So, one of my horses got an abscess today. I’m away from my home barn right now so I had to call a local vet out, and I knew it was going to be a long day when my horse was barely bearing weight on the right front and the first thing she did was break out the stethoscope. To make a long story short, I ended up having to pull the shoe myself, we found the abscess (hopefully all of it) and things should be fine in a few days. I mostly tell the story to give a big shout out to all of our farriers who have a really tough job–spend 15 minutes pulling a shoe and you will know what I mean. Without further ado, here are a few thoughts on the Luhmuhlen show jumping:
(1) In my Luhmuhlen preview, I mentioned that in the five previous Luhmuhlen CCI4*’s, the Germans have won Luhmuhlen three times and Brits twice. The trend looks likely to continue as Germany and Great Britain have 8 of the top 10 riders going into the show jumping.
The top 10 is rounded out with two New Zealanders: Joe Meyer (6th) and Andrew Nicholson (7th). Caroline Powel and the XC machine Lenamore finished Badminton within the top 10 for New Zealand, and as we start to make a list of teams to look out for at the WEGs, New Zealand is at least in the mix for that 4th to 6th best team ranking.
(2) Leaders going into the show jumping have won both CCI4*’s this year. Only Sharon Hunt and Tankers Town is within a rail of the Luhmuhlen leader Ingrid Klimke. Sharon and Tankers Town have 12 penalties total in five show jumping rounds this year.
(3) Allison and Arthur had three rails at Rolex, but at least one of those was partially related to a loud camera affixed to a jump. A quality show jumping ride with a rail or less will be important for Arthur’s bid to compete in Kentucky.
