Classic Eventing Nation

Ros Canter and Izilot DHI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Yesterday’s first day of dressage in Luhmühlen’s CCI5* saw none of the 21 initial riders clinch a sub-30 – and today, they were nearly as hard to come by. At the close of this phase, just two of the 42 competitors were awarded scores in the 20s by the exacting ground jury helmed by Denmark’s Anne-Mette Binder.

And leading the way as we head into cross-country? That’s the sole five-star winning partnership – so far, anyway – of this line-up. Ros Canter’s Izilot DHI has always been very capable of excellent scores, and often delivers them, but he’s also a notoriously quirky, spooky horse, and Luhmühlen’s main arena is bright, buzzy, and full of stuff – not least several looky cross-country fences, awaiting their turn for the action tomorrow. And ‘stuff’, really, is Isaac’s nemesis: when he’s had issues in the past, be it on cross-country or, as at Pau last year, before his dressage test, it’s been with objects that he has to pass, and which turn into monsters in his busy brain.

But today, he was cool, calm, and totally on the job, both before, during, and after his test, when he looked just about ready to take a nap during the steward’s obligatory bit-check procedure. That zen attitude was well rewarded, too – he and Ros were given a 24.9, just 0.6 penalties above the score that began his winning Pau campaign last autumn.

Ros Canter and Izilot DHI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“He’s fantastic,” says Ros of the eleven-year-old, who now holds a 3.4 penalty lead going into cross-country. That excellent score, and its resultant lead, came from some novel homework behind the scenes.

“To be fair, he’s been on great form all week. It’s just always a challenge with Izilot with his neck, and the way his neck is set on with his head, for me to know quite whether I get the outline right,” explains Ros. “Often, I don’t get it until my last ride. So I have to go back and watch old videos [of our tests] a lot. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last hour, is watching old videos and going, ‘quite how short do I need my reins? How exactly do I need him?’ because he just curls over so easily. But he’s become a real professional, bar being a bit spooky, which obviously he wasn’t today.”

There was just one mistake in their test – their second flying change came a couple of strides late, earning them two 4s and a 5.

“I really went for it in the extended [canter] and I probably just needed another half halt, and then his changes are so smooth I had to go  another two strides to decide whether he changed or not,” laughs Ros. “I’d say it’s rider error rather than his error – I should have just brought him back a tiny bit more.”

Izilot DHI and groom Sarah Charnley. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Time, patience, and a rerouting of pressure continue to be the making of Isaac, who no longer schools on the flat at home, but instead, hacks a lot and is shipped elsewhere to school so he gets plenty of exposure to the unfamiliar.

“I learn more and more about him all the time, and he gets a year older every year, which helps. He’s much more settled in his brain than he used to be, and he’s very established with the movements now, so I’m able to really train the brain instead of having to go ‘right, I’ve got to teach him [the movements]’,  I can keep him in a happier place much easier.”

Tomorrow’s Mike Etherington-Smith track will be Isaac’s third experience of cross-country at this level; on his first, at Pau, he won, and on his second, at Badminton last month, Ros set out knowing that the huge atmosphere and much bigger challenge of the place may not suit him. When he went green at the busy lake complex, she sagely put her hand up and decided to reroute him here, where she’s confident he’ll find his stride again.

“I’m certainly going to go out with  the intention of being fast and clear, to be honest,” she says. “I haven’t come here to be middle of the pack. So hopefully I can give him a good start. It’s quite nice here at the start, in that it’s not overly dressed and there’s not [a lot of decorations]. Going around things is often what he finds a little bit worrying,  and there isn’t any of that really, at the start anyway. So I’m going to go out and give it a good shot. He had a run at Little Downham, and he was good and fine there, so I don’t feel he’s lost any confidence from jumping at Badminton.  We’ll go and give it a good shot, I think.”

Tom McEwen and Brookfield Quality. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tom McEwen made a great start to the class yesterday with first ride CHF Cooliser, who now sits fourth going into tomorrow’s competition on her 30.8 – but it was his second ride, the fifteen-year-old debutant Brookfield Quality, who really made a bid for the top spot today. The pair put a 28.3 on the board and are provisionally second overnight.

“He was mega,” says Tom of ‘Nervous Norris’, who he inherited from fellow Brookfield rider Piggy March at the tail end of the 2022 season. “He listened all the way through – he never lets you down. He always tries his hardest, and that’s all you can ever ask for.”

Although Norris is a relatively late debutant at the level, he comes to Luhmühlen with a very good lead-up – he won a CCI2*-S section at Thoresby to start the year off, and then finished fourth in Bicton’s CCI4*-S last month.

“The preparations have gone really well,” says Tom. “We waited to start a little bit later in the season which, unless you went abroad, there wasn’t much to do in the UK anyway. We had a really good run at Bicton, so that was a fantastic prep for coming here, and we had a few Open Intermediates. He doesn’t tend to need too much,  andhe knows what he’s doing so we got all the work done at home – and hopefully we can show it all off tomorrow.”

Tom chose Luhmühlen as the gelding’s debut, he says, “because it’s obviously a bit flatter than the UK-based five-stars. The ground is always good, especially considering how much rain we’ve had out here.”

Tom will ride cross-country three times tomorrow – twice in this class, and once in the CCI4*-S, where he’s vying for an Olympic call-up with the former Nicola Wilson ride JL Dublin.

“I’ve got three different rides; two very different in the five-star, so I’ve got to reevaluate between horses and assess what I need to do on each one,” he says. “For Brookfield Quality, I think it suits him really well, I just need to build him up into the course and then let him flow. There’s plenty of questions all the way round, power questions, technical questions, so there’s a lot to do.”

Nico Aldinger and Timmo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Day one leaders Laura Collett and Hester now sit third, while fourth place is held by Germany’s Nicolai Aldinger and Timmo, who earned a colossal, and well-deserved, cheer when posting a 30.9 in their long-awaited five-star start. Nico, who lives just ten minutes from Luhmühlen and has frequently contested the CCI4*-S here, had planned to start in this class last year, but withdrew at the first horse inspection when Timmo knocked himself on the way down from the stables and took a few sore steps. Then, they put an entry in for Kentucky this spring, but at their final prep run in Strzegom, the gelding stepped on a clinch and, while uninjured, needed a few days off, disrupting his fitness work.

And so just to start is a phenomenal feeling for Nico – but to start on such a positive note, and with the full force of the home crowd’s enthusiasm behind him, is even better.

“It is pretty special, absolutely,” he says with a grin. “It helps a little bit that I have a cold ,so I have some pills inside, so I’m more relaxed! I slept a lot today. Normally I’m really nervous, but my girlfriend always says, ‘Luhmühlen, you just have to ride like every other competition’. I put myself under so much pressure, because my family is here, all the owners,  all my friends, are my supporters are  here — and then I want to be especially good. Last time, it didn’t work out too good. But today, I just wanted to have fun, and dressage can be a little bit fun. But I hope I have more fun tomorrow!”

Nico Aldinger and Timmo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Fourteen-year-old Timmo comes into this competition in very promising form: the Holsteiner, with whom Nico competed at the European Championships last year, finished in the top twenty in the CCI4*-S at Marbach in May, and then ran quickly at Baborowko last month at the same level to finish on his dressage score and take third place.

“He feels amazing,” says Nico. “We’ve changed the plan a lot this year and in the end, it’s worked. I’m hoping it works tomorrow and on Sunday too, but I’m really happy, and I don’t want to put pressure on him and just keep him happy. He was pretty good in Baborowko, where we were third, and I just want to keep the good feeling for him. He’s a bit special, and if you just keep him happy  then he gives you everything you want back.”

Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier, third last night on her homebred debutant Hooney d’Arville, is now sixth going into the second phase, while a duo of young up-and-comers from two nations take seventh and eighth place, respectively.

Jennifer Kuehnle and Sammy Davis Junior. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Libussa Lübbeke, who rides as part of Germany’s Warendorf programme for talented young eventers, made a fantastic start to her five-star debut with Caramia, putting a 31.9 on the board for seventh, while Ireland’s Jennifer Kuehnle sits eighth on 32 with Sammy Davis Junior, who she inherited the ride on from partner Cathal Daniels.

“I was hoping to be this good, but you never know,” says a delighted Libussa. “For the first 5* test, there are many more flying changes and she felt really good, very comfortable, and I was very happy how relaxed she was. It was a good feeling.”

One of the great weapons in Libussa’s arsenal is the support of her fellow Warendorf riders, most of whom are on site either competing or helping, and who include among their ranks Jérome Rôbiné and Emma Brussau, both of whom made their five-star debut here last year and can share what they learned along the way.

“It’s really nice. You feel really good with them around you,” says Libussa, adding that  “it’s very special, too, with a homebred horse – she was produced by my brother. Going into cross-country, I feel quite good, I have to say.  She’s a real cross country machine and I can trust her 200%, and that’s a really good feeling. So I’m very much looking forward to it!”

Mollie Summerland and Flow 7. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

2021 champion Mollie Summerland, who remains Luhmühlen’s youngest-ever winner, returned with a bang with a sparkling test with debutant Flow 7, who trended in the lead throughout much of his work but then slipped down the ranks due to his flying changes, which are still a work in progress. Mollie was thrilled to take ninth place overnight on a score of 33 with the young, talented, extraordinarily leggy gelding, who was bred in Germany and reunited with his breeder en route to the event this week.

“I do think that he has all the ability to go really low in this phase, but I wanted to not do too much work and leave him as fresh as I can for tomorrow, because I think that’s the biggest and hardest test for him,” says Mollie, who’s well known for her prowess in the first phase with her string of tall, dark, and handsome European geldings – and, most notably, her Luhmühlen-winning former partner, Charly van ter Heiden.

Of the changes, she says, “I felt he was a little bit more nervous down the bottom of the arena. So those ones on the counter canter, I didn’t really practice them outside, because I know he’s green with them and I didn’t  want to upset him. We were going to be happy with anything under 35, so I was pleased with that.”

Pleased, too, were Flow’s owners, Paula and Adrian Cloke, who had played a crucial – if long-distance – role in Mollie’s success in 2021, when they lent her a lorry to use for the week and offered plenty of emotional support through the process of tackling a pandemic five-star.

“We all cried when he finished the test, didn’t we?” says Paula.

“No, no, I just had dust in my eye,” protests Adrian.

No judgment from us: there’s plenty of reason to get a bit teary, not least because Flow, their first-ever event horse, has been a bit of a child prodigy.

“He only started eventing when he was seven, so he’s only been doing this just over three years,” explains Mollie. “So he’s really lacking in mileage – even the other ten-year-olds in the field, they might have started when they were maybe five or six. So  it’s all really new to him, and he’s just kept coping, and stepping up all the time. He’s exceeded all our expectations.”

“I bought him unseen off the internet when he was a six-year-old, so I didn’t even go and try him,” she continues. “He just came off the lorry, and he’s a really similar type to all of mine, so I kind of knew that he would probably be a horse I’d get along with well, and he’s just gone from strength to strength really. I think he has so much more to give, and that’s the most exciting thing.”

In the longer-term, she hopes that will take them to a five-star closer to home – but for now, Mollie’s delighted to have a reason to return to her happiest hunting ground.

“I love this show, and I just felt that if we were possibly thinking about Badminton, that this might be quite a good stepping stone on the way there,” she says.

Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Both of our US representatives have now completed their dressage tests: yesterday’s, Katherine Coleman and Monbeg Senna, will go into cross-country in sixteenth place on a 34.2, while today’s, Emily Hamel and Corvett, are 35^th on a 38.7 after some tricky moments in the latter half of the test.

“The trot work, I was pretty pleased with, but then it’s just, like, the canter work is what gets us,” she says. “But that’s kind of the usual – he anticipates the changes ,and we’ve been working on it, but just couldn’t quite show that today. But on to the jumping, I suppose!”

The jumping, as fans of the pair will know, is absolutely where they shine: the huge-jumping, bold gelding and his gutsy rider know one another inside and out after eight years together, and this will be their seventh five-star start, though it’s a Luhmühlen debut for both.

“I’m feeling pretty good about it, and I think I have a good plan at the moment,” says Emily, whose last run at the level, at Maryland last year, saw them finish eleventh. Now, she’s excited to add another event to a tally that includes both US five-stars, Burghley, and Badminton.

“I’ve always wanted to do [Luhmühlen], because I think it’d be cool to do all the 5*s –and I’ve heard it’s a really friendly event,” she says. “Everybody’s just like, ‘everyone’s so friendly’, and there’s lots of arenas, and the footing is good. I think the footing on course is great. So there’s a lot of positive things, but actually, this was kind of my plan B. I wasn’t originally coming here, but with Chatsworth being cancelled… I came over to the UK with the USEF Development Programme, and so this was not my plan. But then it turned out that way, and now I’m here, and I’m glad because I can get another 5* in.”

The relationship between horse and rider is a huge part of their success together so far.

“I think it’s a big factor – we do know each other really well. So it just feels really comfortable going out there — maybe I should be a bit more nervous! But I just trust him and I know he can jump anything, from anywhere,” she says. “He’s a really quirky horse, but for some reason he kind of chose me. I haven’t tried to micromanage him too much;  his jumping style is not your ordinary jumping style, but it works for him, and so I’ve just kind of tried to stay out of the way and let him figure it out.”

Tomorrow’s CCI5* cross-country will kick off bright and early at 8.45 a.m. tomorrow (7.45 a.m. BST/2.45 a.m. EST), with fourth-placed Tom McEwen and CHF Cooliser pathfinding. You can check out the times in full here, and keep it locked on EN for a gallery of all the fences that’ll be jumped out on course. To rewatch all of the action from the last two days, and to catch tomorrow live, head on over to Horse & Country TV – and, as always,  Go Eventing.

The top ten following dressage in Luhmühlen’s CCI5*.

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Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The second day of the Meßmer CCI4*-S at Luhmühlen arrived with a bang – because today, many of the class’s heaviest hitters, and those vying the hardest for spots on their respective Olympic teams in this final trial, came forward to deliver their tests.

What isn’t, ultimately, a surprise at the end of the day is that German maestro Michael Jung and his Tokyo Olympics ride and five-star winner fischerChipmunk FRH are in the lead going into cross-country, having put a 22.9 on the board. What was a surprise, though, was just how tough the marking continued to be among today’s habitually low-scoring combinations.

“He’s just really good, in general,” says Michi of his ride on sixteen-year-old Chipmunk, who joins stablemate Kilcandra Ocean Power, fourth going into cross-country, in the top ten. “He gave me a very good ride. He was very calm, listening very well – just beautiful to ride, and just to enjoy.”

Michi and Chipmunk are no strangers to exceptional scores; they’ve gone sub-20 more times than most of us have had hot dinners, and the former Julia Krajewski ride is so impeccably behaved in the ring that it’s hard to imagine anything ever fazing him enough to challenge that supremacy. That’s not to say that today’s test was perfect; their initial halt wasn’t quite square behind, and the gelding became almost imperceptibly stuck for a fraction of a moment in the second walk pirouette.

But, says Michi, “he gives me a very good feeling – that’s a very big plus, and that makes it very, very easy for me today. I think the extended trot, I just enjoyed. He had a very good drive, very powerful, super balance. I think the half pass, and also the flying changes [were highlights.]”

Now, he’s looking forward to tackling the CCI4*-S course with which he’s so familiar; he’s previously won this class on Chipmunk, back in 2021. And the pressure of it being a final selection trial? It appears to barely register for the icy-veined rider.

“The time will be a challenge for sure tomorrow – and  I want to go fast, for sure, but I’m still thinking to our big dream [of Paris]. This is the most important thing,” he says.

Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Michi’s test steals the lead from British frontrunners Laura Collett and London 52, who stepped into the top spot for part of the morning on their 24.8. But Laura, who won the five-star here last year with the German-bred gelding, can still see plenty of space for improvement in the final weeks before, she hopes, they’ll be heading to Versailles.

“Normally his half passes are kind of his highlight and he got all in a bit of a muddle,” she says, referring to the trot movements that earned them scores between 5.5 and 7. “I was probably too brave on the short side and didn’t set him up enough, and then when I did do a half halt, he thought it needed a halt rather than a half halt! So that was annoying, but here we’re just trying to see where we can push the extra bits.”

In order to do so, she continues, she “had him pretty revved up, more than normal — and it’s just finding out how far you can go, and what needs tweaking. It’s kind of a learning test. I know he can go in and do a safe test, but it’s trying to get a safe test and a ‘wow’ test all at the same time.”

His canter work, though, was “very secure, and very safe in the changes and very on the aids,” says Laura. “There were bits that were really, really good. The centre lines were good, because those can sometimes not be great. So parts to like, parts to very much dislike – but we’ll try and get it right next time.”

There’s plenty to do tomorrow, though, on Mike Etherington-Smith’s technical, tight track.

“It’s very, very intense and everything comes up very quickly,” she says. “So you have to be on your A game and think quickly, and the horses have to react quickly. I think it’s a great track, and at the moment the ground looks amazing.”

Coming to Luhmühlen as a final pre-Paris run has been at the forefront of Laura’s plan for London 52 all year.

“For me, it was a no brainer coming here. Doing dressage and show jumping on a surface, show jumping after cross country and the type of track — flat twisty, intense. It’s the complete opposite to Bramham [last week], but in my opinion, the closest that you’re going to get to what Paris is going to be, and you want to replicate as much as you can and prepare. We don’t get selected until later on, but you have to prepare like you’re going so that you know you’re ready.”

Sandra Auffarth and Viamant du Matz. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tokyo Olympian and former World Champion Sandra Auffarth steps into fifth place overnight, after day one leaders Anna Lena Schaaf and Fairytale 39 and Michael Jung and Kilcandra Ocean Power, after a smart test with her stalwart team ride Viamant du Matz earned the pair a 27.2. Though many riders today rode out of the ring disappointed with the numbers on the board, Sandra was delighted to have unlocked a new level of relaxation and cadence in the gelding, who has, on occasion, previously struggled with tightness through the neck in this phase.

“His steadiness was, for me personally, quite a big highlight,” she says. “He was so focused, and he did some really nice flying changes — he was really listening to me. That was in the past sometimes a little problem.”

At fifteen, she feels that ‘Mat’ is really coming into his own.

“He’s a French guy, so maybe they’re like good wine,” she laughs.

The pair are among the obvious frontrunners for the German Olympic team, which hasn’t yet been selected; they finished third in last year’s European Championships, fourth at Kentucky that spring, and were part of the gold medal winning team at the 2022 World Championships after winning Aachen that summer. But while the final nod will still depend on an excellent performance here, Sandra doesn’t let the pressure of the situation alter the way she approaches her ride in the dressage ring.

“ I always tend to say, there are so many other important things in the world. It’s not life or death when it’s not working,” she says. “So that makes me quite relaxed. I just always try to give our best – sometimes it works, and sometimes not. That’s life.”

Giovanni Ugolotti and Swirly Temptress. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Italy’s Giovanni Ugolotti steps into sixth place with the charismatic Swirly Temptress, who danced her way to a 27.6 and gave her rider plenty to celebrate with his compatriots in the in-gate.

“She was amazing – I’m super pleased with her,” he says. “We know that this is our strong phase, but sometimes, she can get a little bit tense in big arenas like that, and then it’s not easy for me to actually work with her neck, because she has a very rubbery neck. She struggles, sometimes, to stay out onto the bridle. But today I can’t fault her – yes, we had a couple of little mistakes but overall, I’m over the moon.”

Those little mistakes were marginal – the lowest their marks slipped were to two 6s, awarded by Xavier le Sauce at C for the second walk pirouette and the final centre line.

“The pirouettes were not like they should be, but the changes felt very, very good,” says Gio, wo was given 7s and 8s for those movements. “This is a horse that I think can be, if everything goes like it should, close to a 20. Next time!”

Gio, too, is here to make a bid for Olympic selection, and like Laura before him, Luhmühlen was the obvious choice as a final run.

“It’s the last run before the Games, so you want to test them. The course is beautifully built – I think Mike [Etherington-Smith] is one of the best cross-country builders  in the world, and I think all the questions, even if they are tough questions, they are very clear and readable for the horses.”

Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Several key combinations ended up with surprising scores on the board – and one of those was World Champions Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir. They put a 28.1 on the board to put them seventh overnight, ahead of Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin on the same score.

Yas, though, was delighted with her horse’s performance, and sage about some of the frustrating little mistakes they made along the way.

“He actually felt amazing in himself today. He was really bright, and he felt really soft and like everything was just nice and balanced – he just felt like good Banzai at his best,” she says. “I was really happy that they rewarded him for what he did really, really nicely — he got some 8’s, he got some 9’s. There was obviously a couple of really annoying mistakes; all the technical stuff was bob on, his changes were great, his half passes, shoulder ins, mediums, extendeds, all that was all great. But then there were annoying things, like he wouldn’t stand still in the halt, and then in the half piroutte, I went to put my leg on and he kicked up at my leg. It’s things like that, that are just a bit frustrating.”

But, she says, this week’s test was all about finding clever ways to bring his already consistently exceptional flatwork to the next level.

“I’ve been trying a couple of new things to try and get a little bit extra out of him,” she explains. “I’ve been wearing spurs a bit more recently, which I’ve never done before. It’s worked really well in the training, and I’ve felt like I’ve got so much more from him recently. This is the first time I’ve worn them in the arena, which is obviously a risk. But I know that I can gather a few more marks here and there, which I think I did in other movements,  but obviously then it hindered me a little bit in, say, the pirouettes. But we don’t have any of those in the next text we – hopefully! – do!”

Previously, she says, she had avoided wearing spurs because Banzai is “super sharp. But there’s just been a couple of occasions in the past few tests that he’s done, where I felt like I needed like a little bit of a quick reaction here and there. With my leg, with no spurs, I have to give him a bit of a nudge – and sometimes you don’t quite get the reaciton. So I think we’ll play with that a little bit more, because I really do like the idea, but I think we just need to nail the ‘when’ and ‘if’. Like, whether we ride in the warm up with them and take them off for the test, or something like that, but I do believe they’re making really positive changes.”

Now, she finds herself just over five penalties off the lead, which she’s content with going into tomorrow’s cross-country.

“There’s plenty to do over the weekend, so I think it’s a good place to be – I quite like rooting my way up from the back.”

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin slot into tenth place on a 28.4 after a tidy test, behind France’s Tom Carlile in ninth – but like many riders, including eleventh-placed Julia Krajewski, Tom was outspoken in his frustration with today’s harsh marking, echoing the common sentiment of the day: that nobody was quite sure what the judges were hoping to see.

“I was shocked when I came out with a 28, if I’m honest,” he says. “I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve watched some really bang average tests this morning  and they were getting 30s.  So to then come out with something like that, I’m really disappointed in their marking, to be honest.”

‘Dubs’, he says, felt at his very best in the ring – at least as good as he had in tests such as Kronenberg’s CCI4*-S in March, where he received a 20.9, or at Kentucky this spring, where he earned a 24.6.

“He was balanced, soft, set up in every corner. I think maybe they’re looking for you to go ten to the dozen, maybe going flat out round it,” he muses. “I’ve got absolutely no idea, to be honest. It’s baffling, but it is what it is. He felt amazing, in comparison to other tests he’s done. Kronenberg was incredible, but to be honest, not that far different. That [Kronenberg test] probably showed a little bit more power in a few more bits. But for me, this was a much better test than at Kentucky. Kentucky was a little bit, like quick, whereas this was actually really together, so I was delighted with him.”

The CCI4*-S was presided over by France’s Xavier Le Sauce – himself a member of the Paris Olympics ground jury – who sat in the box at C, while Germany’s Edith Schless-Störtenbecker marked from E.

“As a judge, our priority is just to assess training compared to the training scales,” says Xavier. “So we’re all on the same page following the training scales, which is starting from the rhythm of the paces, finishing with some collection, even if, in eventing, we’re not looking at the same degree of collection as in Grand Prix dressage. But we’re still looking at suppleness, quiet in the contact, and how they are finally offering to embody the movement, and the way they are just going into the flow through the test.”

“That 4* test  is quite interesting,” he continues. “Especially because it’s true that there are many marks for the walk, and when the walk is lacking rhythm in the medium, the extended, or in the pirouettes, the scores start to decrease quite a lot in a way. So that is where that test is probably quite difficult for riders when there is some tension, there is excitement and they are just not able to find the clear rhythm of the move we would like to see.”

Though he’s very aware of the class’s importance as an Olympic selection trial, Xavier is firm that the judging isn’t harsher because of that – nor because he’s ramping his own standards up to Olympic level in preparation for Paris.

“We’re not judging the name of the horses or the riders or the nations – we’re here to judge what we see,” he says. “So I perfectly agree that sometimes, you would expect better scores in comparison with your previous tests. We would like to give 9s and 10s to everybody – that would be very lovely, to have that. Unfortunately, during the last few days we have a couple of mistakes and tension. So that’s the reason some marks were lower. But we are always happy to talk with everybody and have a discussion with the riders about why we gave that mark.”

“I know most of the class would like to be in Paris, and I would be happy to see them in Paris. Where everybody can be sure, is that judges have no memory. So what’s happened today, will be something else tomorrow. That will really change nothing in the way of judging them in Paris or somewhere else after or before. It’s just the picture of today. With our comments [on the test sheets], I think we tried to give them a line as to what we would like, and where we would expect a bit more. So that’s how we are creating that partnership between judges and rider.”

Tomorrow sees the CCI4*-S take to cross-country from 12.51 p.m. local time (11.51 a.m. BST/6.51 a.m. EST) following the culmination of the CCI5* cross-country. Our scheduled pathfinders of the 66 horses and riders are Australia’s Kevin McNab and Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam. Both classes will be streamed in their entirety on Horse & Country TV, and we’ll be bringing you a jam-packed report on each of them once they’ve finished. We’ll be back tonight with a report from today’s CCI5* dressage, plus a look at that class’s cross-country course, and in the meantime, you can sneak a peak at the CCI4*-S times here.

Go Eventing.

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

EN’s coverage of the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials is brought to you by Kentucky Performance Products, your go-to source for science-backed nutritional support across all types of horses, disciplines, and needs. Click here to learn more about what KPP can do for your horse — thank you for supporting our wonderful sponsors!

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

Just one year ago, then-21-year-old Anna Lena Schaaf made her debut in Luhmühlen’s CCI4*-S – a class which, as the host of the German National Championships, is one of the most prestigious in the country.

And when she did so, with her longtime partner Fairytale 39, it was to be a week that culminated in a swell of emotion: they finished fourth, and as bronze medallists in the German Championships, and not only is that an exceptional feat for a rider so young among the titans of the sport, but it’s also, fittingly, a bit of a Fairytale. The now-17-year-old mare was bred by Anna Lena’s grandfather, and was born when Anna Lena herself was just five years old. When former Pony European Champion Anna Lena stepped up to horses, Fairytale was her first ride; they’d spent the prior seasons getting to know one another from the 80cm jumping classes onwards, but much, much more was yet to come. They’ve been to two Junior European Championships, winning individual gold in 2019, and they were individual silver medallists at the Young Rider Europeans, too, before stepping up to four-star and winning on their debut.

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

All in all, then, really, the sort of thing that dreams are made of – but even the best stories come to an end one day. And that’s exactly what Anna Lena has in mind with every start she makes with the mare these days.

“Maybe this will be my last year with her, so I really want to enjoy it – she’s seventeen, and so she might be ready to retire soon,” says the Warendorf-based young rider, who was recently crowned the German Under-25 National Champion with the mare in the first-ever awarding of the title.

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

Today, in the first day of dressage in Luhmühlen’s CCI4*-S, both horse and rider certainly achieved the enjoyment objective – and in doing so, produced a fluid, expressive test that earned them a 26 and the overnight lead.

“I think the first part, the trot work, was really good – she was really in front of me, and I could really ride her,” says Anna Lena. The one section where the pair’s scores dropped to 5.5, awarded by Xavier le Sauce, was in the middle of the lengthy walk segment within the test. There, they lost some of their established rhythm in the half-pirouettes.

“I don’t really know what happened there, but she was a bit in a hurry,” laughs Anna Lena.

But, she says, the subsequent canter work was “really good, though I think I could have ridden the flying changes a bit more – in training, they were maybe a point better, but they were good today.”

The changes received quite decidedly split marks from the judges at C and E, which has proven to be a common theme in this morning’s competition: their first, from right to left, earned them an 8 from Edith Schless-Störtenbacker at E and a 6.5 from Le Sauce at C, while their second, from left to right, earned them another 8 from E and a 5 from C.

Michael Jung and Kilcandra Ocean Power. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Anna Lena’s closest competitor is another German, but one much further along in his storied career. Michael Jung’s big ride, Tokyo Olympics ride fischerChipmunk FRH, is set to come forward in tomorrow’s CCI4*-S lineup, but today, he got his week off to a smart start with the eleven-year-old Kilcandra Ocean Power, who put a 27.1 on the board to lead for much of the morning.

“He’s a really, really nice horse – he’s very nice to ride in the dressage, he’s a super jumper, and he’s very, very, very easy in the cross country,” says Michael of the gelding, who is making his Luhmühlen debut in his tenth four-star start, and does so as a CCI4*-L victor – he won on his first start at the level in Strzegom last June, though he didn’t compete for the rest of the season thereafter.

Today, he says, “I think the canter work was the best part from him. He’s doing really nice flying changes, but everything’s not at the top at the moment, so there’s still a lot to improve. But it’s very nice when you when you have a good test, but you still feel there’s something to improve, to get better and that’s very good to know.”

This CCI4*-S is serving as a crucial step on the pathway to the Paris Olympics, as well as an important championship in its own right, and though Chipmunk is once again Michael’s first choice for the Games, Kilcandra Ocean Power will, he hopes, be his back-up ride.

But with the Olympics as the top priority in the season, he won’t necessarily ride either of his mounts in this class with a view to try to win here.

“I think nearly everyone wants to win this week. But for me, it’s still a little bit of preparation, in the end, for Paris, so we will have a few percent more control,” he says.

Tim Price and Coup de Coeur Dudevin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Former Luhmühlen CCI5* winner Tim Price sits third overnight with his 2022 Maryland winner Coup de Coeur Dudevin, who put a 28.1 on the board in this tough-scoring section.

For Tim, the test felt like a significant improvement on recent work, even if the numbers didn’t quite tell the same story.

“Wiesbaden was his last test, and it was the same test and whilst the Wiesbaden test scored better [they received a 25.4], I thought this was a better test,” he says. “But he’s a proper authentic eventing horse, so he’s not a top dressage horse, but he tries his hardest, and he’s just a great cross country horse and jumper.”

One of the major improvements, he continues, was in the walk work, which represents a huge chunk of today’s test.

The walk was much better. He has this little toe flick thing; like, when he’s going down a hill, he goes really slow and some horses do that sort of thing” – he demonstrates a Spanish walk with his arms – “and he’s one of them. But I think he just relaxed a little bit more through his body and was able to swing, and he didn’t peek out the sides at what was going on around him. I could just feel him concentrating really hard everywhere, so I’m very happy with him.”

Like Michael before him, Tim is using this class as a way to firm up his A-team for Paris – alongside Coup de Coeur Dudevin, he also has an entry in his World Championships bronze medallist Falco. But before he can even think about which of the two he’d most like to ride in Paris, “they have to qualify. So that’s great fun, isn’t it, trying to show off horses and not do anything stupid at the same time!” he laughs.

Tom Carlile and Darmagnac de Beliard. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

A “really awkward season” spent trying to get Darmagnac de Beliard back to top-level competition after nearly a year out of action means that Tom Carlile’s World Championships ride won’t be vying for Paris selection this year – he was eliminated at the first horse inspection in Kronenberg’s CCI3*-L in March, which put paid to Tom’s longer-term plan of securing the qualifying results he’d need to try to make a bid for selection.

But although that’ll no doubt be an enormous disappointment to the Manchester-born Frenchman, he’s still forging forward with his efforts to bring the talented eleven-year-old back to his peak.

Those efforts have, most recently, seen him take second place in Fontainebleau’s CCI3*-S, and today, they came good again as the pair took overnight fourth place on a 28.3 in this class. That mark was reached after an excellent trot tour, which had them trending well in the lead on a low-20s score, but some lost marks in the walk work meant that even a plethora of 8s and 8.5s in the canter couldn’t quite push them back into the top spot.

But, as Tom points out, he’s still a relatively inexperienced horse.

“He’s a horse that’s starting to come into collection,” he says. “He is a really, really serious horse — he does have a lot of emotion, but he puts a lot of trust into me and even in an atmosphere, I know I can rely on him being serious. You can really ride your test and get him moving.”

“He’d be one I’d always be a bit cautious with in atmospheres, and I probably warmed him up ten minutes too much today, because he just started to shut down a little bit in the arena,” he continues. “He was very good, but the walk’s always something – because he’s quite flighty, you always want to have him nice and calm in the walk. But I probably had him a bit too switched off and missed the two pirouettes, which costs you.”

Tom has produced the French-bred gelding throughout his career, and has learned how to work with his inherent quirks.

“He’s always been a very shy horse; and he was always a bit spooky with the rider,” he says.  “It’s always an issue trying to get on him. You have to be very careful – he’s quite flighty like that. He’d be one to shy away from the subject , from the conflict. He’s very brave with what you put in front of him, but it’s in the relationship – he’s  quite a submissive horse, and he was as a foal in the pack, too. He was always the one that followed the others. He didn’t have much of an initiative.”

But that means that Tom has been able to inject his own quiet confidence into him and build a relationship off the back of it: “he’s one that, if you grab him by the hand firmly, he listens and you can get him to do it. When he’s made confident like that, he really puts a lot of effort into that; it reassures him and then he can express himself.”

Emma Brüssau and Dark Desire GS. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Fittingly, the top five in this class is completed by another young German rider who is part of the Warendorf training system for the next generation of top-level competitors. And, like Anna Lena Schaaf, Emma Brüssau, who scored a 29.4, is mounted today aboard a mare that’s been her partner through some of the biggest milestones of her career so far in Dark Desire GS.

“I think this is our seventh or eighth season. I started Juniors with her when she was seven and I was seventeen, and now she’s 15 and I’m 25,” she says with a smile. “We grew up together, and that’s really nice.”

That means, she continues, that “I think we both know each other inside out. It’s just fun to ride her cross country and like getting into old shoes, you know? I don’t know  for how long she will be with me because she’s already fifteen, and she’s had a long time now in the competition life,  and so I just enjoy all the big competitions I can ride with her. I’m happy and grateful that I can ride at competitions like this, and I’m just happy that I have her.”

Today’s success, Emma says, came down to the mare’s rideability – something that was helped along, she says, by some well-time physio sessions for Dark Desire this week.

“She was so relaxed and so calm – sometimes she is a little bit uptight. But when she’s like today, and she feels that happy, then I can actually ride her in the test and then it works out better,” she says. “When she’s that little bit strong and tight, the changes are the most difficult ones. Today, I felt she was with me, and I actually could ride them, and that was really nice. When I did the second one, I was like, ‘wow! Both changes were alright today!’, and that’s a nice feeling, because a few years ago when I started at 4*,  always just one was good, or both were  bad. But now this season, both changes are working, so that’s really nice.”

Last year, the pair opted to make their five-star debut here rather than joining the majority of their compatriots in this class – and that experience, Emma explains, taught both of them a huge amount.

“When we walked the course last year, [the coaches] said, ‘you have to fight’. lt’s not like [an equitation class], where we try to go really nice, and get graded for that,” she laughs. “So I think I learned that I really have to fight sometimes, and it won’t always look nice, but you have to be brave.  Sure, four-star is high and big, but 5* is a different level. You can’t pull and push – and I’m the kind of rider who sometimes wants to add a stride in now and then! –  because that’s not possible at 5*. When there are four strides, you have to do four strides, because the jumps are too high!”

But, she continues, “it’s not only that – now I also know that she can do it, and that I can ride like this. I mean, it was not the perfect round, but we learned so much from it.”

Marten Boon and Gravin van Cantos. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

A duo of Belgians hold sixth and seventh place, giving the small, determined nation an excellent starting point for their big week ahead. Marten Boon and Gravin van Cantos scored a 29.8 to take sixth, while Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and the diminutive but powerful Formidable 62 posted a 30 for seventh.

“We had a fantastic year last year winning the Nation’s Cup,” says Marten, remarking on the Belgian team’s upswing of the last eighteen months, which saw them qualify a team outright for Paris at the European Championships. “I was at four of the Nation’s Cups, not always in the team, sometimes as reserve but it was really fun. We have a very good team spirit and that’s fantastic. Now, we need to continue it in Paris!”

Antonia Baumgart and Lamango. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Germany’s Antonia Baumgart is in eighth place overnight with Lamango, who was bred by fellow up-and-coming German rider Arne Bergendahl’s family. They posted 30.9 to put them ahead of France’s Benjamin Massie and Figaro Fonroy, ninth on 31.3, and Italy’s Giovanni Ugolotti and Florencina R, tenth on 31.6.

“It was incredible,” says the 24-year-old, who won a prep run at Strzegom’s CCI3*-S with the 14-year-old this spring en route to this big mid-season goal. “He just felt so concentrated – it’s always so difficult to ride in such an arena, and I’m so pleased with how he did his job. I’m so happy — normally we all hope for under 30, but it was a super good mark, and I think we can easily work with that. There’s two more phases to come, and I can really trust  him there. So I’m really looking forward to the next three days.”

Antonia, too, has a long and storied partnership with her horse: “I’ve had him since he was four, so ten years now! He’s like our family member, definitely. I have such a strong partnership with him, and I’ve got through so many things with him – two German championships with the Juniors and Young Riders, and the Young Rider Europeans, so really, it’s a long journey with him, and I’m so pleased to start with him here.”

The second half of this class’s first phase kicks off tomorrow morning at 8.15 a.m. (7.15 a.m. BST/2.15 a.m. EST), starting with Ireland’s Stephan Dubsky and Karla. We’ll see some serious heavy-hitters come forward tomorrow to fight for spots on their respective Olympic teams, including Sandra Auffarth and Viamant du Matz, Laura Collett and London 52, Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir, Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, Olympic gold medallist Julia Krajewski and up-and-comer Nickel 21, Astier Nicolas and Alertamalib’or, Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH, and plenty more besides – so tune in via Horse & Country TV to watch it all unfold, and join us tomorrow for our unpacking of the stories you need to know. We’ll be back soon with a report from this afternoon’s five-star; until then, Go Eventing!

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

EN’s coverage of the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials is brought to you by Kentucky Performance Products, your go-to source for science-backed nutritional support across all types of horses, disciplines, and needs. Click here to learn more about what KPP can do for your horse — thank you for supporting our wonderful sponsors!

Longines Luhmühlen: Website | Entries | Timetable | Live Scores | Tickets | Livestream | EN’s Coverage