Photo courtesy of Nico Morgan via Samantha L Clark
Colleen Rutledge and Shiraz stormed around their third straight clear CCI4* cross-country round earlier today at Luhmuhlen in Germany. They finished with 8 time faults around a course that saw stops, eliminations, or retirements for most of the starters. Shiraz “Luke” moved up 21 places and he heads into the show jumping tomorrow in 16th place as the only US horse left in the CCI4* competition.
I spoke with Colleen after her ride and she was absolutely thrilled with Luke’s performance. She told me “Luke loved how big the course was. I was thrilled to see that he cooled off so fast in the box. Luke thought he should run again.” Colleen explained that she let Luke roll on his walk back to the barn and he stood up and tried to gallop off towards the course. When I asked her if Mark Phillips’ course presented any surprises, she said that there were a couple of tense moments, particularly at the very tough turning line at the end, but she said “it was a great course and I had a great time riding it.” Colleen couldn’t have been more gracious and gave Luke all the credit for the great day: “I have to expect the unexpected with this horse, he left the box with ears pricked and he still doesn’t find these jumps big.”
One of Colleen’s greatest strengths is her positive and generous attitude and she continued to give Luke all the credit throughout our conversation. With respect to the show jumping tomorrow, she explained “my goal is just to stay out of his way and keep him balanced. His problem is never his problem, it’s always me.” I asked Colleen for a parting thought and she said “I know I’m blessed to be over here competing with such an amazing horse and I’m so proud of him today.” It’s hard for me to imagine that I could become an any bigger Colleen Rutledge fan, but I certainly am after today.
Boyd has matured as a horseman a great deal over the past few years and today he decided that discretion was the better part of valor with Ying Yang Yo. I spoke with Boyd this afternoon and he told me that Ying Yang Yo “Thomas” was jumping well but he started making strained noisy sounds in his breathing. When the sounds started to get worse Boyd decided that something must be wrong with Thomas’ respiratory track and he chose to, as only Boyd can put it, “look after the old boy and walk home.” Boyd said that he hadn’t cut back Thomas’ fitness prep at all for Luhmuhlen and the horse was still running hard when he pulled up. He explained that he was worried the horse had such a big heart that he would keep running over and past the point of being safe. This weekend didn’t turn out exactly as Boyd planned, but Thomas is resting comfortably in his stall tonight and Boyd hopes he may be able to re-route to Burghley depending on what the vets find when they do a full evaluation Sunday morning.
As for the overall competition at Luhmuhlen, Michael Jung and Leopin ran clean and fast to maintain their overnight lead. Andrew Hoy and Rutherglen moved up two spots to 2nd by maintaining their dressage score of 34.8. Just 5 horses finished with double-clear CCI4* rides. For a full recap of Saturday at Luhmuhlen visit our friends at Horse and Hound. [H&H, Luhmuhlen CCI4* Scores]
Many thanks to Colleen and Boyd for talking with me this afternoon. Please visit their websites for more information about them and their programs. [Collen’s Website, Boyd’s Website]
Go eventing.
