Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
In every generation of event horses, one or two stand out as the sort of athletes and personalities that will leave an outsized hoofprint; a legacy that lasts well beyond the years they actually spend in the spotlight. They are the Murphy Himselfs, the Charismas, the La Biosthetique Sams: and in this generation, the horses who stepped up to the top level of the sport in those halcyon couple of seasons just prior to the pandemic, the outsize star is London 52.
There’s been something faintly bittersweet in watching the Laura Collett and London 52 vs Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH match race this week at the European Championships: though both horses look at their very peak, the former is now sixteen and the latter seventeen, and there are only seasons remaining ahead of them: even with luck and the very best of management, it feels too optimistic to suppose that either will still be competing when the LA Olympics rolls around in 2028.
But then, perhaps that’s what makes it feel even more special when we get to enjoy them on their finest form, nose to nose to the wire, delivering the kind of first phase scores that only the other can rival and fighting, fighting, fighting for every tiny margin on the leaderboard.
This is modern eventing, as it exists right now: extraordinarily well-trained horses who can slip sub-20 and can run and jump and dig deep, and still come out and jump clear on the final day. This is where the die has been cast; these are the two horses of their age group who have shaped it into what it is. In many ways, that’s made this week – a week that’s seen power wrested back and forth between them – feel like a choreographed demonstration of the idylls of the top of the sport.
Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Both horses have shone this week; both riders, similarly, have excelled themselves. But as the 2025 Agria FEI European Eventing Championships draws to a close, it’s Great Britain’s Laura Collett and London 52 who take home the gold medal, amid a flurry of Union Jacks and roaring screams of support and tears; everywhere, tears.
Look, here’s the thing: we can wax lyrical about London 52 all day long. We can talk about how he throws down 17s in the first phase like it’s an easy and normal thing to do. We can talk about how every question mark that’s been raised over his head on cross-country day – and yes, there have been many, and yes, we remember his rollercoaster 2019 season – has been summarily dispelled. We can talk about those three five-star wins. We can talk about how he looks like a little girl closed her eyes and wished with all her might that her Breyer model horse might come to life and be a real, living, breathing dream horse, and there he was. We can do this! We have this in us.
But wouldn’t it be a shame not to take a moment to consider Laura? If London 52 is the horse that little girl wished for, Laura is the woman that little girl is wishing she could be some day. That’s not just because she’s won Pau, Luhmühlen, and Badminton (all with #1 Barbie Dream Horse, of course); it’s not necessarily because she’s been a gold medallist at Pony, Junior, Young Rider, and Senior levels; it’s not even because she fought her way back from a terrible accident in 2011 that could have ended her career and, if she hadn’t been just a bit lucky, her life.
The individual medallists of the Blenheim European Championships. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Really, it’s because she’s the proof that there are options out there for hungry young riders who don’t have backing but do have determination. From her earliest competitive experiences in the showing ring, she worked for her opportunities, pitching up in the wee hours at producers’ yards to catch-ride their ponies. After she swapped over to eventing and began to make her way through the youth programmes, she never did so on horses or ponies that were bought for her for vast sums: she rode, and rode, and rode some more, and learned to produce good horses – and, crucially, how to manage the business of selling them on to keep the whole show on the road. The sale of her excellent pony, Noble Springbok, who she’d bought as a cheap five-year-old who was being sold in a job lot, was enough to allow her to purchase several prospects, one of which she produced to Badminton. That’s been the recipe that’s kept on propelling her further and further along, giving her the opportunity to take part in British teams across the age levels, and putting down the foundation of a functional business that quickly began to attract owners and supporters. Even now, Laura hasn’t slowed down: alongside running a string of horses across the levels from her Cotswolds base, she also works with several top racehorse trainers, helping to produce their stable stars over fences. She never stops, never slows down – and refreshingly, that’s not because of hustle culture, or the relentless churn of the industry machine. It’s because all she wants to do is be in the saddle, all day, every day.
And now she’s the European Champion, and can add her first senior individual title to her extraordinary list of accolades.
Laura Collett celebrates with the ecstatic home front of supporters. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted this,” she says. “Mainly for the horse, because I feel sometimes I’ve let him down – but now he’s finally got the championship he deserves.”
Laura and London began their campaign in second place, putting a smart score of 20.6 on the board on Friday, which was swiftly bested by Michi and Chipmunk’s 18.3. In yesterday’s influential cross-country phase, which saw the British team fall out of contention entirely, she regained the top spot, delivering the second-fastest round of the day to add just 6 time penalties, while Michi and Chipmunk, with his rounder stride pattern, added 10.
That meant, though, that Laura and ‘Dan’, who she rides for longtime supporters Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett, had just 1.7 penalties in hand coming into today’s showjumping: enough to add a few seconds on the clock, but nothing more.
Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
As the morning’s session of showjumping unfolded, it became clear that as in yesterday’s cross-country, the time was going to be a significant factor. (“Shall we have a whip round to buy Blenheim a new measuring wheel? Theirs obviously has something wrong with it,” murmured a fellow journalist in the media centre.) And when overnight third-placed Tom McEwen and JL Dublin added nothing to their scorecard with their clear round, and second-placed Michi and Chip did the same, despite the horse’s tendency to a rail, the pressure was well and truly on. Nothing, it was clear, was going to be handed to Laura this week.
But when has Laura ever needed handouts? She and London 52 took their time, found their rhythm, and neatly picked their way around the long course with its series of turnbacks, and as they jumped the last safe, clear, and just a fraction of a second over the time, the grandstands erupted.
So did Laura. She cantered around the arena breathlessly, pointing at the horse beneath her, wide-eyed and crying before she pulled him down to a trot and collapsed onto his neck, whispering her gratitude into his mane.
The golden girl: Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“This is for him, it’s all him,” she says, those tears still flowing. “There are no words to explain what this horse means to me. I said when he won my first five-star in Pau in 2020 that if he never wins anything again, he’s done more than I can ever dream of. What he’s done more in those five years is just a dream – I’d say dreams come true, but I didn’t even dream this.”
This week isn’t the first time we’ve seen the London 52 and fischerChipmunk match race in action: at the last Europeans in 2023, Michael had a shock fall on course while Laura picked up a flag penalty, so neither walked away with individual honours, and more recently, at the Paris Olympics, it was a rail down for Laura that decided the individual gold in favour of Michi.
Redemption, it turns out, tastes sweeter than revenge.
“This tops everything. I came so close in Paris last year, and to come back and have another head to head with Michi — it’s what makes this sport so special. These horses are so unbelievably special to keep coming back and producing the results they do, time and time again. It’s unreal – and extra special to be at a home championships, a local event for me. To be sat on a horse like him and for him to come up with the goods in all three phases, it’s just wow.”
Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Michi, for his part, was happy to settle for silver – because he, too, also got to take a gold medal home for his collection. The German team handily won today, despite three rails for Libussa Lubbeke and Caramia 34, 26th, and a rail apiece for Jérôme Robiné and Black Ice (8th) and Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K (11th), who also picked up 2.8 time penalties after turning the wrong way after fence 9. The screams of the crowd alerted her to her mistake and she quickly wheeled the leggy grey back around to the next fence, jumping clear thereafter despite a great rattle of chatter throughout the stands as the audience discussed what had just happened.
They had those rails to play with, though, and more: Germany began the day with a nine-rail advantage over Ireland, and a couple of rails down across the Irish effort widened the gulf a bit more.
Their victory this week is an exciting testament to the strength in depth that the country boasts, thanks in large part to its Warendorf training system for young professionals, at which team members Jérôme Robiné and Libussa Lubbeke, and individual competitor Calvin Böckmann, are based.
“It’s been a really good day and a great week, I’m really happy,” says Michael. “FischerChipmunk was amazing in the dressage and cross-country, and also the showjumping. It’s amazing to have such a nice horse to ride, and compete at nearly every championship. It’s really not normal.”
Winning on English soil might mean the most to the home riders, but for Michi, there’s a special bit of magic in it, too.
“I think England is a very big country in the eventing sport – it’s a very strong nation, and when I was young I always watched videos of people competing at Badminton and Burghley and all these big nations,” he says. “And so we dreamed we could come here and get a gold medal, and we prepared this thing from the first rider to the last rider.”
It is, he says, a heartening victory ahead of next year’s World Championships, which will take place in Germany at CHIO Aachen.
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom McEwen’s clear round with JL Dublin earned him the individual bronze medal, which means that the two Brits remaining in the competition after yesterday’s tough day in the office each earned their country its plaudits at the end of the day.
“We are competitive by nature, and we all have amazing horses and we all believe our own is the best,” says Tom. “Dubs has done phenomenally well; he couldn’t have done any better and was just beaten by two better horses, possibly two of the greatest horses in our sport.
“After a week that hasn’t been our own, to come home with two medals is absolutely fantastic. We came as a [squad of] six and we leave as a six and it’s team spirit all the way. I’m delighted for Laura.”
Calvin Böckmann and The Phantom of the Opera. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The individual top five actually remains wholly unchanged after cross-country: German individuals Calvin Böckmann and The Phantom of the Opera, who delivered the fastest round on course yesterday, jumped a faultless clear, as did Austria’s Lea Siegl and Van Helsing P, which meant that both finished on a score of 36.5 – but as Calvin had finished closer to the optimum time yesterday, the tiebreak worked in his favour and he took fourth place, while Lea took fifth.
“I’m slowly starting to realise what an amazing result this is, and what this horse has given me,” says Calvin. “I mean, it’s Laura, and Michi, and Tom, and then there’s Calvin and Phanty – it just means the world to me. It’s not just Phanty, it’s the whole team, too, and my family who have pushed me to where I am and always supported me – I’m so grateful to all of them.”
Lea Siegl and Van Helsing P. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
For Lea, fifth place isn’t just the culmination of an incredible week of performances – it’s many, many years of crafting the building blocks to succeed despite a limited pool of national support. Her fifth place finish here is the best championship result ever recorded for an Austrian rider, and now, she says, she hopes that it will bolster other young riders to fight for their goals.
“It’s a dream come true to finish in the top five in a championship – it’s amazing,” she says. “It’s not something you achieve in a year – it takes a lot of time, a lot of work, and a lot of people, and I’m so thankful for everyone who has been involved.”
Alexis Goury and Je’Vall. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
France’s Alexis Goury stormed to sixth place after a faultless round with Je’Vall, finishing the best of his countrymen and helping to secure the bronze team medal – a medal that they earned when Switzerland lost their small overnight margin with a spate of rails across the team. While it will feel in the moment like a desperate blow to come so close to a medal – something the Swiss haven’t managed since 1981 – and lose it on the final day, from the outside, it’s been a hugely heartening week: the six-year upward trajectory that the Swiss riders have been on is laying roots, and with some minor finetuning and a bit of luck, they can now consider themselves podium contenders at championship level.
And as for the young, hungry team of Frenchman, they celebrated making their mark on the competition in the Frenchest possible way: by delaying the prize giving by a good five minutes so they could offer bisous to every single other rider lining up for the podium. Air kiss, air kiss, everywhere: “please, please can you take your place on the podium,” pleaded the announcer, and still they kissed away. Fantastique.
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Belgium, also on an upward trajectory over the last number of years, had a stumbling block sort of weekend with just two riders completing – but one of them, Lara de Liedekerke-Meier, gave national morale a boost in finishing seventh with her homebred Hooney d’Arville, who rolled a single, rare rail to drop one placing.
Also dropping one rail was Jérôme Robiné, who finished eighth with Black Ice, while ninth and a clear round went to France’s Benjamin Massie and Figaro Fonroy, who have quietly been climbing up the leaderboard throughout the week. Tenth went to Switzerland’s Mélody Johner, who had two frustrating rails aboard the green but exciting Erin, who she’s taken on from Swiss cross-country coach Andrew Nicholson.
The silver medal winning Irish team. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Though no Irish rider would make it into the individual top ten, they did come close: Padraig McCarthy and Pomp N Circumstance finished 12th with a clear round, while Ian Cassells and Millridge Atlantis had one expensive rail and 2.8 time penalties to drop to 14th. Robbie Kearns and Chance Encounter also tipped one rail to finish 18th, while individual competitor Sarah Ennis took 15th with a one-rail round with Dourough Ferro Class Act. Collectively, the Irish effort meant that the team took a heartening silver medal – the first team medal at a Europeans for the country since the early 1990s, and proof that over a tough cross-country course, they have everything it takes to rise to the fore. Even more bolstering? Both Padraig and Sarah, experienced championship competitors in their own right, rode inexperienced horses, while individual competitor Susie Berry and new faces Ian and Robbie represent a next-generation string of talent.
And as for the rest of the Brits? Don’t expect them to be down for long.
“Yesterday, we had blips, but everything goes in cycles and at some point, the bubble was going to burst,” says chef d’equip Dicky Waygood. “But every one of them gave it a shot, and so you’ve got to pat them on the back for giving it that shot [and riding positively]. If it had come off, they’d have been heroes. Every single one of them went out there and was good and competitive on their time, and there are blips we can work on, but it’s the attitude of giving it a shot that’s the absolute ingredient of winners.”
We’ll be bringing you more insights over the coming days into what the 2025 European Eventing Championships, and all its plot twists and scaffolding, means for the bigger picture of the sport, but for now, that’s it from us here at EN. We’re off to wish on some stars that we can be like Laura Collett when (if) we grow up. Until next time: Go Eventing!
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