Although Australia took the individual honours yesterday, the German team triumphed on their home turf – the hallowed turf of Aachen
They very nearly managed another double team and individual title at Aachen, but the home team of Germany had to content themselves with just the FEI Nations Cup team win on Saturday.
They deserved it. Leading from the dressage phase on Friday the team of Sandra Auffarth and Opgun Louvo, Andreas Dibowski and FRH Butts Leon, Dirk Schrade and Hop and Skip and Michael Jung riding Halunke FBW put up great performances.
In the Nations Cup, the worst score from each phase is dropped, meaning that the top three scores for Germany in the dressage were all in the top ten and all under 40 penalties. They maintained their impressive lead to finish on a score of 134.60, an impressive 48 points ahead of second placed Great Britain on 182.60.
Great Britain, who have a stated aim of increasing the international teams experience of their younger riders through the Nations Cup series, fielded a team of three younger riders, Gemma Tattersall on Chico Bella P, Izzy Taylor on KBIS Briarlands Matilda and Tom McEwan riding Dry Old party along with the experienced anchor of Olympic silver medallist Tina Cook and Miner’s Frolic. Tina and Miner’s Frolic showed all their cross country skill on the wet course and moved up to finish in fifth place overall but her young team mates also did a good job with Gemma and Izzy enjoying a top 20 finish
Despite losing one rider each, the Swedish team finished third and Australia fourth. Sweden’s Niklas Jonsson retired at the second last fence on course and, while Sara Algottson-Ostholt was their star in dressage with a good score of 37.40, it was Frida Anderson’s great cross country ride on Herta, which brought her up from 30th to 12th, that helped the team move from fifth to third after cross country. Sweden finished on a score of 219
Australia’s shining light was, of course, the individual winner, Chris Burton riding Holstein Park Leilani who steadily moved up from fifth to third and finally first. Paul Tapner and his homebred stallion Wickstead Didgeridoo moved up from 39th after dressage to 22nd after a good cross country round but Andrew Hoy sadly dropped from second after dressage and fifth after show jumping to finish 30th due to two refusals on the tough cross country. Bill Levett and Silk Stone also fell victim to the cross country with an elimination due to three refusals and Australia’s final score was 226
New Zealand was touted as a big chance to take this round but it was not their day and they finished in fifth place on a score of 247.80. Ireland finished sixth on 261.80 while the USA lost two riders due to falls and finished on a score of 1,210
The winning team of Germany took home a prize of 16,000 euros and maintain their lead in the FEI Nations Cup rankings. According to our calculations they now lead on of 31 points with Great Britain second on 26 points, France holds its third place on 15, New Zealand fourth on 18 and Australia fifth on 15 points
The next leg of the FEI Nations Cup will be at Montelibretti in Italy from 21 - 23 September
Final Team results from Aachen
FEI Nations Cup standings – to come
