Classic Eventing Nation

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

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

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

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

Foreshortening the field slightly, two horses were withdrawn prior to the start of this morning’s final horse inspection, which was held before the ground jury of president James Rooney (IRL), Nikki Herbert (GBR), and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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Le Grand Complet: Website, Entries, Times & Scoring, EN’s Coverage, EN’s Twitter, EN’s Instagram

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Le Grand Complet: Website, Entries, Times & Scoring, EN’s Coverage, EN’s Twitter, EN’s Instagram

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time: Go Eventing!

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