Overnight Leader Held in Pau Final Horse Inspection

Tom McEwen and Toledo de Kerser. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

And so the final battle commences, but not before Sunday’s horse inspection – and true to Pau form, that, too, brought its fair share of drama. After the overnight withdrawal of Gemma Tattersall‘s two rides, Jalapeno and Chilli Knight, 27 horses came forward in front of the assembled ground jury of Katrin Eichinger-Kniely, Tim Downes, and Nathalie Carriere. After yesterday’s sizzling highs of 27 Celsius, it was a joy to see a field of fit, happy, and occasionally rambunctious horses presented on the strip, which rather bizarrely abutted the tail end of the combined driving marathon course. Hashtag danger trot-up, anyone?

Just one would be held throughout the course of the trot-up, but it was one that quickened a fair few pulses: Tom McEwen‘s two-phase leader, Toledo de Kerser, was sent to the holding box, but subsequently passed upon reinspection. He’ll be our last horse to jump this afternoon in today’s showjumping finale, which begins at 15.00 local time/14.00 British time/10.00 a.m. Eastern. Full times can be found here, while a free live-stream can be found on Horse&Country TV.

Here’s a refresher of the leaderboard after cross-country:

The top ten at the culmination of cross-country at Pau.

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