Heather Reimer has been keeping Eventing Nation updated all weekend from Germany including sending us the German team announcement this morning. Many many thanks to Heather for sending us her Sunday recap from a great day of Luhmuhlen show jumping.
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[via FEI]
From Heather:
The horse inspection for the CIC3* took place at 9:00 CET and all horses were accepted without problems. Two weren’t presented: Piccadilly Z/Malin Petersen and Free Easy NRW/Simone Deitermann. In the CCI4* 3 horses had to go into the holding box, Oliver Cael/Kai Rüder, Godington Haarlem/Ruth Burnard and Nadeville Merze/Nicolas Wettstein. All three were accepted on the second inspection. However Kai Rüder withdrew Oliver Cael before the show jumping because during the warm up he didn’t feel 100% sound.
The CIC3* show jumping course proved to be a difficult course to ride and after the first 3 riders had all come in with time penalties the time was upped by 2 seconds. There seemed to be a lot of poles falling and at the end of the competition there were only 9 clear rounds in the time.
Michael Jung won the CIC3* and became German National champion after a clear round on Weidezaunprofi’s River of Joy. He rattled a couple of poles but managed to finish the competition with his dressage result and a 7.8 point lead. Sara Algotsson-Ostholt (SWE) riding her grey mare Wega moved up to 2nd place after an awesome clear round and a lovely smile for her husband who was the next one in the arena. Unfortunately the smile didn’t have the desired effect and Frank Ostholt’s ride Little Paint had two down and moved down 3 places to fifth and the bronze medal in the Championships. Ingrid Klimke and her 12 yr old gelding Tabasco went clear and moved up into third place, however she wasn’t so lucky with her Olympic horse Butts Abraxxus who had three poles and dropped down to 9th place. Niklas Lindback (SWE) went clear on Mister Pooh and moved up into 4th place and must now have a ticket for London.
The CCI4* show jumping started at 14:00 CET and Michael Jung had the chance to complete the Luhmühlen double! The course at first sight appeared easier to ride than the one in the morning but it soon became apparent that a lot of riders had problems finishing in the allowed time and at the end of the competition there were only 4 clear rounds in the time. Oliver Townend riding ODT Sonas Rovatio (7th place) was the only rider to finish the competition on his dressage result. A lot of poles fell and the excitement mounted as it got down to the top ten riders. Harry Mead dropped a place to 11th with 2 poles down and 1 time penalty, Wendy Schaeffer went clear and stayed in 9th position. Andreas Dibowski and FRH Butts Avedon went clear and moved up into 3rd place. Charlotte Agnew had one pole down and moved up into 5th place, Andrew Nicholson and Calico Joe also one pole and 4th place. Lucinda Fredericks had 1 time penalty and moved up to 2nd place and Andrew Hoy and Rutherglen after seeming to lose their way on the course had 3 poles down and 2 time penalties which meant 6th place for this pair. And then there was the final rider, he had one pole down but when you are leading by 9.2 this is not much of a problem. Michael Jung completed the Luhmühlen double and won the CCI4* riding Leopin FST.
It has been a great week end of eventing and I hope all have enjoyed reading the updates and or course the live ticker on @luhmuehlen2012. Looking forward to Aachen and of course London 2012!
