Chris Burton watches on with Australian team supporters from the sidelines as Andrew Hoy performs his dressage test
The drama started even before the first day of eventing at Aachen had really got underway with Australian team member Chris Burton withdrawing Graf Liberty. Poor Chris must be thinking he’s cursed at international team events; last year in Normandy he had to withdraw TS Jamaimo from the Australian team after the dressage when the horse suffered a mild bout of colic overnight
“The horse was not right this morning and we had to make tough decision not to run him” said Chris “I’m keeping bigger picture in mind and that’s the Olympics and he’s (Graf Liberty) already qualified for Rio”
“It’s disappointing as Aachen is always one of our favourite events, but as I said, we have Rio in our sights”
It’s not surprising that this is one of Chris’ favourite events, having won the individual title here twice in the past but now he’ll be sitting it out on the sidelines and supporting his team mates. Andrew Hoy, Kevin McNab and Paul Tapner now have the extra pressure of being without a discard score with the Australian team currently in sixth place and a little off the pace after dressage and show jumping
Paul Tapner and Indian Mill
The first rider into the dressage arena, Francis Whittington and Easy Target set the very respectable target score of 43.30 but it wasn’t long before two top ladies in the sport broke the 40 barrier with two very close scores of 37.00 for Ingrid Klimke riding Horseware Hale Bob and 37.4 for Jonelle Price and her feisty little grey mare Faerie Dianimo. Two judges, Martin Plewa (GER) and Sue Baxter (GBR) had Jonelle in first place but the third judge, Sándor Fulop (HUN) didn’t quite agree.
Throughout the day, particularly with the higher placed riders, the three seemed to be a little at odds in their scoring but such is dressage. Britain’s Flora Harris picked up an error of course for a blonde moment in the walk pirouette, turning left instead of right on her CCI3* Bramham winner Bayano, the very elegant horse that she found in Holland as a five year old, but still produced a lovely test for a score of 44.50; in this test for example the judges differed in their scores by over 15 marks.
Lauren Keiffer and Veronica
After the first break Michael Jung on his team horse Halunke FBW couldn’t quite topple the ladies but just sneaked a sub-40 score of 39.90 for a provisional third place and putting the German team in a very good position early on. Team USA and Australia then had a rider each move into the top 10 at that stage with Lauren Keiffer on Veronica scoring 43.60 and Paul Tapner’s Indian Mill 44.10. Paul’s seventh place at that stage was soon usurped by the young man who made such a strong debut at Badminton in the dressage this year; Niklas Bschorer riding TomTom Go 3. Niklas made an amazing save on the cross country there but retired on course – let’s hope he has better luck here in Aachen
It was then Sweden’s turn to shake up the leader board with Sara Algottson Ostholt and Reality 39 zooming up to finish the dressage in fifth place overall but again with varying scores from the judges however it was Ingrid Klimke with her second horse, FRH Escada JS, this time riding as an individual, who took the lead with a score of 32.10. Ingrid remained there for the rest of the dressage phase although two young stars from Germany and Britain were chasing her; the World Champion Sandra Auffarth (still only 28 years old, it’s easy to forget) riding Opgun Louvo scored 33.20 and the youngest member of the British team, 21 year old Holly Woodhead, gave her a good run for her money on DHI Lupison with a score of 34.30 for third place.
Andrew Hoy and Cheek Calimbo (above) for Australia was the last combination into the arena and were worth waiting for, scoring 34.50 for fourth place while his team mates Kevin McNab and Paul Tapner were in 33rd and 21st places. Germany led the teams competition with Great Britain in second place and New Zealand in third but the influential show jumping phase around Frank Rothernburger’s course later in the day was to change a few placings ...
The hot sunny day was mellowing a little as the riders prepared for the show jumping late in the afternoon. The time allowed of 96 seconds proved the undoing of many with 13 riders picking up time penalties and only 14 riders jumping clear – Gemma Tattersall and Niklas Bschorer both managed lovely clears but agonisingly added just one time penalty to their score. Ingrid Klimke certainly didn’t waste any time on FRH Escada JS to jump clear with the way fastest time of 88.53 to maintain her lead going onto the cross country while her team horse Horseware Hale Bob (Bobby) is in fourth place.
Ingrid and FRH Escada JS zoomed around the course for a clear round
"Escada was always our world-class horse," beamed Ingrid "And Bobby is also drawing attention to himself with his constant good performances- he showed everything he can here in the dressage. Escada has more 'movement potential' and Bobby collects a lot of plus points with his correctness but both of them are equally good in the cross-country and jumping!"
Holly Woodhead and DHI Lupison
Holly Woodhead showed maturity beyond her years to jump double clear under pressure to move into second place on her chestnut gelding when Sandra Auffarth dropped an uncharacteristic rail on another famous chestnut to drop down to sixth. Andrew Hoy and Cheeky Calimbo took advantage of that to move into third with a clear round and Michael Jung rounds out the top six in fifth place on fischerTakinou (below), his horse in the individual competition.
Each Team has a discard score for each phase if they have four riders and, using Ingrid, Michael and Sandra’s team scores they lead the Nations Cup team competition with a combined score of 118.10 but it is a close thing heading into the cross country phase.
New Zealand’s drop score from Jock Paget leaves them in second place on 121.20 with their three riders Jonelle Price and Faerie Dianimo in seventh place (37.4), Tim Price and Wesko in ninth (40.2) and Sir Mark Todd and NZB Campino 12th (43.6); all three are on their dressage scores and should prove formidable on the cross country course. In third place is Great Britain with three riders in the top 20 – can young Holly Woodhead continue her amazing form on cross country tomorrow? She certainly proved herself capable of big things at Bramham where she and DHI Lupison, himself only nine years old, won the CCI3* U21 but Rüdiger Schwarz’s cross country course in Aachen will be testing for even the most experienced of competitors.
"The coffin could be the stumbling block, predicts Ingrid Klimke "It is very demanding and I have never seen it in this combination before; a coffin with an owl's hole followed by a narrow, slanting obstacle all on a bent line!"
We shall have to wait and see ...........
View every fence on the cross country course here
