There are few things that blow my mind quite so thoroughly as CHIO Aachen. It’s an absolute theme park for equestrians, and it always yields surprises — even when you’re pretty convinced you know exactly how it’ll all end. It’s also a serious teaser for what’s to come from championship season — the last time we saw Sandra Auffarth win was in 2014 with Opgun Louvo, with whom she became the World Champion later on that summer. Could history repeat itself this year?
National Holiday: I hear you guys in the US have something you’re celebrating today. Even more importantly, it’s the day before my birthday.
U.S. Weekend Action:
Twin Rivers Summer H.T. (Paso Robles, CA): [Website] [Results]
Summer Coconino H.T. I (Flagstaff, AZ): [Website] [Results]
Chattahoochee Hills H.T. (Fairburn, GA): [Website] [Results]
Essex H.T. (Far Hills, NJ): [Website] [Results]
UK Weekend Action:
Burgie: [Results]
Howick (2): [Results]
Offchurch Bury: [Results]
Somerford Park International (2): [Results]
Global Eventing Round-Up:
It was all about Aachen over the last week, which brought together the very best of showjumping, dressage, driving, vaulting, and eventing action in the horse world’s equivalent of Disneyland. You can check out all our coverage at the link below of the CCIO4*-S, which saw Great Britain take team victory and Germany’s Sandra Auffarth scoop the individual title with Viamant du Matz, after a dramatic conclusion to the competition saw Michael Jung lose his eleven-second margin for victory due to flag penalties with fischerChipmunk FRH.
CHIO Aachen: [Website] [Results] [Eventing Main Page] [EN’s Coverage]
Your Monday Reading List:
Great news for horsey folks in Nova Scotia: there’s been a new injection of funding, and plenty of behind-the-scenes planning, to create programmes to ensure the area has enough qualified, well-trained officials, which will offer a boost to the regional competition scene. [Go get ’em, Nova Scotia]
Inbreeding — or the much less questionable sounding ‘line breeding’ — is par for the course in performance horses. But all that family action can’t be good news in the long-term, right? A new study on Thoroughbreds in the racing world has determined that inbreeding can actually have an enormous effect on performance — and certain crosses can drastically minimise the chances that a horse will ever even make it to the track. [Kissing cousins under review]
Working as a head groom on a busy eventing yard is hectic enough. But Hannah Warner doesn’t stop there: she’s also a student at the University of Kentucky, president of their eventing team, and an FEI competitor in her own right. [We need her scheduling skills]
The FutureTrack Follow:
We’re feeling the CHIO Aachen withdrawals, but trawling through all the super content they’ve produced over the last number of days is making it all feel okay again. We highly recommend a deep-dive.
Morning Viewing:
Last night, Germany’s Gerrit Nieberg became the youngest winner of the Aachen Grand Prix in 21 years. Check out his jump-off round to see how he did it (and keep the volume up for some of the best commentary moments of the year so far, frankly!)
