Michael Jung and Halunke FBW
“It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t really easy but he fights, he was concentrating and he gave me a really good feeling in the end” So says Michael Jung, the man still sitting in first and second place at Les Etoiles de Pau, of the 4* first-timer Halunke FBW and the horse currently leading the CCI4*.
It wasn’t surprising that Michael and his first horse fischerRocana FST made the time on the Pierre Michelet designed track that was 24 seconds shorter than last year – the first rider out Sarah Bullimore and Valentino V had already proved that it was a very achievable time coming home 12 seconds under time – and any concerns about fischerRocana’s history through water were laid to rest when she performed flawlessly through all three water jumps.
Michael also made the time easily, nine seconds under the optimum time of 11 minutes and 38 seconds, but his second ride on Halunke was a little bit harder work. One of the last riders on course, Michael had to keep urging his 11 year old gelding on to the very end and came in one second over the optimum time but maintaining his first place on a score of 34.9 over his second placed fischerRocana on 35.4
Emily King and Brookleigh
Michael and Karim Florent Laghouag on the 10-year-old black stallion Entebbe de Hus were the only two in the top 10 to pick up time penalties on a course that produced 28 clear rounds from the 47 starters with 15 of those inside the optimum time. One of the stand out rounds of the day came from a very focused young Emily King riding Brookleigh at their first ever 4* start to delightedly complete a clear round under time and remain in third place on 38.3, breathing down Michael Jung’s neck.
Only 0.2 of a penalty behind Emily is another young rider, France’s Astier Nicolas on his second ride of the day, Piaf De B’Neville. Earlier Astier had a fall from Quickly du Buguet at Fence 21, which were the ‘grapes of wrath’ for some; Simon Grieve and Cornacrew retired here and Sarah Bullimore on her third ride of the day was stopped on course and eliminated after Lilly Corinne got the flag between her front legs on the narrow bunch of grapes that made up the fence.
Astier Nicolas and Piaf De B’Neville
Astier recovered quickly after his fall from Quickly – a quick check up by the medical guys, a glug of water and he was back to it with a vengeance. He and Piaf De B’Neville had a great round to finish in fourth place, also challenging Michael’s position in the show jumping as he has less than one rail in hand over the two young riders. They in turn have nothing over fifth placed Tim Price on Wesko (40) and sixth placed Tim Lips on Concrex Bayro (40.9).
Tim Price riding Wesko produced the fastest round of the day while another Kiwi, Lucy Jackson riding another 4* debutant, Bosun had the second fastest. Tim and Wesko were flying to come in at 11 minutes 12 seconds, even after taking the long option late in the course, and the long legged Lucy did it in 11 minutes 16 seconds to move her up from 46th after the dressage to 16th place.
Tim Price and Wesko
Just 5.1 penalties off the top score, Tim Price could pose the biggest threat to Michael’s lead, having been in this position before and sitting on a quite consistently good show jumping horse.
Brookleigh has only had two clear jumping rounds from his last 16 competitions and Emily admits this is their weakest phase but has been working hard with British show jumping superstar Ben Maher in recent times. Piaf De B’Neville has slightly better stats but never in this type of environment while Tim and Wesko jumped a clear round to win at Luhmuhlen in 2014 to beat Michael and fischerRocana in 2014 when they had one rail down.
How will the top three look tomorrow?
At Luhmuhlen CCI4* this year Tim Lips and his young grey horse Concrex Bayro also jumped clear to cement seventh place – can they do it again here to secure a strong finish? Two Australians are also in the hunt with Paul Tapner in seventh place on Indian Mill (42.3) and Bill Levett riding Shannondale Titan in equal tenth with Andreas Dibowski riding FRH Butts Avedon on 42.9.
Bill and Andreas moved up a place when the American rider Jennie Brannigan, ninth after dressage, was eliminated when her horse Cambalda fell at the racecourse hedge (fence 15). The USA didn’t have the best of days with Lillian Heard riding Share Option retiring after refusals at Fence 8B, Katie Ruppel riding Houdini picking up 40 penalties plus time and Brabara Crabo eliminated after a fall towards the end of the course at 24B. Canadian rider Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master had a momentary loss of concentration on course, seemingly losing their way on the racecourse circuit then recovering to set off again but picked up 20 penalties later, also at the tricky final water complex
This final water complex, the Total Le Gue des Poissons, did not (or did, depending which way you look at it) go swimmingly well for Lucy Wiegersma. Mr Chunky, in 13th place after the dressage and looking good on the cross country to this point, over jumped the first element into the water and Lucy momentarily lost control as Mr Chunky, seeing a small fence in front of him, dutifully jumped it.
Sadly this fence was not the bounce out of the water at B but separated the shallow water of the water complex from the very deep water on the other side. They ended up swimming for the shore, much to Mr Chunky’s amazement and probably Lucy’s too. Hopefully the only result from the incident was water in the ears and maybe a slight distrust of water in the future for Mr Chunky who, bless him, obviously thought he was doing the right thing
Check out how the same water complex rode for Michael Jung on Halunke and Emily King walking this water complex before cross country day in the videos below
