Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The first day of dressage at Military Boekelo’s CCI4*-L, which incorporates the FEI Nations Cup finale, saw a whopping fifty horses and riders take to the main arena – but even with such a wealth of talent on show, truly exciting scores were hard to come by. It would take us until very nearly the lunch break to see a score sub-30; by the end of the day, we’d have just seven in the bag, and that first one – a 27, scored by Britain’s Sarah Bullimore and her eight-year-old homebred, Corimiro, would remain at the top of the table.
It’s a brilliant start to the competition for a few pretty compelling reasons: first, that it’s heartening to see Sarah back atop a leaderboard after a couple of seasons she’d probably rather forget, which have included time off for some of her best horses and a spiralling of form for her string leader, individual European bronze medallist Corouet. It’s also, in this competition that tends to be a stepping stone for the stars of the future, such a buzz to see a homebred young horse like Corimiro stepping up to the plate in Boekelo’s electric arena.
“He’s a lovely, lovely horse,” says Sarah, who bred the son of Amiro Z from her former team ride, Lilly Corinne, who is also Corouet’s dam. But Corimiro, she continues, “is probably the most similar to his mother [of all her progeny]. They all want to work, and they want to do a job, and so he can be a bit impetuous, like, ‘come on, let’s get on with it!’ But he’s beautiful to train, with a lovely mind, and it’s almost like the busier it is, the better he is.”
That much was evident with Corimiro came into the arena, with its myriad distractions, ringside bars, and cross-country fences, and immediately relaxed into himself.
“What I loved the most today was that if you were to ask him to stand quietly outside of the ring, he’d be like, ‘no, no way!’ But at the end of my test, in the ring, I halted, I saluted, the crowd cheered, I dropped my reins, and he just stood there, very still, until I said to walk on.”
That love for a bit of a buzz means that Corimiro is, Sarah admits with a laugh, “a bit of a nightmare at home! He lives out, and if he has to come into the stable for the night because we’re leaving for a competition early the next day, he barely sleeps because he can’t miss anything – he has to keep a look out over everything.”
A silver lining: Corimiro and Sarah Bullimore. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
When he gets to an event, though, after a fidgety, impatient journey over, “he has a walk around, because he likes to check out the surroundings and see where he is, and then he’s like, ‘I’m ready to go hang out in my stable now.’ He just loves it.”
Sarah was “chuffed to bits” with his work in the ring today, which came after a couple of seasons that saw both periods of time off and major successes. Those successes included a podium finish in the Six-Year-Old World Championships two years ago, and a surprising rejection for the British line-up at the Seven-Year-Old World Championships last year. Instead, though, he clocked up three autumn victories that season: two in OI classes at Little Downham and Kelsall Hill, the former of which was full of more experienced horses preparing for Boekelo or Pau runs, and a win in Montelibretti’s CCI3*-L. This season, his step up to four-star has seen him take tenth place in the prestigious CCI4*-S for eight- and nine-year-olds at Blenheim. It’s a lot to celebrate already – but the best is yet to come, across the phases.
“There’s more to come in the walk – right now, he gets a bit impatient in it, because he knows there’s canter coming, and he’s too intelligent not to anticipate that,” she says. “He’s like, ‘this walking – it’s boring!’ But he’s only eight, and he’s really not done a lot this year, but he loves to learn. And it’s so nice to have an exciting one for the future after a bit of a shit couple of years.”
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It’s been a bumper day for homebreds at Boekelo: in second place on 27.3, just three-tenths of a penalty behind the leaders, are another pair hoping to put a happier closing chapter on a tricky stretch of time.
In many ways, Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier is still on top of the world: she became her country’s first-ever five-star winner at Luhmühlen this spring, before heading to the Paris Olympics and leading her team to an exceptional fourth place finish. But the aftermath of those extraordinary moments hasn’t always been easy: first, she broke her collarbone while riding at her home event, Arville, scuppering her plans for a trip to Burghley with Hermione d’Arville. Then, the Belgian team’s Paris result hung in the balance after a positive drug test for one of her teammates. Finally, shockingly and heartbreakingly, Hermione died suddenly in the stables at Lignière a few weeks ago, leaving Lara and her tight-knit team and family bereft at the loss of a horse who was much more than just a competitive partner.
And so there were few smiles broader than hers when the second of her two eight-year-old rides today, Kiarado d’Arville, delivered his best-ever four-star result in his CCI4*-L debut.
“I’m not trying to go and win it,” she says, “but instead I’m here to try to enjoy my sport again, and my horses.”
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kiarado d’Arville. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
But, says Lara, who finished second here last year with stablemate Ducati d’Arville, “Kiarado is very special to me. He got a bit hot in there, with the wind and everything, so I got a bit anxious that maybe it’d be a tricky test. But then he goes in and he really shows that he’s been to [the Young Horse World Championships at] Le Lion d’Angers twice: he wants to try really hard for me, and he can cope with the atmosphere. He has it all, and so hopefully I can carry on producing him and bringing him up the levels.”
Last year’s Seven-Year-Old Vice World Champion Kiarado, like Lara’s five-star winner Hooney d’Arville, is out of Lara’s former Young Rider and World Championships mount Nooney Blue, and though they have different sires – Kiarado is by Diarado, while Hooney is by Vigo d’Arsouilles STX – they’re not wholly dissimilar in their brains.
“He’s a bit like Hooney, but actually, he can be more extravagant in his emotions,” says Lara. “Hooney would be more likely to keep it all to herself, and then suddenly, it’s too much. He’s more the type to ask me to hold his hand all the time, and if he gets in a panic, it can be tricky. But so far, when it’s important, he’s always been really good.”
Kiarado comes to this, his CCI4*-L debut, off the back of a win in the CCI4*-S at Strzegom.
“It wasn’t a big class like Blenheim, but there were some really good horses and riders there – and he made it feel really easy,” says Lara. “I didn’t go too fast; I just wanted to give him a nice run and that was good enough to win it. We had one pole in the showjumping – we were jumping out of the shadow and into the light, and we missed. When you’re coming back from a collarbone fracture and everyone’s telling you not to ride, and you miss at the first fence, it’s not a great feeling! But he was really good.”
Lara also sits 14th overnight with Quintus on a 32.1, and will ride the more experienced Formidable tomorrow as part of the Belgian team – because when is Lara not the busiest rider at any given competition?
Lea Siegl and Van Helsing P. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
She might not be on an eight-year-old homebred, but like the women ahead of her on the leaderboard, Austria’s Lea Siegl is hunting for redemption after a year of enormous ups and downs that began at Pau last year, where she suffered a crashing fall with top horse DSP Fighting Line. Not long after her recovery from her injuries, she sustained an early-spring broken leg, which required her to have a high-intensity operation, a metal plate put in above her ankle, and a period of time spent with her leg in an elevated sling.
But Lea, who was fifteenth at the Tokyo Olympics with ‘Fighty’, didn’t have time to be injured: she’d hoped to use Pau as her final qualifying result for Paris, and now, the spring season – and her chance to pin that last qualification down – was slipping away.
“The doctors told me I had to lie down for eight weeks, but there wasn’t enough time – so after the eight weeks, I went straight to Baborowko [CCI4*-L] having only ridden a few times beforehand,” says Lea. And those rides? All stirrupless.
“The doctors said I could try that, because stirrups would put a lot of pressure on the break. And that really just made me feel exhausted. It was quite intense, and the doctors were trying really hard.”
But her eyes were on the prize, and while she didn’t know how her leg would hold up to ten minutes of galloping, she made the trip and got the qualification. In Paris, though, all that work would come crumbling down: DSP Fighting Line was held, and then eliminated, at the first horse inspection.
“He was in great shape and feeling good, and he’s done an international since, but in Paris, that was just shit,” admits Lea, who plans to head to Pau again later on this month to rewrite her story there.
That, and this, are part of a broader plan to get herself back on top form: a chance to tackle big fences again, with horses she knows inside and out and trusts intrinsically, ahead of a long off-season of physio, strengthening, and rebuilding at the base she shares with her partner, Swiss five-star champion Felix Vogg. And her partner for this week will be a huge part of it: the fourteen-year-old Van Helsing P, with whom she sits third overnight on a score of 28.7, has been by her side from the start of his career, through the Young Rider European Championships in 2019, and at two Senior European Championships.
“Van Helsing was always the type who’d give 200% at a competition, and both he and DSP Fighting Line have really felt like they’ve looked after me since my injuries,” says Lea. “It’s like they know. And so I’m really happy to have him here this week, and in such good form. He’s much more relaxed now, and he can show more his potential than when he was a bit younger. He always wanted to try too hard — he wanted to be too nice. And now, he’s a bit calmer.”
Max Warburton and Monbeg Exclusive. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Great Britain’s Max Warburton very nearly stole the lead at the end of the day, but a blip in the flying changes meant he had to settle for equal third place overnight and a score of 28.7 with his Badminton mount, Monbeg Exclusive.
“It’s a shame, because the changes would usually be a pretty solid thing for him, but he was very, very good,” says Max of the thirteen-year-old, who he took on from Andrew Nicholson in 2022.
A calm, fluid test for the pair was offset by the horse’s palpable excitement as he exited the ring – a whirling dervish experience that Max is well used to by now.
“He’s always going, but normally he knows when it’s dressage and he behaves himself – then he comes out of the test and he’s like, ‘it’s cross-country!’,” he laughs.
Alex Hua Tian and Poseidons Admiral. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
China’s Alex Hua Tian rounds out the top five on a score of 29 with eleven-year-old Poseidons Admiral, winner of last year’s Asian Games and this summer’s Strzegom CC4*-L.
“He’s got a lot better with looking at things, and he’s growing up very quickly now,” says Alex. “Next year, I’m really hopeful that with all the work we’ve done this year, he’ll be quite reliable in the ring. He feels like a very exciting up-and-coming four-star horse – I say up-and-coming, because he’s still uber-careful.”
That carefulness, he continues, is at its peak in muddy conditions – and if there’s one defining feature of Boekelo this week, it’s definitely mud.
“I’m glad I ran him at Blair [in August], because I think that that taught me a lot about him, and I think he learned a lot as well,” he says. “The muddier it is, the higher he jumps, and he still needs a bit more time, a bit more experience to learn that he needs to save himself a little bit. So I think if we run this week, it’ll be a good experience for him again, to just try and be a little bit less extra.”
If they do get to run – patches of standing water notwithstanding – Alex plans to run him faster and more competitively than he did at Blair, where he took it steady and let the gelding learn over the tougher course and terrain.
“I think I’ll run him competitively, because I think he’s confident enough to have a crack, but at the same time managing expectations that if he tries too hard again at the beginning, I might just have to take the foot off the gas,” he says.
Calvin Böckmann and Altair de la Cense. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Germany’s Calvin Böckmann sits sixth overnight with his former Young Rider mount Altair de la Cense on a 29.4 – a score that was just slightly lowered by an extravagant spook on the A end of the arena – while Cosby Green is best of the US contingent so far in overnight eighth place with eight-year-old Cooley Seeing Magic, who produced a 29.9 in his CCI4*-L debut.
“I’m really happy with him,” says Cosby, who finished 34th with the gelding at last month’s Blenheim CCI4*-S, where he began his week scoring in the mid-30s. “He’s kind of been quietly produced, without running at many internationals, but it’s really just been all about establishing those fundamentals that he has, and that’s really come through whenever we need it.”
That approach – minimal internationals and more focus on low-pressure national-level runs – has been a tactic introduced to Cosby by her mentors Tim and Jonelle Price, the latter of whom she inherited the gelding from last year.
“I think it was maybe a week or two after coming to England, back in March last year — Jonelle just said, ‘get on this horse and go do a Novice’, and he was amazing. We’ve been best friends ever since.”
This weekend’s cross-country track will be “the biggest test he’s ever done — but he’s just dead obedient, and he’ll jump where I tell him to go. So I’m just going to attack the course and try to go as fast as I need to go to get over the size of the fence, and just listen to them. But I really have a lot of faith in our fitness program. I know he’s ready to take it on, and it’s going to be a huge askm but our partnership’s so good.”
Lauren Nicholson and Larcot Z. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Lauren Nicholson sits thirteenth on the second of her two rides, eleven-year-old Larcot Z, who was formerly produced by Reagan Lafleur and Will Coleman. The pair put a 32.1 on the board – a higher score than they’ve tended to produce, which Lauren didn’t feel reflected the quality of the Zangersheide’s work in the ring.
“I’m just always a little disappointed when the judges kind of won’t have an opinion — like, they kind of stick on 6.5,” says Lauren. “Either like it or don’t! It’s hard as riders – but he was very good; he’s young, and it’s the first time he’s really seen an atmosphere.”
Larcot is owned by birthday girl Jacqueline Mars and former campaigner Reagan, who she credits with putting a super base on him as a younger horse.
“I’m very, very lucky Reagan and Will had him before me, because I’ve really been able to hit the ground running since,” says Lauren. “I’ve had him about a year, and we’re still pretty new to each other. He’s got a plethora of nicknames from every stable he’s been in – I call him Huck Finn, because he’s very charming and handsome and not mean-spirited in the slightest — just a bit ornery!”
Since taking him on, she says, Larcot’s work has “gotten stronger and stronger and more connected, stronger and stronger behind – and he’s still got so much lift to gain still. We’re still getting to know each other; we’re just learning what he is and what he likes.”
For Lauren, her early-morning test with first ride I’ll Have Another was “a bit shite,” she laughs – but a class-leading score was never her aim today with the eleven-year-old Latvian Warmblood (Gaultjers x Kameja, by Cavalero), who she rides for Brandye Randermann.
Instead, she says, this trip – and this season – is all about exposing the gelding to the wider world.
“A lot of people don’t really know the story on him, and on paper it’s funny, because it’s like, ‘what is happening?!’” says Lauren, who sits 50th overnight with the gelding. “But this is actually the first season that I’ve really been able to train him.”
Lauren, who has piloted him throughout his eventing career – a career in just its third season – had long felt that there was a piece of the puzzle she couldn’t figure out with him. One day, she might get an impressive mid-20s score with him in a national class; the next time out, he might move up into the 30s or even the 40s.
“Late last summer, we found out with an MRI that he had a lot of neck issues – arthritis and chips and all sorts of things going on in there,” she says. “I’d been like, ‘well, I don’t usually make horses shut down; I’m generally pretty good on the flat’, and so that explained so much. And once we treated it, he’s been like a whole new horse since.”
“Thank god his owner Brandy is like, the most patient, lovely person. Between her and Christa Schmidt and Ms Mars, it’s so nice, because they’re all so horse-friendly. She believed me when I wanted to do an MRI, even though the X-rays didn’t show anything, and so we were so relieved to find something.”
Lauren Nicholson and I’ll Have Another. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
This is I’ll Have Another’s third CCI4*-L dressage test: he made his debut this year at Tryon in May, putting a 35.8 on the board and then retiring across the country. The next month, he and Lauren rallied on their reroute to Bromont, finishing fifth in that tough CCI4*-L after starting on a much-improved 32.8. Today, they rather plummeted back down to a 41.1 thanks to some tension and subsequent small mistakes, including a lead swap in the canter extension, but even early in the morning, Boekelo’s main arena provides a buzzy, distracting atmosphere, and one that’s an essential part of the gelding’s ongoing education.
And pushing through a slightly trying day on the flat? Well, that’s easier done when, as Lauren does, you believe in a horse this much.
“The test wasn’t as good as it should be, but I feel like I can work on it now – and he’s a good, old-fashioned, hot event horse,” she says. “I rate him as much as any horse I’ve ever had as far as cross-country goes, and I’m actually thrilled with the weather here, and all the rain, because he’s that kind of horse that’ll come through on a day nothing else gets around. He’s a real scrapper, and he really fights for the flags. He’s very green in a lot of ways, but in a lot of ways, I think both the horses I’ve got here will be better than anything I’ve ever had. One day, we’ll see that on paper!”
Boekelo, Lauren tells us, has been a crucial lynchpin in the development of almost all of her superstars’ careers.
“It’s always been very good for me – I brought Veronica here, and Bug [Vermiculus] did his first four long here, and Patrick [Landmarks Monte Carlo], and Meadowbrook’s Scarlett. So iIt’s worked well for us in the past!”
Olivia Dutton and Sea of Clouds. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Olivia Dutton and the ex-racehorse Sea of Clouds produced a sweet test for a 34.2 – pretty much bang-on their predicted score – to sit in twentieth place going into the second day of dressage.
“He tried really hard for me. I was maybe hoping for a little bit better of a score, but the changes were a little anticipated, so I think that’s where we lost some of the points. But he really tried hard for me, and did a pretty mistake-free test,” says Olivia, who took the ride on ‘Socsy’ on from her father, Phillip, in late 2022.
“We’ve actually had him since he was four years old. Our friends Graham and Anita had him as a racehorse, and they thought he would be better suited as an event horse — so it’s worked out very well for us, but it’s also extremely nice that my dad has himvery well-trained. The last few years we’ve really created a great partnership together, and he knows me very well, and I know him very well.”
Together, they’re embarking on their first venture abroad – and Olivia says there’s no horse she’d rather be doing it with.
“It’s really amazing, and I feel very lucky for this opportunity to even come here, and just to get this experience on this horse is really amazing. It’ll definitely be tough, but he’s a tough horse. He’s a racehorse, and I think that might benefit us a little bit. He’s very gritty and when it gets harder, he just gets tougher so hopefully it’ll work out for us!”
Alexa Gartenberg and Cooley Kildare. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Alexa Gartenberg begins her Boekelo debut in overnight 27th place on a score of 35.3 with the former Sharon White mount Cooley Kildare, with whom she’s been learning the ropes of life on the British eventing scene for the last couple of years.
“I was meant to come just for last year, and then I stayed for this year, and now I’m figuring out how to stay even longer,” admits Alexa, who’s been based with Australian Olympian Kevin McNab and his wife, Emma, throughout her sojourn in the UK.
Their guidance, and the stark differences of the UK scene, have all come together to help her prepare for this moment, she says.
“It’s definitely, like, experiences that you can’t get at home,” she says. “I mean, you can just go out here and see the footing here — I’m sure everyone that’s not familiar with this footing will obviously find it’ll take an extra toll on their horses. In England, you get this footing, you get hard footing – you’re ready for everything.”
Alexa and ‘Kili’ had only come together as a partnership six months or so before moving to the UK, and since then, Alexa says, the aim has been to get themselves mileage and confidence across the phases.
“It’s just getting us the miles at this level. He’s actually quite an insecure horse, and gets a bit nervous, I think because he just internalizes everything. If you, like, pet him and are just hanging out with him, you wouldn’t think he has a bother in the world. But I think it’s just because he just internalizes everything, so it’s just about growing his confidence and growing my confidence. But he’s a machine.”
Sophia Middlebrook and Prontissimo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Like Olivia Dutton, Sophia Middlebrook is making her European debut this week aboard the ten-year-old Baltic-bred Prontissimo, who she’s been learning the ropes at the upper levels with.
“I’m so lucky with him – he’s one of those horses who doesn’t think about an atmosphere, so my warm-up tends to translate into the arena,” says Sophia, who sits 33rd overnight on a 36.5. “He’s funny. He’s like, one of those sleeper agents: he’s so quiet, he’s like a kid’s horse, and then every now and then he turns on, like a little quicker, and you just don’t know when. But I mean, otherwise, I’m happy that he’s so reasonable. Really, a sweet, sweet kind horse.”
The opportunity to ride Prontissimo came through owner Christa Schmidt, who initially bought him to be her own competition horse.
“He’d done one two-star before she got him, so he was so quite green, and when he [was imported], he was just big and long and with no brakes and no steering. And so she was like, ‘I think he’s got more in him. Let’s just see take them as far as we can.’ I’m obviously so grateful to have had that opportunity – she’s so generous to me in letting me take my time with him, because it’s both of our first time [at the upper levels].”
Tomorrow sees a further 46 horses and riders take to the dressage arena, with 43 of those coming forward as members of Nations Cup teams. You can look at the times in full here, or catch tomorrow’s US riders at these times:
- 35 a.m. (8.35 a.m. BST/3.35 a.m. EST) – Mary Bess Davis and Imperio Magic
- 07 a.m. (10.07 a.m. BST/5.07 a.m. EST) – Cassie Sanger and Redfield Fyre
- 39 p.m. (11.39 a.m. BST/6.39 a.m. EST) – Hallie Coon and Cute Girl
- 11 p.m. (14.11 p.m. BST/9.11 a.m. EST) – Phillip Dutton and Possante
As usual, you can tune in to the live stream via ClipMyHorse.TV, and head on back to EN tomorrow afternoon for an in-depth look at everything that went down between the boards. Until then: Go Eventing!
The top ten after day one of dressage at Boekelo.
Military Boekelo Links: Website | Times & Live Scores | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage
