Pia and Ben Leuwer. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
We can’t think of any other competition that has a revolving disco ball very nearly in the main arena, nor any where the arena-side DJs start their bass drops practically during the last centre line of the day – but for all its merry chaos, Military Boekelo’s CCIO4*-L also offers plenty of little moments of absolute calm.
One of those? The exceptionally sweet test delivered by Germany’s Pia Leuwer and the petite Jard, who hold the overnight lead on a score of 28.
Well, he’s petite when you’re standing next to him, anyway – but in the ring, the little blood horse has enough presence that he fills up the eye considerably more. The feeling from the saddle, Pia says, isn’t dissimilar – especially on a day like today, when all the puzzle pieces fall into place.
“I was saying to Anne-Kathrin [Pohlmeier, the German squad’s dressage trainer] that it felt like he breathed once, and then he was spot on – just only listening to me and trying to do his best. It was amazing – honestly, it was so much fun to ride him in there,” says Pia, who rides the gelding for Prof. Dr. Bernd Heicke, also the owner of Julia Krajewski’s Uelzener’s Nickel.
Pia Leuwer and Jard. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
33-year-old Pia, whose husband Ben is also competing here this week, has produced the Polish-bred Jard throughout his competitive career, but it’s in the last year or so that the now-thirteen-year-old has really started to consolidate at four-star after plenty of success at the lower international levels. That success didn’t always readily translate to this level, and even a year and a half ago, there were still some learning mistakes popping up, but a solid clear round here last year ushered in the dawn of a new Jard: one who’s entering his prime and ready to show off exactly what he can do. That much was made clear in the CCI4*-S at Hamm at the tail end of July, which the pair won.
Pia Leuwer and Jard. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
One phase at a time, though – and today, Team Leuwer has plenty to celebrate.
“Anne-Kathrin has really helped a lot in this phase for developing him, and I’m more than grateful for her – like, her calmness and her patient training,” says Pia. “So I think it’s a big, big benefit for us, and it’s developed him a lot. He grew and also he got stronger in his body, so he’s feeling more comfortable. And then I think it’s getting more and more easy to do these good tests. He has a lot of potential, sure, but to show this potential wasn’t always that easy.”
Part of the secret sauce of the new and improved Jard is simply an acceptance of who he is: “I know that on the first day he arrives at a show, he’s a little bit all over the place, and it’s okay,” says Pia. “So on the second day, I’ll ride him in the morning to stretch, do a few exercises, and see how he feels. Then we can usually do a 45 minute warm-up to help him settle in.”
Izzy Taylor and SBH Big Wall. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It feels like every time I sit down to write about Izzy Taylor’s SBH Big Wall he should be thirteen or fourteen, but he’s somehow ten all over again – but then, that’s the reward of having been steadily accruing mileage at this level over the last couple of seasons. He’s become part of the furniture of the British four-star scene, and in turn, there’s not a huge amount that impresses him – and now, reckons Izzy, it’s time to take the step from baby horse to the big leagues.
They’ve certainly begun the week in fine fettle where that objective is concerned; after posting a 28.5 this afternoon, the pair close out the first day of competition in a close second place.
“He’s a stronger horse now so he can carry himself, and I can allow him to do his job, as opposed to kind of protecting him and trying to make it a nice picture. Because he went four-star early on, I looked after him a lot, and now I’m able to say, ‘okay, Benny, here you go, you do this.’ And he’s now taking charge and is like, ‘hey, this is nice! Look at me!’,” says Izzy, who’s produced him throughout his competitive career.
That, she admits, can come with its own pitfalls too, though – and in SBH Big Wall’s case, she’s had to focus hard on not thinking of him as the green baby horse he once was.
“It’s lovely having them all the way through, because you end up knowing each other so well – but then, the flip side is also that you know each other so well,” she laughs. “You know the bad bits, and sometimes, you have to work hard to forget them. Because actually, he’s a grown-up now, and look what he can do.”
This week marks a third visit to Boekelo for the gelding, who made his CCI4*-L debut here in 2023 and returned last year, though didn’t run cross-country on that occasion. She’s also bringing forward a much less experienced horse in Barrington Alice, who steps up to CCI4*-L after having previously won the Six-Year-Old World Championships.
For both horses, the unique challenges of Boekelo present an unmissable learning opportunity.
“Boekelo, as we know, is mad,” she laughs. “You have to know your horses well to bring them here. They’ve got to have the brain for it. It’s not just the atmosphere or how busy it gets on course; it’s also silly things, like the stables being by the cross-country warm-up. So from 8 o’clock on Saturday morning through to late at night when all the drunk people have left, the horses are awake. That’s a lot for any horse, let alone a young horse. You leave having learnt a lot about them from a mental point of view, whereas a competition like Bramham helps you learn about them from a physical point of view.”
Robin Godel, Grandeur de Lully CH, and longtime owner and supporter (and Christmas tree farmer!) Jean-Jacques Funfschilling. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Switzerland’s Robin Godel heads into day two of Boekelo in provisional third place, having also put a 28.5 on the board – though a half-point difference in the judge’s good marks pushes him a hair below Izzy on the official standings.
Robin’s test came with the stalwart Grandeur de Lully CH, with whom he’s completed the Paris Olympics, the 2018 and 2022 World Championships, and the 2019, 2021, and 2023 European Championships – a seriously smart CV for a rider who’s just 27 years old.
Along the breadth of that impressive tandem career, Robin and Grandeur have notched up plenty of scores in the 20s, and so today’s result hardly comes as a surprise – but, Robin says, even with a horse of his experience, it’s all about managing the mindset.
“It was what I was hoping for, at least, so I’m very happy with him,” says Robin. “We know that he’s always very good in the dressage, but that’s he’s also always a bit spooky, so I have to be careful to make sure he’s with me – but he was great today.
“I always try to keep him motivated – that’s the most important thing with him. He’s not a hot horse, and so I always have to keep him [on the ball] in his head. That’s the most important thing with him, because with everything else, he really knows his job now.”
Robin Godel and Grandeur de Lully CH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
A month or two ago when nominated entries for the European Championships came out, it was a bit of a surprise to see Grandeur de Lully sidelined in favour of the less experienced Global DHI, and so this week, it’s great to see that he wasn’t benched from injury, but rather in the interest of tactics.
“The other horse has more blood, so for the cross-country at Blenheim, I knew that would be important – and he was very fast, even with a run-out and one ‘chicken’ route!” says Robin. “We know he’s not 100% like Grandeur yet; he’s not so experienced, so it was a bit of a bet and a gamble for us.”
But, he says, that was sort of the point: in a nonessential Europeans year, the upwardly mobile Swiss could finally use a Championship to develop strength in depth with a team of primarily young or ‘second string’ horses, rather than fighting to keep their heads above water at the level, as could often be the case just a few Olympic cycles ago.
“Because it wasn’t such an ‘important’ Europeans, because it doesn’t count for qualification for Los Angeles, we wanted to use it to try some new things. Next year and onward is going to be really important, but as a nation we really feel we’re going well, and we’re ready to battle for some medals. It’s a good feeling for us.”
Alex Hua Tian and Chapel House (formerly registered as Dicksgrove Heartbeat, which is A LOT TO TAKE IN REALLY, ISN’T IT). Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Alex Hua Tian is on a factfinding mission this week with the Sibon W son Chapel House, who’s a new addition to his string this year – but already, the fledgling partnership looks set to be a competitive one. Their score of 29.3 sees them hold fourth place overnight, and though they only have a few FEI starts under their belts together, they’ve posted sub-30s in all of them.
“I don’t know him very well yet – we’ve only run three times together, so we’re on a bit of an MER quest at the moment,” says Alex, who took the reins of the 11-year-old gelding from his close friend, Great Britain’s Sam Ecroyd, this spring. Sam had taken him on in early 2022 as a newly-minted two-star horse from Oliver Townend, and saw him through to his first four-star season last year, culminating in a fifth-place finish in the tough CCI4*-S at Little Downham – an event often used in preparation for a start at the Pau CCI5*.
“I’d always admired the horse – he’s a big, scopey type, very much my sort of horse,” says Alex. Since taking the reins, he’s had two successful starts at CCI3*-S and one at CCI4*-S, delivering steady getting-to-know-you clears at each. Now, as the rangy gelding’s CCI4*-L debut gets underway, he’s keen to dive deeper into his new ride’s psyche.
“He was a good boy [in his test],” he says. “He always goes in and tries, which is really good, and I think he’ll just go on and get better and better as we develop a partnership. He’s not a horse who gives a huge amount of feedback – he’s quite reserved in his personality, and what I’ve learned about him up to now is that you have to keep giving him confidence by giving him direction. He’s not a horse that you can train to do something and then leave him alone to get on with it – he wants you to be there with him, always saying ‘yep, just like that, that’s fine!’ That’s the same, I think, in the jumping phases.”
Now, he says, the plan is to continue getting to know another, with a longer-term goal of qualifying for next year’s World Championships and the Asian Games as a useful back-up.
“He’d be a very useful horse for all those events; Chicko is very much aiming towards the Worlds, and he’s a very reliable horse who could have a little bit more room for improvement on the flat, whereas this one would perhaps have a bit more scope on the flat, but I know him less well [in the jumping phases].”
Great Britain’s Max Warburton rounds out the top five overnight on the ten-year-old Holsteiner Coburg, putting up a 29.9 – a significant four-star personal best on the gelding’s third start at the level. This, too, is a pretty new partnership: he and Max made their first FEI start together in the middle of the 2024 season, and previous to that, we last saw him run in an FEI class back in 2022 with fellow countryman Tom Grant in the irons.
Karin Donckers and Leipheimer van’t Verahof. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
A particular treat today was the welcome return of Leipheimer Van’t Verahof, the Paris Olympics ride of Belgium’s Karin Donckers, who hasn’t competed in an FEI event in over a year after a duo of colic surgeries and a long, tough road to recovery. But you’d never have guessed from watching him in the ring today that he’s been absent for so long – instead, he was rust-free and as workmanlike as he’s ever been, lolloping sweetly through his work with a smile on his face. That smile was only to be eclipsed by Karin’s own as they completed their test, because as she tells me moments later, just being here is as good as winning the competition.
“This is what I’ve been telling everybody: if this one finishes a four-star long, that’ll be the biggest performance of the year for me,” she beams. “Of course, we’re not after the cross-country yet, and we haven’t done jumping yet, but after two colic operations, it is such a big moment to have him back at Boekelo.”
Karin Donckers and Leipheimer van’t Verahof. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Karin has long had a special relationship with the stallion, who is a full brother to her recently retired championship stalwart Fletcha van’t Verahof – though they probably couldn’t look more dissimilar. But in one important way, they evidently share some crucial DNA: both of the main men in Karin’s stable have a serious amount of heart, and no shortage of love for the game.
“I think he came back because he loves this,” she says. “It can be tough for a stallion to be motivated, but he loves it, and I really felt in the test that he gave the best of himself, better even than what we’ve had at home over the last few months. He’s come a long way to be back!”
The pair sit sixth overnight on a score of 30.4 – a smart start to a long-awaited, and very happy, comeback. That puts them on equal footing with Great Britain’s Willa Newton and the thirteen-year-old Hartacker, who’s also in the midst of a comeback season: he and Willa made their first FEI start together in April of this year after the former Izzy Taylor ride had nearly three years out of the spotlight.
Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and Top Job’s Jalisco also share sixth place on a 30.4, while Barnie Brotherton and DHI King Nelson (30.5) and Tom McEwen and the eight-year-old Quintus (30.8) hold ninth and tenth places, respectively, for Great Britain.
Hallie Coon and Kapriccio. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The first of our US representatives made an excellent start to her week this morning: Hallie Coon and new ride Kapriccio are 13th overnight with a smart score of 31 in just their second CCI4*-L together.
“I’m really pleased with him – he stayed relaxed in there, and I think there’s a lot more to build on with him,” says Hallie, who finished on the podium here twelve months ago with Cute Girl. “I pre-rode him this morning, and kept him relaxed, and then I brought him out literally eight minutes before our test, because I find that if he does a little bit too much in the warm-up, he can get a bit buzzy and tight. So we just wanted to keep it easy and breezy, and he was beautiful.”
Hallie has had the ride on the ten-year-old since just May of this year, after British-based Zimbabwe representative Julia Norman approached her about taking the reins. Since then, they’ve been steadily and successfully getting to know one another, culminating in a CCI4*-S step-up at Ballindenisk last month – an event where they very nearly notched up a top five finish, but for a man walking in front of one of the final fences on cross-country, forcing them off their line.
But, says Hallie, the important parts of the equation were all in place: though Kapriccio is a much more foreign type of horse than her usual light and fine top-level mares, she found in him a horse with fast reflexes and a huge helping of heart.
“He’s so genuine, and the quickness of his reactions gives me a lot of reassurance,” she says. “With the ground being so hard this summer, we haven’t had a tonne of runs together, but I’ve just been trying to take it slow and be really patient with him, and let it all build naturally – and, especially, just keeping it all consistent and relaxed in everything we do, because he can be a little bit buzzy in his head. So every run I’ve had on him has been brilliant so far, even if they haven’t necessarily been competitive runs, because we’re building. And so far, he tries really hard for me, and he feels like my friend. I really enjoy him.”
Tomorrow’s second day of dressage will begin with the final nine individual competitors, helmed by an exciting American pair: Chris Talley and FE Marco Polo will be first down the centre line at 9.00 a.m. local time (8.00 a.m. BST/3.00 a.m. EST), followed by Hong Kong’s first-ever Boekelo competitor, Yu Xuan Su and Ventura. We’ll also see the return of Hallie Coon, who’ll pilot Lucky Fortuna at 9.56 a.m. (8.56 a.m. BST/3.56 a.m. EST) and close out the individual rider list. Then, it’s teams until the bitter end: we’ll see New Zealand, Ireland, Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia put forward bids to capture the FEI Nations Cup series finale and the series title, currently held by Germany with a narrow lead over France.
We’ll be back tomorrow with plenty more news and updates from Military Boekelo. Until then: Go Eventing!
The top ten after day one of dressage at Military Boekelo.
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