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Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Monsieur Schnabel pop through the tough Meßmer water complex. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
There have been accusations levelled at Luhmühlen in the past that it’s something of a ‘soft option’ CCI5*. This hasn’t always been an unfair statement, either: there have been plenty of years wherein the stats prove the point, and many riders have chosen Germany’s feature event as a kind move-up track for themselves and their young horses. But to be softer than, say, a Badminton or a Burghley isn’t the same as being easy — and this year, course designer Mike Etherington-Smith evidently decided he’d had enough of the naysaying.
We got a glimpse, in 2019, of how tricky a Luhmühlen track can be, when Mike made best use of the four water complexes on course and the twisty, tricky wooded galloping stretches to create a pillar-to-post challenge at the European Championships. That was a CCI4*-L, but it showed just how creatively the unique terrain here in northern Germany could be used. This year, as the CCI5* returns for the first time since that tough championship, it’s clear that Luhmühlen is ready to flex its own considerable muscles.
Trailblazers David Doel and Carneyhaugh Rua make the course look deceptively easy. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
This morning’ CCI5* saw 24 horse-and-rider combinations leave the start box in the sweltering summer heat, but ultimately, just 15 of those would get the chance to jump the final fence. British rider David Doel served as trailblazer on the relatively inexperienced Carneyhaugh Rua, who made his CCI5* debut at Pau last year – and when he sailed home clear and nine seconds inside the time, the initial impression given was that conquering the course would be a straightforward job. But then the problems started.
Next away was New Zealand’s Tim Price, one of the most experienced riders in the field, aboard his 2018 Burghley winner Ringwood Sky Boy, arguably the most experienced horse. His was to be a round that other riders hoped to use for hints for their own upcoming rides, and perhaps, in some perverse way, it was. He opted to go the direct route at the Meßmer Water, the second water complex on course, which required riding a turn around a tree, cantering into the water, and popping a brush arrowhead in the water before continuing onto an island with a stiff log drop into the pond and, finally, an angled brush back on dry land. But as he presented to that first element, something almost unfathomable happened: the supremely reliable Ringwood Sky Boy popped his shoulder to the right and sailed by the fence. Tim regrouped, went back for a second attempt, and the same thing happened. That shock moment set a precedent that would continue for a further four riders, before word drifted back to the collecting ring that the direct route required an earlier turn and a more established line. From then, the problems would be scattered more evenly around the course, but with a striking frequency: neither Tim Price‘s 2019 Luhmühlen winner Ascona M nor Jonelle Price‘s 2018 winner Faerie Dianimo completed; Jennie Brannigan and Stella Artois took a tumble at the frangible corners in the main arena; France’s Clara Loiseau fell at the penultimate fence from her experienced five-star partner Wont Wait; even Michael Jung picked up 11 penalties for a frangible pin activated at the coffin complex. With a 54% clear rate, there was nothing to suggest that this could be an ‘easy’ course for an inexperienced partnership.
Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden jump the last. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
But perhaps it helped, then, that dressage leader Mollie Summerland didn’t have time to watch any of the riders ahead of her on the live-stream, because she was busy at the stables screwing studs in. She heard word of the difficulties at that Meßmer water, so knew she had to work twice as hard as she might have planned there, but otherwise, it was all about sticking to plan A with the 12-year-old Charly van ter Heiden. The pressure of being in the lead — and riding the horse in front of his proud breeder, who had journeyed to the event for a long-awaited reunion with the horse after nigh-on a decade — would need to be shelved for now. It was time to kick on and make it happen.
And so they did, with a bit of grit and gumption, a few leaps of faith, and plenty of trust in one another. Not only did they record one of the five clear rounds inside the time over today’s course, they also delivered the fastest round of the day, coming in fourteen seconds inside the optimum time of 11:04.
“I was so messy, especially through a couple of combinations, but that horse is so genuine,” says a delighted Mollie. “He just keeps going, and keeps trying, and if I get things wrong he always tries to understand the question and what’s wanted of him. It’s rare to sit on a horse who can move in the dressage like him and gallop like him.”
Without trainers in situ, as the British support team couldn’t make it out to the event, Mollie relied on sending course-walking videos to British Performance Manager Dickie Waygood and her own cross-country coach, Robin Dumas, for analysis to help plan her ride. The rest of the trip, as documented in our Luhmühlen Tour Diaries, has been all about relying on the people around her: she tacked up and studded the horse herself ahead of cross-country, and then was joined in the collecting ring by Jillian Giessen, head girl for Dutch rider Tim Lips. After crossing the finish line, Jillian and your own EN roving reporter took over looking after Charly – and the on-course analysis and feedback was provided by her friends at home, watching along on the livestream.
“I didn’t have time to watch because of getting Charly ready, and it’s all taken a bit of management, but it’s worked well,” she says.
Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden pop the influential first element of the Meßmer water. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Though Mollie had planned to ride competitively, she was taken by surprise by her own efficiency on course.
“I was actually on my minute markers, if not up on a few of them, but I think it’s part of my lack of experience that even when I was coming to the last few fences, I thought ‘surely I must have got it wrong; surely I’m not that quick!’ So I just kept riding, because I thought I’d kick myself if I backed off him and it turned out I’d made a mistake with my watch or something. It felt like he was still going well, so I thought he could go for a minute or too longer – I just didn’t want to risk having made a mistake on my watch, so I kept riding right to the finish line.”
Learning to cope with speed is one pivotal part of her ongoing education – but for a rider who hopes to ride on championship teams, learning to cope with pressure is another important, and unique, lesson.
“Every competition I go to I think, ‘well, it can’t be any more pressure than the last competition’ — but then Charly goes even better,” she laughs. “I thought this couldn’t be any more pressure than Pau; Pau was my first five-star, and I wasn’t expecting to come here and be in the lead, but then he came here and did that. It’s great, but I also think, oh brilliant, now I have to go out with even more pressure!”
Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Germany’s Christoph Wahler went out with a totally different kind of pressure: he needed to produce a quick, clear round over his first-ever CCI5* cross-country course to try to climb up the leaderboard after an uncharacteristic low-30s dressage mark yesterday.
“Obviously yesterday was a little bit frustrating, but on the other hand, I thought, ‘okay, well it’s also close at the top, so a couple of seconds can make a difference,'” he explains. “I was quite positive that the course would suit my horse, because it’s a very forward course with forward distances, and he has a good, big canter. This morning I woke up, walked the course, and thought, let’s give it a good crack. It’s my first five-star, and the dressage doesn’t really matter — just go for it and enjoy the cross, and see what happens.”
Like Mollie, Christoph hadn’t watched any of the other riders out on course — though that was a conscious decision on his part.
“I talked to David [Doel] in the warm-up when he came back with his second horse to warm up, because he had a perfect round with the first one. He said, ‘yeah, it’s a fantastic course, just keep riding forward and then it’s easy.’ So that’s when I thought, ‘okay, great, it seems to be going well out there!'”
Christoph’s plan to go direct through all the combinations paid off, and he finished nine seconds within the time – the same as David Doel, whose advice and positivity had been so useful to him — and moved from seventh to overnight second.
“We didn’t have a stupid situation anywhere on the course, so I didn’t have to readjust my plan,” he says. Going direct also gave Carjatan the chance to show his scope and honesty over this new, tough challenge: “I left out a stride at the corners and he really had to jump forward quite far, because I came too far on the inside there, but he’s so scopey.”
A new fitness regime gave Carjatan the extra room to dig deep, too: “He feels so confident in his stamina out there. At no point does he feel like, ‘oh god, you want me to keep on going?’ Sometimes he takes a deep breath, because he’s a big horse, not a small, Thoroughbred, good engine kind of horse — but now he’s good.”
Emilie Chandler and Gortfadda Diamond. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Emilie Chandler‘s big gamble to take advantage of the last-minute exemption granted to British travellers paid off, despite some worries about the uncharacteristic blip that she and Gortfadda Diamond had picked up on course in Bicton’s CCI4*-L before retiring the day the news came out. While a run-out is hardly an ideal final run before a five-star, Emilie knew that her Blair CCI4*-L winner was nothing but genuine, and so she worked on reframing the wobble as an educational opportunity.
“I’m feeling very relieved that I had a great cross-country round with him off the back of a not-so-great start at Bicton,” she says. “I probably learned that I set out a little bit too quickly, so I had the early run-out, but I learned a lot and took that away with us to come here. Mentally, I think it was quite a challenge to come here, but I’m glad I’ve done it.”
Emilie made — and stuck to — a firm plan of action that paid dividends, allowing her to romp home just with just 3.6 time penalties and move from eighth to third.
“I wanted to use the first third of the course to settle him in his rhythm, and I didn’t worry too much about the clock. The main arena fence was probably the one I was most concerned about, because he’s not always the easiest to turn and that’s where I had my problem last week. Once I had the main arena out of the way I began to grow in confidence — from then on, we could execute it how we wanted to. He’s an awesome horse; he’s 80% blood and can be very fast, so sometimes it’s just about making sure his brain and legs are going at the same speed, and one’s not going quicker than the other. Our partnership’s growing all the time, and I think he’s very special.”
Ariel Grald and Leamore Master Plan. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Like Emilie, Ariel Grald had to make a difficult journey to get herself and Leamore Master Plan to Germany — but they made the long trip from the USA worthwhile, jumping a classy and confident clear round, also adding 3.6 time penalties, to climb from eleventh to overnight fourth. They’re followed closely behind by Ireland’s Cathal Daniels, who jumped clear inside the time with his five-star debutante LEB Lias Jewel to move up from seventeenth to fifth.
The top fifteen – that is, all the riders still in the running – in Luhmühlen’s CCI5*.
Michael Jung and fischerChipmink FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Michael Jung remains atop the leaderboard in the CCI4*-S section, incorporating the German National Championships and the final selection trial for a number of continental nations, after producing a typically swift and perfectly-executed round with the former Julia Krajewski mount fischerChipmunk FRH.
“Chipmunk was unbelievably good today,” he says. “He gave me a very good feeling right from the very start to the finish — every fence, every gallop track, he was super good at listening everywhere, and it was just fun and a joy to ride.”
Julia Krajewski’s Amande de B’Neville: from a princess to a queen. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Julia Krajewski, who is responsible for the exceptional production of the leading horse, steps up a place into second with Amande de B’Neville, her Saumur winner who has had big shoes to fill following the shock retirement of Julia’s top horse, Samourai du Thot. But this year, the exciting mare is really coming into her own — and giving Julia a reason to dream again.
“She’s quite fighter, and a real machine — but it took some years to channel it in the right direction, but I think now we’ve really got it together,” she says. “She’s super clever and has a massive stride, but I’m able to really set her up quickly and it’s a super good feeling.”
The pair finished on the same time as Michi and the more experienced Chipmunk – and Amande de B’Neville’s speed today is indicative of a new strength in her cross-country education.
“She was actually quite fast, and after about four minutes I had to slow down a bit as I thought I’d better not risk it,” she laughs. “It’s actually only this year that she’s found it quite easy to get the time. Until last year it took me a little longer to set her up for the fences, so I thought, well, if I want to make the time I’ll have to really go for it. It worked fine, but then I thought ‘okay, you’d better slow down a little, actually!'”
Every good phase produced here puts Julia and her gutsy mare in closer contention for a ticket to Tokyo — something that seemed like a sure thing for the rider before her former top horse lost an eye in an accident earlier this year. But the change of plans has a silver lining: it gave Amande the time and space to grow into herself.
“She’s always been in the shadow [of Samourai du Thot] — but sometimes it’s good for them to have that time to grow where you don’t push them,” she says. “At the beginning of the year, I deleted all of the Tokyo deadlines and cancelled flights and things, because I thought, ‘okay, well, it’s not for me this year,’ and then we went to Saumur and I had to say, ‘oh, maybe we can go — better cancel the holiday!’ She’s really come into her own this year — she’s stabled next to Sam, so perhaps he’s telling her a few things. She’s so cool — she’s a real princess, and sometimes a queen. I love her, but it can be a challenge!”
Sandra Auffarth and Viamant du Matz. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Former World Champion Sandra Auffarth sat second after dressage aboard Let’s Dance 73, but a surprise early runout dropped him off the podium – and the rider, too, for a little while anyway. She managed to claw her way back into place on the last ride of the day, jumping a sterling clear inside the time to move Viamant du Matz from sixth to third. Behind her, Australia’s Andrew Hoy produced the fastest round of the day with Vassily de Lassos, coming home eleven seconds inside the time to move from eighth to fourth.
Fifth place is occupied by Sweden’s Louise Romeike and Cato 60, while New Zealand’s Tim Price redeemed a rough morning, in which neither of his or wife Jonelle’s CCI5* mounts completed and his other CCI4*-S mount picked up a 20, by jumping clear with 1.6 time faults with Vitali for overnight sixth.
Tomorrow sees both classes head into their respective showjumping finales, with the CCI5* starting at 11.10 a.m. local time/10.10 a.m. BST/5.10 a.m. EST, and the CCI4*-S to follow from 13.40 local/12.40 BST/7.40 a.m. Eastern.
The top ten heading into the showjumping finale of the CCI4*-S.
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