A hot and sunny arena greeted the riders this morning at the FEI European Eventing Championships in Strzegom and had them mopping their brows as they exited the dressage arena.
Although there are not a huge number of spectators in the public seating as yet, the arena has plenty of atmosphere with TV cameras everywhere and the marquees down two sides make the audience seem pretty close, especially for the less experienced horses
Germany’s Julia Krajewski leads at the lunch break with a score of 36.3 and she was very happy with how her 11 year old gelding Samourai Du Thot handled the atmosphere (listen to our interview with Julia here)
Oliver Townend was the first rider in for Britain and he too is riding a less experienced horse, Cooley SRS to be in sixth place at the lunch break. Their score of 43.8 was dragged down by an expensive mistake in the counter canter which cost them marks but otherwise it was a good start for the British team.
Oliver will be a valuable asset on cross country day around this course which will certainly challenge the riders to make the time; Cooley SRS has never had a cross country jumping fault in his international career and usually makes the time while Oliver is well known as one of the fastest around any course
Oliver Townend
The last rider of the morning session, Felix Vogg riding for the Swiss team threw the cat among the pigeons when he relegated Italian team rider Pietro Roman on Barraduff to third place (41).
If Julia has a secret weapon in Andrew Nicholson, then Felix’s handy helper must be one of the best you can get with Michael Jung helping him to warm up for this test. Felix and the 15 year old thoroughbred Onfire have scored in the thirties before but not at international 3* level and they crept very close to Julia’s score with 37.2
Felix’s brother Ben is also riding for the Swiss team and will ride his dressage test later tomorrow
Josefa Sommer, riding for Germany but as an individual, currently holds fourth place on an equal score of 41 with Pietro and France’s Sidney Dufresne is in fifth place on the stallion Tresor Mail
Tresor Mail may be a serving stallion but his stable name is Teddy Bear and not only can he produce a very good score of 41.5 for France but he is also ‘the easiest horse we have in the yard. My four year old son loves him and he pats him and brushes him – he’s a fantastic horse’ says Sidney
