’s definitely a championship horse. But he’s a little bit long, so he can trot very nicely, but he can push away with his hind leg out behind, so it’s about getting the hind leg under him and also not getting him too high [in the neck]. He’s so trainable, I can put the neck wherever I want to put the neck, and I think in the past I’ve sometimes had it too high, so we’re finding the balance.”

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats were awarded a similarly confusing 31.2 to sit eighth overnight, ahead of day one leaders Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat and yesterday’s runners-up Aaron Millar and KEC Deakon. 

Cosby Green and Highly Suspicious. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Cosby Green leads the way for the small but mighty North American contingent after a smart test with her second ride, the fifteen-year-old Highly Suspicious. They sit sixteenth on a 34.6, while her first ride, Jos UFO de Quidam, is 36th on a 39, and I promise you I will actually get a debrief with Cosby herself into one of these reports this week! I’m not ignoring you, Cosby, girl, you just need to stop doing tests right before Laura Collett, okay? 

Mike Winter and El Mundo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Canada’s Mike Winter trended in the top ten for much of his test but ultimately stacked up just outside the top twenty in 22nd on 34.9 with El Mundo. 

“In places I could have executed a little bit better, but he was there for me to give him the correct aids,” says Mike. “I think he was always on side the whole way; at the Olympics, he was a tiny bit tight going in, and maybe I was a bit tight going in as well, but I felt relaxed today and like we were in harmony.”

The experience of Paris and its enormous atmosphere was a useful education for the now-sixteen-year-old, he says.

“I think the more times he gets in front of bigger crowds, instead of shrinking into himself or maybe me doing the same, we start sort of puffing our chests out and trying to show off a little bit. This wouldn’t be, historically, my strongest phase. I’ve not had horses as talented as this one in this phase, and probably it’s about learning to make the most of a horse that I think essentially finds this phase easy. I love riding him – I love riding all horses, that’s why we do this, but he’s special.”

Allison Springer and No May Moon. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Allison Springer and No May Moon sit 25th on a 35.6 in the little mare’s five-star debut – a score that sits smack in the middle of the range of scores she’s tended to deliver at four-star, but Allison admits she’d hoped for something lower today. 

“I didn’t realise I’d entered the arena late,” she laments of her costly early mistake. “And then I made an error in the medium canter, so I left some things on the table – but she did not. She did everything I asked her to do, and I’m super pleased with her. We’re nowhere near where we will be one day in the dressage arena, but I think she loves to compete, and she’s just top. I love her. She was quite spooky to begin with, but then she didn’t get more flustered when the crowd clapped – she just got to work, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Allison had actually intended for Kentucky to be the mare’s five-star debut, but a broken hand put her off games for long enough that qualifications became an issue, and they ultimately ran the CCI4*-S there instead, finishing fifth and securing the MER they needed to step up. 

“I thought I’d do Kentucky five-star, and when they told me I wasn’t qualified, I didn’t want to chase for the qualification and add to her schedule,” she says. “I never really think about the next thing until I know she’s really ready and feels good, and actually, it was good for her to do the four-star there, because it’s a tough course. She felt so great there that we thought, ‘well, we might as well strike while the iron’s hot!’ I feel good about trying this on her – it’s a twisty course where you need a dirt bike of a horse.” 

Tomorrow’s cross-country will start quite bruisingly early at 8.45 a.m. local time (7.45 a.m. BST/2.45 a.m. EST), and this time, it’s the CCI5* that kicks off proceedings. First out of the box will be Britain’s Aimee Penny and PSH Encore (38th on a 39.4), while the CCI4*-S will start with Ireland’s Patrick Whelan and Altitu (37th on 41.2) at 13.20 local time/12.20 BST/7.20 a.m. EST. As always, you can watch all the action on Horse&Country TV, and keep it locked onto EN for all the details of the day’s juiciest stories. Until then, you can find me at the beer tent, turning myself into a 90% pilsner cocktail. Auf wiedersehen!

The top ten after dressage in the CCI5*.

The top ten after dressage in the CCI4*-S.

Longines Luhmühlen CCI5* (Germany): [Website] [Entries] [Schedule] [Timing & Scoring] [H&C+ Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]

The eventing overlords giveth, and the eventing overlords taketh away: such is the feeling on day one of the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials, anyway, where we were given so much – blazing sunshine, a sterling entry list, a free bar that stayed open late into the night yesterday, and Bruce Springsteen soundtracks every time an American rider so much as looked at the main arena. Delightful! 

But then there was the day of sport itself. Across this morning’s CCI4*-S and this afternoon’s CCI5*, the ground juries were just… well, this:

We’ve seen 45 tests across the classes over the course of the day, and not a single one of them has broken the sub-30 barrier. The 40 barrier, though? Oh, we’re well acquainted at this point. 

So is it excessively harsh judging, or is it a surprisingly poor standard of dressage? The truth, as it tends to, lies somewhere in the middle: no, we didn’t see any knock-your-socks-off, weep-over-the-extended-trot magic moments today, but we did see a lot of very pleasant, perfectly likeable efforts in the ring. Generally, I tend to think that if a score hits the 40s, one of two things has happened – there’s either been a disastrous mistake at some point, or the work throughout the test has been consistently marred by issues in the contact, the connection, the harmony. Today, though, I’d find myself watching a test that was, by any standards, fine – not a 25, but a low-to-mid-30s all day long, and then I’d glance at the scoreboard and see that it was trending on a 42. So whatever it is that the judges want, they’ve not yet seen it. 

Of course, while tough marking can be demoralising in the moment, it’s at the end of the day – and even more so, at the end of the phase – that it can really be contextualised. A 31 on another day in another competition might mean that a horse and rider are miles off the pace early on; here, it would be the leading score. If the standard of scoring remains the same throughout tomorrow’s competition, then fine – it’s all relative, and while everyone might be wincing their way to a personal worst, they could still be just seconds away from taking the top spot. If it changes, and we see 20s being thrown at tomorrow’s competitors willy-nilly, that’s a very different kettle of fish.

Does this mean we need to sit on our hands and hope that Laura Collett and London 52 will somehow get a 32 tomorrow? Not at all, of course. This week’s draw has ensured that all our double-handed riders bring forward their top horses tomorrow, and many of our very competitive single-horse riders have also been put into the Friday mix, so it’s likely that we will see an uptick in the marking, and then it becomes a game of nuance, analysis, and arguing with each other in the judging breaks while we pull up Rechenstelle and make judging discrepancies into trump cards. 

Laura Collett’s not-at-all impending 33 and all of our friendship-ruining arguments about dressage feel a bit like tomorrow’s problem, though. Today, we’ve finished the day with a leaderboard, even if nobody quite likes the numbers on it, and that means we’ve also finished the day with leaders. 

Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Sitting pretty in first place overnight is – can you believe it? – a British combination, who heads up a very near clean-sweep of the top ten for eventing’s most dominant nation. That’s Selina Milnes and the eleven-year-old Cooley Snapchat, who put a 31.5 on the board to move into prime position near the close of competition. That 31.5 isn’t actually wildly off the pace of the rangy gelding’s normal scores – at four-star, he’s often, though not always, a high-20s horse, and while we saw him put a 27.1 on the board in his five-star debut at Pau, he popped into the low-30s a couple of times at the level below last season. 

But the work that the 2023 Bramham CCI4*-S winner produced today, Selina feels, perhaps warranted a slightly more generous number on the board. Her first indicator of her score was the final tally given by Katrin Eichinger-Kniely, the president of the ground jury, who awarded her a 35.2, significantly higher than the 29.1 given by the judge at M and 30.3 given by the judge at E.

Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“That’s what I was disappointed with – C is marked first, and I thought, ‘oh no’ – but obviously the other two liked it,” she continues. “I actually thought I’d get into the 20s. He didn’t really do too much wrong – [Team GB Performance Manager] Dickie [Waygood] said his quarters were slightly to the right on my first centre line, but other than that, I thought he was on the button and really good.”

Time and time again, we saw fresh, fit horses bubble over in the busy atmosphere of the ring – but that proved to be a help, rather than a hindrance, for Cooley Snapchat.

“He’s a super horse, and he always stays really relaxed so you can ride him in there,” says Selina. “He actually needs a little bit of buzz to spark him up a bit. He was really good; I don’t think he missed a beat today.”

Aaron Millar and KEC Deakon. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Compatriot Aaron Millar made a big effort to break that sub-30 barrier, and trended around 28 for the first half of his test – but an uptick in 6.5s and a couple of 5s in the canter work meant that he had to settle for a 31.6 with the 15-year-old Chacoa son KEC Deakon. 

After his test, he rued the marks he felt he’d left on the table by slightly overshooting his horse’s preparation today. 

“He was good, but I slightly overworked him – he doesn’t need much before he goes in, and that meant that he just dropped a bit in the poll,” laments Aaron. “Normally, his trot work would be better. I only gave him 25 minutes of work down here, but I’d worked him this morning. When he came down here [to the collecting ring], that was probably his best work.”

But, he explains, “he had a year off last year [with injury], so he hasn’t been in this atmosphere for a bit, and it’s probably better to have him a bit underpowered, perhaps, rather than squealing and bucking! He’s a performer, and he goes in there and he wants to do a good job, which is a massive help.”

Aaron hopes that a Badminton run could be in the horse’s not-too-distant future – but for now, Luhmühlen’s flatter, uniquely technical and twisty track is exactly what he needs en route to that goal.

“I think it’s a good test. There’s a lot of combinations where you’re going to have to think quick about where you’re going, where you’re turning – there’s a lot of acute angles and things. So it’s going to keep us working and keep us thinking.”

Ros Canter and MHS Seventeen. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Third place is held overnight by Ros Canter and the first of her two rides, the twelve-year-old five-star sophomore MHS Seventeen, who put a 33.5 on the board. 

“I’m over the moon with him, actually. He’s a horse that really hates to be by himself, so going into the main arena has historically been quite a difficult experience with him,” she says. “He tends to get quite tense and whinnies.”

Ros and her team, she continues, “have worked quite hard to develop a system in the run-up to an event, and while we’re here, and I’m just so pleased that the system worked. He came out happy and relaxed, and he went in happy and relaxed.”

“He’s come out quite a few times since he’s been here, but never for too long – he’s come out, done a bit of work, and then gone back [to the stables],” she explains. “And the same today: he’s come out a few times, but never to where he gets tired or frustrated. What we’ve been doing is actually practicing the trot work of the test over and over again. Yesterday, he probably went through it twelve times, and today we went through it three times, and I haven’t done anything with him that he wouldn’t be experiencing in the test this week.” 

The aim of that approach, she says, is “not to confuse him. He gets better and better when he knows what he’s doing, and he gains in confidence.”

Ros Canter and MHS Seventeen. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

One of her efforts en route to that confidence was doing the guinea pig test at Bramham last week – a test that, she says, “wasn’t productive on the day, but was extremely useful in that I learned about what I need to do coming here. It’s always just trying to work out his brain: he knows all this stuff now, and he’s well-trained, but he goes in there and sometimes he completely loses concentration and my aids are at the back of his mind, not the forefront. Today, he was definitely listening to me.”

But, like so many other riders, she admits: “I think it was a bit harshly-marked, to be honest – I was delighted with [the test], but that’s the way it goes when you’re at the beginning.”

Fourth place is held by Laura Collett and the first of her own two rides, Hester, on a score of 33.9, while fifth place goes the way of Austrian Olympians Lea Siegl and DSP Fighting Line, who posted a 34.4. Franky Reid-Warrilow and Guilty Pleasure (34.6) Tom Rowland and Quintilius (34.6) and Wills Oakden and Keep It Cooley (34.7) add to the British flags on the board in sixth, seventh, and eighth places, respectively, while young Swiss talent Nadja Minder sits ninth on a 34.7 with Toblerone. The top ten is rounded out by last year’s winner, Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier, who piloted an initially explosive and subsequently very expressive Origi, her Paris Olympics partner, to a surprisingly harshly-marked 36.5. 

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

British-based Cosby Green leads the way for the small but exciting North American contingent at this stage, sitting fifteenth overnight on a 39 with the seventeen-year-old Jos UFO de Quidam, while Jenny Caras and Sommersby were rather terrorised in their test by a flock of birds, who zoomed into the arena en masse to investigate some droppings and then flew up into the horse’s face. Jenny did a tactful job of keeping the thirteen-year-old debutant as contained as she could, but had to settle for a 40.1 to take eighteenth overnight. 

Mia Farley and Invictus. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Over in the CCI4*-S class, Germany’s Nina Schultes leads the way with the veteran Grand Prix iWest on a score of 30.6, followed by fellow countrymen Emma Brüssau and Dark Desire GS on 34.1 and Antonia Baumgart and Ris de Talm on 34.5. USEF European Development Tour participants Mia Farley and Invictus sit fifth overnight on 34.9. 

“He felt very secure in his work, and mature in his frame and everything, so I was happy with his consistency in that test,” says Mia. “I think he will be a mid 20s horse eventually, but right now we’re up and down with the scores. With him as a nine year old doing this level, it’s just all about having him feel confident in the work and showing him what he’s capable of.”

Tomorrow takes us into day two of dressage, which once again begins with the CCI4*-S class from 9.15 a.m. local time/8.15 a.m. BST/3.15 a.m. EST with Nicolai Aldinger and Palm Beach first in the ring. The CCI5* will commence from 13.15 local time/12.15 BST/7.15 a.m. EST, starting with German team partnership Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K. We’ll be bringing you a full report of the day’s activities at the close of play. Until then: go reacquaint yourself with the numbers 8, 9, and 10. We’ve missed them. 

The top ten in the CCI5* after day on at Luhmühlen.

The top ten in the CCI4*-S after day one of dressage. 

Longines Luhmühlen CCI5* (Germany): [Website] [Entries] [Schedule] [Timing & Scoring] [H&C+ Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]