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David has two horses entered at Luhmuhlen - seen here presenting Ferro Point
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The sun was out, bowties twirling and horses gleaming at the first horse inspection for the CCI5* competition that starts at the Longines Luhmuhlen Horse Trials on Thursday afternoon
All horses passed with just one horse, Guidam Roller presented by Ireland’s Alex Donohoe, asked to re-present and then accepted by the CCI5* ground jury of Christina Klingspor, Dr. Joachim Dimmek and Nikki Herbert
Britain’s Tom McEwen and Braveheart B will be first down the centreline at 2:30pm as one of 13 British combinations in the CCI5* with New Zealand’s Tim Price also riding on Thursday afternoon on board Spartaco. Both Tim and his wife Jonelle are past Luhmuhlen winners and have three horses between them competing in the CCI5*.
Jonelle Price and Faerie Dianimo
World Number Six Jonelle has the flamboyant 17-year-old grey mare Faerie Dianimo as her sole entry. The British-bred mare owned by Trisha Rickard was her Rio Olympic Games mount, and together they won Luhmuhlen in 2018 and were second in 2015. They were recently seventh in the 4*-S at Millstreet in June.
World Number 10 Tim has twice won the 5* at Luhmuhlen and is entered this time on debutants Vitali and Spartaco. The Italian sport horse Spartaco has three times been in the top 10 of 4*-S classes, in Italy, Ireland and Poland.
Twelve-year-old Vitali, a 12-year-old Holsteiner, was Tim’s Tokyo Olympic Games horse and won the 4*-L at Strzegom in April last year.
Along with the horses, the Price family is heading to Luhmuhlen with two children, one dog, two grooms and one mother-in-law, which makes jumping around a 5* track look like a piece of cake
“It’s always a fun week though,” says Tim “Especially if the weather is good and the forecast looks sunny for the next week, so that’s good!”
Both Spartaco and Vitali are first-timers at 5* level but head to the event well prepared and ready to go.
“Luhmuhlen is a good entry into 5*, especially for horses like these guys,” says Tim. “I am looking forward to three good phases with both. Hopefully, we will get close to the time on the cross country and as close as possible to half-decent dressage scores . . . that would be my hope.”
He said it was a good feeling to be heading back to an event both he and Jonelle had been successful at before.
“It brings with it some confidence and a wee bit of notoriety too with the organisers. It is nice to come back to some people who you have shared special memories with on other occasions. We are both looking forward to all those things this week and hopefully, that breeds success”
Tim Price and Vitali
New Zealander Hollie Swain and her 13-year-old Danish warmblood gelding are also having their first 5* start and head to Germany with three 4*-S starts this year, and a handful of 4*-Ls last year.
There are no Australian combinations is the CCI5*, although Andrew Hoy will be riding Creevagh Cooley in the CCI4*-S Meßmer Trophy which, as the German National Championships and key selection event for the German World Championship team, will be hotly contested by the top German combinations including Sandra Auffarth, Michael Jung and Dirk Schrade
Boekelo winner Sophie Leube and J'adore Moi are the only German combination in the CCI5* competition.
