Yesterday’s first dressage day at the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials was notable mostly for its harsh judging, with nobody across either the CCI4*-S or the feature CCI5* breaking into the 20s (and plenty, to their dismay, flirting – or entering into a committed relationship with – the 40s).
Today was more of the same, which in a funny sort of way is a good thing: the only thing more demoralising than judges who love the 6.5 button is judges who suddenly see the appeal of the 8 and 9 buttons on Friday afternoon, leaving everyone with an early draw languishing somewhere in the bottom half of the pack despite the actual merits of their performances.
Just one test in this morning’s CCI4*-S broke us out of our deep existential slump. That was the effort of last year’s Aachen and Boekelo champions (and German Olympic team members) Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Her 25.3 is the only sub-30 in the whole class, and puts her some 5-and-change points in the lead – a distance that can only really be summed up by this text that my friend got from her cheating ex-boyfriend after he abortively tried to FaceTime her ten times in a row last night:
Julia Krajewski to the rest of the field, everyone CCed in. (Name redacted to protect the deeply silly.)
Julia and Nickel will head into tomorrow’s cross-country effectively in their own separate class, though a super effort from New Zealand’s Clarke Johnstone and Rocket Man (30.5 and second overnight) came close to challenging her several times through the course of his test.
Her eleven-year-old stable star, Julia tells us, is only getting better and better.
“He felt he’s gotten quite a lot stronger since last year. Again, like every year, I think, ‘okay, maybe that’s the limit’. And the next time, he comes out and is 10% better,” she says. “Last year I couldn’t work him in dressage three days in a row because he would feel too weak in his back. And this year it’s possible to do more work without him getting tired in the top line. I think that’s a really good sign that you finally get the horse stronger, because he’s the most willing horse – he always tries to do well – and maybe he would try more than he could physically actually hold up to.”
Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“That’s why I’m really trying to protect him a bit and not go with his mind, but rather try to go with his body,” she continues. “Because the reason he’s done so much is because he’s got such a good mind, but he’s still a little bit weak-ish, body-wise. It’s why I’m not pushing too much. But I’m just so proud of him – he goes in and he just delivers, and then it’s about tiny things. I think I could have done a bit more here, a bit more there, but overall, if you know you can go into a dressage arena and produce something between very good and very, very good, what more can you ask for?”
Julia with Nickel and Bernd Heicke. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the change in Nickel’s name – formerly Nickel 21, he’s now Uelzener’s Nickel, which has prompted some murmurings about whether he might have been sold. But while Julia is delighted to welcome supporter’s Uelzener to her team – and it really does take a huge team of supporters to make competing at the top levels work out – she still rides the gelding for Prof. Bernd Heicke, who secured him for her after the Paris Olympics, when he was put on the market. And for Julia and Bernd alike, this is a special week: at 90 years old, the longtime supporter of Germany’s up-and-coming eventing riders has never yet been able to support his horse at a show, and today, it was plainly apparent that he was having the nicest day of anyone at Luhmühlen.
Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
This afternoon’s CCI5* dressage saw slightly more competitors break the 30 barrier, but none would rival Julia’s morning effort – not even the extraordinarily reliable Laura Collett and London 52, who produced a typically smart, expressive test but could only coax a 25.4 out of the ground jury.
“Only,” I hear you sigh. And hey: I’m with you on this. I once burst into tears because I got a 29. It never happened for me again. But for Laura and the sixteen-year-old ‘Dan’, it feels like a rather significant departure from the sub-20 scores they’ve received at the Paris Olympics, the 2022 World Championships, and very nearly right here at Luhmühlen, when they finished on their 20.3 dressage score to win in 2023.
When you’re working with such hard-to-impress judges, though, it’s all relative – and that 25.4 is still enough to put the pair firmly into the lead going into tomorrow’s cross-country.
“Look, he’s an absolute dream to ride, and he knows what he’s doing now, so it’s all about trusting the process and not getting too caught up in working too much,” says Laura. “I rode him this morning and he was very, very fresh, but I just trusted that he’s old enough to know what he’s doing now.”
He was, she admits, “on edge in there” – an extra bit of buzz and pizzazz that no doubt came from the ring announcers Beatlesmania-style introduction of the pair, which elicited enormous cheers of welcome from the crowd and had a gaggle of tiny German girls nearly in tears as they squeaked out wishes of good luck at their hero.
For many horses, that would have been game over, but even though Laura felt the Holsteiner absorb the energy, she was grinning as she made her entrance at A – because, she says, “it was quite an atmosphere, but he loves an atmosphere.”
While we didn’t see, perhaps, the very pinnacle of the pair’s expressiveness in the ring, it was inarguably the performance of the day, and thrusts Laura right back into prime position as she aims to regain her title. If she can, it’ll mean that Dan continues a remarkable streak that has seen him win every five-star he’s started: Pau in 2020, Badminton in 2022, and, of course, their last go at the level here two years ago.
But does Laura still feel the pressure, even with such an enviable record behind her?
“I’d love to say no, but yeah,” she says. “I came into this year saying that after last year, with the pressure [of the Olympics] that I just wanted to enjoy him and enjoy having him around and not having the pressure. But the closer we got to here, I was definitely feeling it, mainly just because I didn’t want to let him down. He deserves to win every event he goes to, so it’s my job to allow him to do that.”
“Obviously in Paris, he was perfect, so comparing it to perfection [is hard], but he still felt pretty good to me,” continues Laura, who only schools the gelding on the flat once a month in a dressage lesson these days. “Even when he’s on edge now, he remembers to listen and I know I can trust him – a few years ago, he wouldn’t have coped with being that on edge. It was a fine line. But now he knows to go in and do his job, so it makes my life a lot easier and I can just sit back and enjoy the ride.”
Laura also sits 13th going into cross-country with yesterday’s ride Hester, with whom she scored a 33.9.
Ros Canter and Izilot DHI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Also double-handed in this class is Ros Canter, who piloted last year’s dressage leader Izilot DHI to second place overnight and a score of 26.
Like Laura and Dan, Ros explains that she now feels more able to trust the process – and her horse – in the ring, something that’s particularly notable with the historically spooky and sharp ‘Isaac’.
“I feel like we’re much more secure with each other; he’s twelve years old now, and we’ve been together a long time, and so I think he’s trusting me a bit more – and I’m certainly trusting him a lot more,” she says. “I know his quirks inside out now, and I don’t let them bother me anymore, so I think it’s always about building that relationship.”
The numbers on the board aside – Isaac, too, is not a stranger to sub-20 scores in friendlier climes – Ros was pleased with the work she got from the gelding. But, she says, getting it right with him isn’t always something she can work out entirely by feel.
“I think the work was on a par for him, but he’s got quite a tricky neck to gauge, so I always have to rely on people watching me to tell me how it feels,” she says. “Sometimes he feels elastic and sometimes he doesn’t, and so [I don’t always know] until I go back and watch it. I knew the neck was good because they told me it was good! Sometimes it doesn’t feel that good – I’d love to have him a little bit lower and a little bit rounder, but when you have him in the place where you’d have another horse, he always looks overbent. So with him, I have to just have him a little bit more up and out than I maybe feel comfortable with.”
There were, Ros feels, some tiny marginal gains she could have eked out in the ring for a smattering of extra marks.
“I think I could always get more elasticity in the canter, and that’s kind of his weakness. He’s very comfortable in trot, and that’s quite unusual for the eventers – most horses do their best work in canter, and he’s more comfortable in trot. He’s much more elastic that way. So I think it’s just always getting that little bit more elasticity in the canter. At the moment, when I get that at home, it’s incredible, but sometimes I make a few mistakes, so today I kept it a bit safer in there.”
Ros’s first horse, the less experienced MHS Seventeen, sits twelfth on 33.5, making the match race between her and her teammate Laura a multilayered one this week.
Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Third place at this early stage goes to one of the most popular competitors of the day, and the first in the ring in today’s five-star competition. That was Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K, who are tackling their second five-star start after finishing fourth at Kentucky last spring.
“I just have this horse for five-star, and he’s thirteen now,” says Malin of her decision to contest this class, rather than the German National Championship CCI4*-S, en route to a bid for Europeans selection. “I was like, ‘the press is right – the Germans always ride at the Europeans or the Worlds, and they don’t ride five-star’. And then I thought, ‘he’s a five-star horse, and I want to ride that.’ I don’t know if I’ll ever get another horse like this again, and so for me, it was important to ride the five-star here, because I’ve never done it before. And if it’s a good enough result, then it’s good enough for [the Europeans]; if not, I’ll go to Maryland or to Kentucky or Badminton next year.”
They’re certainly off to a fine start: they put a 28.9 on the board to give us our first sub-30 in the competition.
“He was just awesome,” beams Malin. “I think he always needs a little bit of a crowd to be ‘on’, and now that he’s older I can really prepare something out of that so he’s just a bit more scopey [in his movement]. It was easy today to just leave him a little bit in front – he was perfect. He came in and was like ‘ooooooh!’ and I knew that if I just stayed cool and rode him, and kept my hands up in front so he could get up, that it would be a perfect feeling.”
Sam Lissington and Ricker Ridge Sooty. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Sitting equal third with Malin is New Zealand’s Sam Lissington, who comes to Luhmühlen off the back of a history making 1-2-3 in the CCI4*-L at Royal Jump in France. This week, she rides the fourteen-year-old Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ, with whom she finished twelfth at Pau last year on his debut at the level.
Their score today sees them add just a tenth of a penalty to the score they received on that occasion.
“He’s just so obedient and so easy to ride – like, you come out here and you don’t have a lot to do in the prep because he knows his job so well, and I know him so well,” says Sam. “So it’s more just making sure we’re both sharp enough, which is tricky finding that balance, isn’t it? You want them rideable enough, but then quick enough to be on your aids for the changes, particularly at that tricky point at A, so that was the thing that I was constantly playing with. I want him relaxed and easy and rideable, but not too rideable that I miss a change.”
Over and over again today, all of us on site kept having the same conversation: is scoring like this actually good for the sport? One rider I spoke with this afternoon made an interesting point about the scoring in sports like figure skating: something that keeps it buzzy and exciting and compelling for spectators is that when true greatness happens, nobody’s afraid to hand out a 10, and that means that aiming for perfection is actually achievable, whereas in our sport, we see a score of 20 as something of a pinnacle. But, the rider continued, a 20 is only an 8 – and an 8, in individual marking terms, is only ‘good’. Is ‘good’ the best we can offer our competitors and our spectators?
Sam – who wasn’t the aforementioned rider, for what it’s worth, agreed that the harsh and oftentimes inconsistent scores across the judges is “disheartening. I know I’ve watched some other tests that I think didn’t get the scores they probably deserved, and I think that’s tough on the riders. It’s tough on the owners, and it’s tough on the event as well.”
Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Fifth-placed Gemma Stevens was one rider who was hit hard by the numbers on the board. She and the very experienced – and often low-20s scoring – Jalapeno produced a very likable test, but the broad smile of pride in her horse disappeared from her face when she heard the announcement of her 29.4.
“It was honestly the best test she’s ever done,” says Gemma. “I’m thrilled with her, but I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. It’s her best work, and she’s earned 22s before. Her changes were on the button; she was soft over her back, up in the frame, her transitions were amazing. She didn’t make a mistake. She’s normally in the low 20s, and I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve [with the low marking]. What are they looking for in a horse?”
Piggy March and Halo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Her compatriot – and her lorrymate this week – Piggy March delivered her test just a few rides later with the smart little stallion Halo, and was similarly baffled to receive a 29.9, which slots her into seventh place overnight behind Austria’s Lea Siegl and Van Helsing P, on a 29.8.
“I’ve got no idea how they’re marking. I’ve seen Gemma’s work all morning and it’s been very, very smart, so it’s quite demotivating,” she says. “It’s nice when the judges see something good and give it a mark – there should be an 8 if something’s good. I know [the scores] will stay close this week, and that’s fine, but I’ve said it before: what are you training towards? What’s the standard? It inspires riders [if they understand the standard]. I’ve spoken to ground juries before to try to understand it, but I suppose dressage is marmite – they either like it or they don’t, but at this level, [the inconsistency between judges] isn’t good enough.”
With Halo, though, she was delighted: “I’ve got a cute little horse,” she says with a smile, “and I’m really interested to try and learn from the week. I’m really proud of him today; he felt cute, his brain was with me, and he tried really, really hard. There’s little bits where he’s certainly not the finished article, and in two years time, I think he’ll be another horse again – he’s definitely a championship horse. But he’s a little bit long, so he can trot very nicely, but he can push away with his hind leg out behind, so it’s about getting the hind leg under him and also not getting him too high [in the neck]. He’s so trainable, I can put the neck wherever I want to put the neck, and I think in the past I’ve sometimes had it too high, so we’re finding the balance.”
Kitty King and Vendredi Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Kitty King and Vendredi Biats were awarded a similarly confusing 31.2 to sit eighth overnight, ahead of day one leaders Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat and yesterday’s runners-up Aaron Millar and KEC Deakon.
Cosby Green and Highly Suspicious. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Cosby Green leads the way for the small but mighty North American contingent after a smart test with her second ride, the fifteen-year-old Highly Suspicious. They sit sixteenth on a 34.6, while her first ride, Jos UFO de Quidam, is 36th on a 39, and I promise you I will actually get a debrief with Cosby herself into one of these reports this week! I’m not ignoring you, Cosby, girl, you just need to stop doing tests right before Laura Collett, okay?
Mike Winter and El Mundo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Canada’s Mike Winter trended in the top ten for much of his test but ultimately stacked up just outside the top twenty in 22nd on 34.9 with El Mundo.
“In places I could have executed a little bit better, but he was there for me to give him the correct aids,” says Mike. “I think he was always on side the whole way; at the Olympics, he was a tiny bit tight going in, and maybe I was a bit tight going in as well, but I felt relaxed today and like we were in harmony.”
The experience of Paris and its enormous atmosphere was a useful education for the now-sixteen-year-old, he says.
“I think the more times he gets in front of bigger crowds, instead of shrinking into himself or maybe me doing the same, we start sort of puffing our chests out and trying to show off a little bit. This wouldn’t be, historically, my strongest phase. I’ve not had horses as talented as this one in this phase, and probably it’s about learning to make the most of a horse that I think essentially finds this phase easy. I love riding him – I love riding all horses, that’s why we do this, but he’s special.”
Allison Springer and No May Moon. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Allison Springer and No May Moon sit 25th on a 35.6 in the little mare’s five-star debut – a score that sits smack in the middle of the range of scores she’s tended to deliver at four-star, but Allison admits she’d hoped for something lower today.
“I didn’t realise I’d entered the arena late,” she laments of her costly early mistake. “And then I made an error in the medium canter, so I left some things on the table – but she did not. She did everything I asked her to do, and I’m super pleased with her. We’re nowhere near where we will be one day in the dressage arena, but I think she loves to compete, and she’s just top. I love her. She was quite spooky to begin with, but then she didn’t get more flustered when the crowd clapped – she just got to work, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Allison had actually intended for Kentucky to be the mare’s five-star debut, but a broken hand put her off games for long enough that qualifications became an issue, and they ultimately ran the CCI4*-S there instead, finishing fifth and securing the MER they needed to step up.
“I thought I’d do Kentucky five-star, and when they told me I wasn’t qualified, I didn’t want to chase for the qualification and add to her schedule,” she says. “I never really think about the next thing until I know she’s really ready and feels good, and actually, it was good for her to do the four-star there, because it’s a tough course. She felt so great there that we thought, ‘well, we might as well strike while the iron’s hot!’ I feel good about trying this on her – it’s a twisty course where you need a dirt bike of a horse.”
Tomorrow’s cross-country will start quite bruisingly early at 8.45 a.m. local time (7.45 a.m. BST/2.45 a.m. EST), and this time, it’s the CCI5* that kicks off proceedings. First out of the box will be Britain’s Aimee Penny and PSH Encore (38th on a 39.4), while the CCI4*-S will start with Ireland’s Patrick Whelan and Altitu (37th on 41.2) at 13.20 local time/12.20 BST/7.20 a.m. EST. As always, you can watch all the action on Horse&Country TV, and keep it locked onto EN for all the details of the day’s juiciest stories. Until then, you can find me at the beer tent, turning myself into a 90% pilsner cocktail. Auf wiedersehen!
The top ten after dressage in the CCI5*.
The top ten after dressage in the CCI4*-S.
Longines Luhmühlen CCI5* (Germany): [Website] [Entries] [Schedule] [Timing & Scoring] [H&C+ Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]
