Who Jumped It Best: Luhmühlen’s Longines Water

The week or so after an event is always full of a special kind of chaos — the chaos that is unloading memory cards, which will have been filled to bursting throughout the competition but only skimmed each day for whichever shots are needed to illustrate that day’s reports. Those thousands of other photos, though, always deserve their chance to shine, too, and so I try to find a rare few hours of quiet time to sift through them all — especially because this year, I have an apprentice of sorts in my officially-non-horsey-but-already-addicted boyfriend, Alex, who’s decided to borrow one of my spare cameras and teach himself the fine art of lying on the ground to catch great angles of cross-country jumps. Repeat after me: one of us, one of us…

And so this is a special edition of WJIB, because it’s Alex’s first — and although I’d love to trick him into believing that part of the EN hazing rite of passage is having to wear a giant Chinch suit on showjumping day, in truth, it’s actually this: managing to nail the shot at a fence enough times that we can all sink our teeth into the greatest game of them all. I think we might keep this one around.

Anyway, on to the jump at hand. This one was part of Luhmühlen’s tough, tightly-timed CCI4*-S, which incorporated the German National Championships, and it was very near the end of the course at the final water complex, the Longines Waßer at 18ABC. The first element of the complex was a roll top with a downhill landing, which they jumped as they crossed from the bright light of an open field to the dappled shadow of the tree-covered complex; then, on landing, they cantered down into the water and over an offset boat. Finally, they cantered back out of the water and over another offset boat — and it’s this one that we’re judging today. Who do you think kept their balance and focus best at the tail end of this question — and who set their horse up best to then steam up the course’s most significant hill en route to the final fences? Take a look, and then scroll down to vote for your pick!