Photo courtesy of Haras du Pin.
With one eye on Paris, the cross country at the Europeans takes on even more significance perhaps than usual – the course designer at Haras du Pin, France’s Pierre Le Goupil will also be designing the Olympic cross country test next year, so not only are the teams fighting it out for European titles, but this is also a valuable fact-finding mission in terms of sussing out the je ne sais quoi of Pierre’s tracks.
But right now, we’re well and truly focused on the European Championships and the 4*-L course that’s sure to be hugely influential in this very exciting competition.
There are 29 numbered fences with 40 jumping efforts. The optimum time is 10 minutes and 14 seconds. There are hills, twists, turns, undulations – and enormous jumps. The first combination comes at 7abc – the first water with a big step that’s giving the current World Champion Yas Ingham “Burghley Leaf Pit vibes”. There are eight combination fences on course which are equally distributed between doubles and trebles. The final combination comes two from home, so riders will have to be on the ball right to the end if they want to avoid picking up any late penalties.
On top of all that, we find ourselves at another event where the ground is dominating the conversations surrounding cross country. Although the first day of dressage took place in glorious sunshine, the weather leading up to the event has been as wet as, well, Britain, and the rain returned on Friday for the afternoon session of dressage. More rain is forecast overnight and into Saturday morning, although it should ease off by the time the first rider sets out on course – let’s keep our fingers crossed. So, it’s fair to say, the ground out on the cross country is holding – there’ll be a lot of stamina needed, and a very fit horse.
The first rider will leave the start box at midday local time – that’s 6am EST / 11am BST – when Sarah Ennis will get Ireland’s campaign underway with Grantstown Jackson.
Belgium’s Cyril Gavrilovic and Elmundo De Gasco head out second, and will be hoping to get off to a secure start in their team campaign for Olympic qualification – the top two as-yet-unqualified teams here this week will book their places for Paris next year.
Third to go is Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K – who’ll be pathfinding for Germany’s bid for European Gold.
Hoping for a home podium place, team France’s Stephane Landois gets going at 12:28pm / 6:28am EST / 11:28am BST with Ride for Thaïs Chaman Dumontceau, who’s riding in honor and memory of his friend, and Chaman Dumontceau’s previous jockey, Thaïs Meheust.
Reigning champs Great Britain are penultimate in the team rotation – Kitty King and Vendredi Biats will get Team GB’s hopes of retaining the title underway at 12:32pm / 6:32am EST / 11:32am BST.
You can watch all of the action on ClipMyHorse.TV (subscription required). Don’t forget to follow EN too – we’ll be bringing you all the insanity in the middle you could possibly need, with Tilly Berendt on site in France and a full team behind the scenes.
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Michael Jung is in the lead with FischerChipmunk FRH going into cross country. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH (GER*) – 19.4 – 1st
Leading after the dressage, Michael Jung is just one of the riders talking about the first water complex at 7abc.
“I think it’s a tough course, but it’s a nice course; it’s a good challenge for the European Championship, but it depends a bit on the ground. The first water is always the first challenge. It’s a tough combination with the big drop before as well. But I think it’s really nicely built, I think the mix is very good, and you have always in between the combinations a single fence to get confidence back. Hopefully, we’ll have good ground tomorrow.”
Badminton winners Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo are just under two points behind the dressage leaders. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo (GBR*) – 21.3 – 2nd
The ground is something that’s on all the riders’ minds, although the Brits have had a fair bit of wet weather practice already this season.
“It’s something that the Brits have had to cope with a lot this year, and so we’ve almost been able to override the talk on the ground and things like that. We’ve ridden in this going so many times that hopefully, we can stay in our own bubble and concentrate on our job. We’ve been very positive as a team so far about the course — our course walks have been extremely positive. There hasn’t been too much talk about the things we don’t like, or the ground that we don’t like, and I think that’s really good for team spirit. We feel prepared for the ground, and our course walks have been very positive, so we’ve got good team morale going into tomorrow.
I think the first water, obviously, is a very, very big drop in, so it’ll be interesting to see how they read that. And with Walter [Lordships Graffalo], we are still coming across questions that he hasn’t come across before because of his age [he’s an eleven-year-old], even though he’s done what he’s done already [like, winning Badminton and coming fourth at the World Championships!].
He tends to drift a bit more to the right, so little things like that, certainly, for my personal self, I have to walk the course very much thinking of Walter.
I think it’s more the undulations, the twists and turns that are going to create the challenges at the jumps. It looks very much like a short format, but obviously, you’ve got the length added on to it as well. So it will be mentally and physically quite challenging for the horses and I think that’s where the questions are going to lie. It’s like short format because of the twists and turns, and there aren’t many really long gallops like you’d get, say, at Badminton. There’s probably three where you’ve got a bit of breathing space to actually get down on the next and get the speed up. But when you think, the first three fences are basically on a 360 to a 180, it’s going to be very hard at the start of the course to get into the speed that you really want to be in – sSo I think it’s highly likely that by minute one, you are going to be down on the clock and then there’s going to be ground to make up, so I think it just depends on on if you can claw it back and stay inside the flags.”
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin (GBR) – 22 – 3rd
“I think whether we do have rain or not, it’s soft. I think a lot of it will be made, timewise, in the first few minutes, if I’m really honest. It’s a tough loop, and then you can get into a rhythm.
I think they’ve built a beautiful track – not what I was expecting, but a stunning track. If I wasn’t riding, I’d be quite happy to go and walk around the whole course!
We’ll have to be on it the whole way around. I mean, the corner into water doesn’t happen too often. There’s so many questions out there that you just need to stay on your game, feel where you’re going, and judge where you’re at.”
Laura Collett’s hoping the rain holds off and the umbrellas stay tucked away as London 52’s not too keen on them. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Laura Collett and London 52 (GBR*) – 22.4 – 4th
“I think it’s a proper, proper track, and more like a five-star than a four-star championship track. Dimensionally it’s very big and square – every fence is a big jumping effort. There’s no real letup for the horses, energy wise, and obviously the ground is going to play a massive part with the hills. It’s probably not what we were all expecting – coming to France, you’re expecting a twisty track, with lots of skinnies and arrowheads and angles, but it’s more like a Bramham or a Bicton [UK 4*s]. Hopefully our horses are used to those types of tracks and we can go out and do a good job.
From start to finish you’re going to have to be on your A game. The first water’s a serious test and comes very early, and with a twist – round and round – so you feel like you’re on a roller coaster, which might just confuse the horses a little bit, and never actually get going. So that’s going to be our job – to make sure they’re switched on.
The rain is going to have a huge effect. When we arrived here, the ground was seriously soft. It’s been dry all week, and we were hoping that it would continue to dry and we might have been okay. [Spoiler alert: it’s rained.] But I think it’s going to be a serious factor.”
World Champions Yas Ingham and Banzai du Loir did their dressage in the glorious sunshine on Thursday. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir (GBR*) – 23.4 – 5th
“It’s a very interesting track – well-built and beautifully presented – so I’m really looking forward to riding round it. There are some serious questions and I think the ground is the same sort of ground we’ve been dealing with in England – they’ve had a lot of rain here so I’m really hoping that the next few days of dry weather will help with that.
I think there are questions throughout the whole course – which, obviously, at a Championship is what we expect. You definitely get a big shocker at fence 7! You’re jumping off quite a large step – sort of a Burghley Leaf Pit vibe – and then you’re rolling down the hill to quite a large drop into the water, on a nice distance to the skinny in the water. That’s quite an intense part of the course very early on. Once we get that behind us, we can really get going and get into a rhythm.
Pratoni [where Yasmin and Banzai du Loir became World Champions last year] was very, very undulating and twisty. I think this track brings similar sort of vibes to that. It’s undulating and twisty, but it’s very big and bold out there. There’s lots of quite big ditches and brushes and everything dimensionally is quite big, so I’m very lucky to be sat on an excellent jumping horse. That is definitely a good thing!”
Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift haven’t had a cross country penalty since 2019 – fingers crossed their form continues! Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift (GBR) – 25.7 – 6th
“I’m excited! I think it’s a really good course – I think it really suits him [Capels Hollow Drift], and his way of going. The ground is going to be a big factor, but it’s given me a bit of confidence knowing that he dealt with that quite well at Badminton earlier in the year.
I think the problems are generally quite spread out throughout the track – I think we’re going have to be careful with tired horses towards the end of the course – so that always means that anything is a factor, especially if this rain keeps going.” [It has.]
Kitty King and Vendredi Biats (GBR*) – 27.2 – 9th
“I’ve got a job to do going first for the team, and hopefully I’ll put in a good score to get us going and fill them with confidence.
It’s going to be a tough track. It’s very twisty and hilly and the ground’s obviously fairly soft, so it’s going to be a good stamina test, and there’s lots of questions right to the very end so you’re going to have to stay on your game. I’d say it’s kind of a cross between a Bramham and a Luhmühlen – Bramham dimensions and terrain and Luhmühlen twistiness. Froggy’s [Vendredi Biats, as he’s known to his buddies] done well at both [winning Bramham in 2019 and taking second at Luhmuhlen this season] so I’m hoping that will set us in good stead. It’s a great track and I’m looking forward to Saturday.”
Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S round out the top 10 going into cross country. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S (GER*) – 28.3 – 10th
“The course looks big – I think it’s a really proper test. So far it looks like we are now becoming more and more lucky with the weather, so the ground might be drying a little bit [this was earlier in the week – it took a downturn on Friday with a fair bit of rain falling]. That would make life much easier for the horses, but it’s still going to be very demanding on the fitness side with the hills and some big jumps – even until the end you have a good top spread. You have a proper cross country test on Saturday.”
He’s another rider who’s noted that fence 7abc is particularly tricky: “The first water is coming quite early in the course and it looks very big to me. Also, the step going downhill before the first water – I know that some horses had some issues there last year. If you can get through there, then it becomes more rhythmic with more flowing lines, and you also have more gallop stretches, but until the first water it’s going to be hard work keeping the horses focused.”
Andy Heffernan and Gideon (NED*) – 29 – 15th
As well as going as pathfinder for the Netherlands, Andy is also coach to the team, so he had two hats on (so to speak) when he walked the course.
“I love the track, actually. That’s the first thing – everybody, I think, is quite quick to be negative. I think it’s a really super championship track. I actually work in the UK with [course builders] Dom Moore and Jump 1 and they have done the job that I expected them to do, which is fantastic. Pierre has done an amazing job as a designer and he’s come up with some really unique and fun ideas. If you have a good ride ‘round it, it will be fun.
My concern is that it’s quite hilly and, although the weather is quite pleasant now, I think the damage to the ground has already been done and I don’t think it will dry out, so I think it’s going to ride quite holding and be tiring.”
Giovanni Ugolotti and Swirly Temptress (ITA*) – 30.6 – 18th
“She’s [Swirly Temptress] a very bold mare, but she’s probably never been to such an undulating kind of course. I think I need to be quite careful not to set off too quick and just see where we are after five or six minutes and then decide if I actually go a bit slower or a bit faster.”
Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K (GER*) – 31.5 – 20th=
And how does the European Championships track compare to last year’s Haras du Pin Nations Cup course?
Malin and Carlitos Quidditch K finished just outside the top 10 here last year and remembers the notorious first water well: “The first water [fence 7abc] was really tough then, and I think it’s the same this year.”
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hermione d’Arville are hoping to help secure Team Belgium their Olympic spot this weekend. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hermione D’Arville (BEL*) – 31.9 – 24th
“I like the course because it’s really attacking. You really feel that it’s clear for the horses, there’s no nasty corner or angles to tricky things – I think it’s just really straightforward. But you need stamina; you need fit horses. I think the ground’s going to be quite loose – the sun is shining [it was then – now, not so much] but I don’t know how much it’s going to dry off.”
Joseph Murphy and Calmaro (IRE*) – 32.5 – 47=
Ireland’s Joseph Murphy is another rider contemplating the tricky water complex at 7abc. He told Irish Eventing Times:
“Fence 6 leads us down to the drop step at 7a. There’s a stride pattern of five strides down to the angled brush into the water with a very severe drop. I think the important thing here is to make sure your horses are balanced – it comes up very early, they’re still going to be fresh, they’re going to be looking around, there’s going to be big crowds. I think the important thing is, you come down here in a really good balance towards the middle of this fence – don’t make it too complicated at this stage. Just in the air then, you’re thinking about the red on c, landing, and moving to the skinny on three strides. This could be an influential fence, because it’s so early in the course, and there’s going to be a lot more water in there so it’s going to be exciting on Saturday morning.”
So it you’re crazy enough to be tempted to build something similar at home and have a go, that’s how you ride it! (Please don’t, unless you’re 100% sure it’s a good idea.)
And what does he think of the rest of the course?
“They’ve used a lot of brush this time, which I wasn’t expecting – that in itself makes everything bigger and the horses get higher. The course is beautifully built. It looks on the difficult side. The ground looks like it could be testing come the weekend, so that’ll play a big part in what happens on cross country day.”
The ground is something all the riders are talking about too. Joseph walked the course earlier in the week, but Haras du Pin has had some rain since then.
“You can walk round in a pair of trainers [AKA sneakers for our US readers] and you’re walking on top of it, but you can feel a sponge underneath you. From the little bit of work that we have done on our canter work in preparation over the last couple of days, it feels soft under foot. With a few days sun it’s going to help it every day, but we’ll probably need to be prepared for testing type conditions.
Definitely you’ll need a fit horse, also you need a horse with a very good attitude that wants to keep trying, because every time we turn a corner we have to travel up another hill – that tests the horse’s mentality and the rider’s mentality if they want to get to the end.
It’s going to be a great day of sport.”
We certainly don’t disagree there!
So, boots on and pony up – it’s time to kick on and allez eventing!
