Moroccan five-star first-timers and Olympians Noor Slaoui and Cashman. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
There’s nothing, in our humble opinion, more restorative for the soul than a mid-season trip to the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials. It’s arguably the friendliest event in the world (upon arrival today, we were duly greeted by a medic-slash-photographer who was solemnly filling IV bags full of Pimms for us to slurp from); it’s certainly one of the most beautiful, with its constant threat of heather, its fairytale cottages, and its signs, dotted around the local village, bellowing at you to stop to buy some SPARGEL! Have some SPARGEL! Seriously, don’t skip the SPARGEL! (That’s asparagus, for what it’s worth, and no, we will not.)
Laura Collett and Hester. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It doesn’t have the weight of prestige and history that can make Badminton feel like a sombre and serious affair; it doesn’t have the end-of-season steam-blowing vibe of Burghley. It’s just… summer camp. A glorious, jolly, oftentimes quite silly summer camp, all built around a not-at-all-silly competition. We love it so much that we can forgive them for consistently making the regrettable decision to host the trot-ups in the shadow of the grandstand, when the rest of the venue is so breathtakingly pretty and underutilised on Wednesday afternoon. It’s fine! We all make mistakes! This one is inconsequential!
And so, into the shadows we went. As did 47 horses and riders, representing 14 nations, who presented themselves in front of the ground jury of Katrin Eichinger-Kniely (AUT), Ernst Topp (GER), and Merel Schurink (NED) this afternoon for a socially late (5.00 p.m.! Can you believe it! I cannot) first horse inspection.
An hour or so later, all 47 would make the long climb up the hill to the stables, having been accepted into the 2025 Longines Luhmühlen CCI5*.
Wills Oakden’s Keep It Cooley, demonstrating the expression of deep zen and joy we all wear at Luhmühlen. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The course of the inspection didn’t run wholly smoothly, though. Spirits were high across the board, with several competitors doing an impressive job of flying their horse kites – last year’s winner Lara de Liedekerke-Meier foremost among them with her frisky first-timer Origi – and two riders, as a result, had to trot their horses a second time in the hopes of giving the ground jury a glimpse of something other than a tail-to-the-sky canter. Those two, Ireland’s Alice Copithorne and Fort Arthur Little Dolly and Great Britain’s Grace Cooper and Cedarmount Cavalier, were then accepted into the competition, while one horse and rider pair – Ireland’s Declan Cullen and the splashy skewbald Seavaghan Ash – were sent to the holding box. Happily, they were then accepted to continue upon re-presentation.
Declan Cullen and Seavaghan Ash. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tomorrow takes us into the first day of dressage, which is split between the feature CCI5* and the perennially tough CCI4*-S, the latter of which incorporates the German National Championship. It’s that class that’ll lead the way in the main arena, beginning at 9.15 a.m. local time (8.15 a.m. BST/3.15 a.m. EST). After the lunch break, we’ll head into the CCI5* dressage from 13.15 local time (12.15 p.m. BST/7.15 a.m. EST).
The morning’s CCI4*-S will see sole US competitors Mia Farley and Invictus come forward at 11.15 a.m. local time (10.15 a.m. BST/5.15 a.m. EST), while the afternoon’s CCI5* tests are packed full of highlights, including an early draw for British-based American Cosby Green and Jos UFO de Quidam (13.15 local/12.15 BST/7.15 a.m. EST); Laura Collett and Hester (13.30/12.30 BST/7.30 a.m. EST); Austria’s Lea Siegl and her Olympic partner DSP Fighting Line (13.37/12.37 BST/7.37 a.m. EST); Ros Canter and the up-and-comer MHS Seventeen (13.45/12.45 BST/7.45 a.m. EST); reigning champion Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and her debutant Origi (14.22/13.22 BST/8.22 a.m. EST); US representatives Jenny Caras and five-star first-timer Sommersby (15.22/14.22 BST/9.22 a.m. EST); and Badminton rerouters Jesse Campbell and Cooley Lafitte (15.37/14.37 BST/9.37 a.m. EST). You can browse through the times in full for the four-star here, and for the five-star here.
Hold on tight: Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Origi zoom their way through the trot-up. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
All of this week’s action will be broadcast via Horse&Country TV, and we’ll be bringing you live coverage, too, thanks to Cheg and her brilliant up-to-the-minute updates. And, as always, you can find the full breakdown of all the most important stories of the day at the close of each day’s action, so keep it locked on EN for everything you need to know from Germany’s crown jewel event. In the meantime: SPARGEL.
Longines Luhmühlen CCI5* (Germany): [Website] [Entries] [Schedule] [Timing & Scoring] [H&C+ Live Stream] [EN’s Coverage]
