Future stars shine at Le Lion d'Angers

Michael Jung and Star Connection

The final day at the FEI World Eventing Championships for Young Event Horses at Le Lion d’Angers saw two talented riders at different stages in their careers claim the top prizes in the 6 Year Old and 7 Year Old classes

One of the most experienced riders in the world Michael Jung took the 6 Year Old championship on Star Connection with a clear show jumping round on the final day. He was pushed to the wire on Sunday morning by Australia’s Chris Burton riding Dutch Man Retto who also completed with a strong show jumping round but Chris had to settle for second when Michael performed flawlessly under pressure

Britain’s Piggy French riding the Irish Sport Horse Cooley Dream Extreme (above) jumped double clear to move up to third, finishing on her dressage score when her compatriot Zoe Wilkinson on the Burghley Dubarry Young Horse winner Parkfield Quintessential incurred a costly two time penalties despite jumping clear. Anyone looking for a good young eventing horse should maybe have a chat with Piggy as Cooley Dream Extreme is for sale!

Belgium’s Valentine Gabriel finished in fourth place on board Cartoon Chavannais. Not only is this a young horse but a young rider as Valentine, who studies Business Engineering at University as well competing, is only 21 years old while last year’s double champion, Thomas Carlile and his lovely grey stallion – the French 4, 5 and 6 Year Old Champion - Upsilon finished in fifth place

Thomas Carlile is only the third rider ever to do the double with the same horse in the 6 and 7-year-old categories

In the 7 Year Old class Michael Jung proved that, although a superstar, he isn’t infallible and dropped to 25^th place after collecting 12 faults on fischerRicona who was in third place going into the show jumping. However he did end up in fourth place with his other ride, fischerTakinou who moved up from 13^th place with a clear show jumping round. Another one that suffered the same fate was fourth placed after dressage and cross country Maxime Livio riding RNH McUstinov who also had three rails and dropped to 26^th. Aalthough Maxime’s Qalao des Mers returned a positive result for the Controlled Medication substance Acepromazine at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, neither the horse nor rider have had provisional suspension imposed, enabling Maxime to continue competing until such time that the hearing takes place

Piggy French, who won the 7 Year Old class here in 2007 on Cast Away, continued her good run by picking up another ribbon in fifth place on Carpe Diem IV, again finishing on their dressage score and Andrew Nicholson’s Jet Set took sixth place. Jet Set, a horse that was bred for show jumping, started eventing in March 2013 with Andrew and is one that he thinks will improve a lot with age in the dressage arena as he is such a big horse

“He’s talented in all three phases and has a great brain” says Andrew (find out more about Jet Set in our interview with Andrew here)

With a fifth, second and third in this class Britain showed that they have some real depth in young horses and young riders at the moment; 24 year old Laura Collett’s bay gelding Pamero (above) has had a very consistent year including third here while 23 year old Tom McEwan riding his French-bred horse Toledo de Kerser by the jumping stallion Diamant de Semilly finished second.

In the top six, all finished on their dressage score but the top prize went to France’s Thomas Carlile riding last year’s 6 Year Old Champion, Tenareze. We first met this combination at Le Pin in 2012 when Thomas said “Dare I say it, but I think he is my ticket for Rio”

We think he may be right