Germany wins at Houghton Hall but Australia take home silver

In 2012 Australia won silver at Houghton Hall in the Nations Cup - today they added another silver to the team trophy cabinet and very nearly took home a win

      Sam Griffiths and Beaurepaire Nemo

The Australian team of Sam Griffiths, Andrew Hoy, Kevin McNab and Tim Boland started the day in pole position but they had only a narrow margin over Britain in second place and New Zealand in third. While Sam Griffiths cruised clear with 5.6 time penalties around the course as the trailblazer for Australia, Britain’s hopes were dashed when their first rider Izzy Taylor on Call Me Maggie May picked up 20 penalties.

There were a few holds early in the day which had the crash crews busy around the course. Samantha Hobbs riding Treblare fell at Fence 16 resulting in a lengthy hold of about 25 minutes; on re-starting the riders were allowed to jump a 2*course to warm up but France’s Regis Prudhon must have become too used to jumping 2* fences and jumped the 2* instead of the 4* fence at 20 a little later, sadly resulting in elimination.

Andrew Hoy and Rutherglen were late to start due to this hold and they were also held during their round due to a damaged fence at 18 where Dutch rider Eef Hamers had flattened the brush jump over the ditch. Actually Eef went nowhere near it, as she went straight over the fence that her horse Capri Van’t Gestelhof left flat on the floor.

      Course designer Alec Lochore and TD Des Hughes examine the flattened brush fence

“He is a little spooky about ditches” admitted Eef “So I planned to approach it steadily and he seemed to be travelling fine towards it but at the last moment he spotted the ditch and just stopped, ending up in it”

Both horse and rider were fine but the fence needed some serious repairs. Luckily, as Alec Lochore pointed out, the fence was sponsored by an insurance company who will hopefully pick up the repair bill (thank you Shearwater!)

      Andrew Hoy and Rutherglen

Next to jump this fence and despite the two holds, Andrew and Rutherglen produced a fabulous round, clear and under time on a course that was causing some problems. Rutherglen is now heading to compete in the CCI4* at Luhmuhlen and Andrew was delighted with his performance here, comparing him to three top horses he has ridden during his career

Andrew Hoy

 Kevin McNab and Wonham What Next into the tricky water (actually you photographed really well Kevin!)

Seventh after the dressage and a member of the American team, Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp fell victim to Fence 10 - the Water and Treasure Chests - which was certainly a big question and caused many of the problems on course. Two riders were eliminated here, five more picked up penalties and it certainly wasn’t Kevin McNab’s favourite fence of the day when we spoke to him. Kevin and Wonham What Next had just completed clear with 20.8, solidifying Australia’s position with the final group of team riders to go

Kevin McNab

During this time however the German team had also been jumping well with Josefa Sommer riding Hamilton 24 jumping clear with just two time penalties, Peter Thomsen and Horseware’s Barny clear with just 0.4 time and Josephine Schnaufer riding Sambucca 10 having a great round to finish on her dressage score of 44. It was going to come down to the wire with the last team riders heading out on course but at the end of the day it was Germany that triumphed once again

However Matthieu Van Landeghem produced a beautifully ridden round as the last team rider for France, once again showing the depth of talent that France has at the moment, finishing second in the individual rankings on his dressage score of 40.4 on Trouble Fete ENE HN and helping the French secure third place

Sarah Bullimore also jumped an impressive double clear on Valentino V for Great Britain, moving her up into seventh place individually and the team in fifth place and Tim Boland riding GV Billy Elliot also jumped clear for Australia, adding just six time penalties

       Tim Boland and GV BIlly Elliot

Tim Boland

The very experienced Bettina Hoy was the last to head out of the start box and her clear round with just 1.2 time penalties sealed the deal for Germany, enjoying two Nation Cup wins in a row here at Houghton Hall  

We've got lots more coverage to come from Houghton Hall so stay tuned ...................

Nations Cup final scores

1^st Germany 137.1

2^nd Australia 143.5

3^rd France 146.4

4^th Great Britain 156.3

5^th New Zealand 160.8

6^th Netherlands 209.8

Full results here