Karim Laghouag and his speedy “Indoor Cross” specialist, the 18-year-old Punch De L’Esque have done it again, winning the Indoor Cross Country at Le Grand National FFE - AC Print at Pôle Européen du Cheval in Le Mans, France
The Grand National FFE - AC Print of the French Equestrian Federation normally brings together French show jumping and dressage riders in an end of year team finale but, for the first time this year, the Indoor Cross Country was also included. Normally, the FEI CIX-Arena (Indoor Cross Country) competition for France is held at Le Salon Du Paris, which was scheduled to take place from 2nd – 6th December but was cancelled
15 combinations took part in the Indoor Cross competition, including Karim Laghouag (Punch De L’Esque) and Nicolas Touzaint (Calipsso De L’Illion), team bronze medalists and the French Reserve, Christopher Six, at Tokyo 2020 along with well-known French riders Luc Château (Propriano De L’Ebat) and Maxime Livio (Boleybawn Prince)
Julie Simonet, bronze medalist at the last European Young Riders Championships last August, also took part with her 15-year-old gelding, Sursumcord'Or, the first combination on course who finished in fourth place overall
But it was the popular Karim with Anglo Arab gelding Punch De L’Esque, winners of the CIX-Arena in Bordeaux last year and CIX-Arena in Paris in 2019, who once again took the top prize of 4,000.00€ with a clear round in 103.56 seconds
Maxime Livio riding Boleybawn Prince, a horse that competed at Tokyo for the Thai team that Maxime trains, took second place, clear in 104.14 seconds and Camille Lejeune took third on board R'Du Temps Bliniere, clear in 109.79 seconds
The course, which consisted of 19 jumping efforts spanning two arenas, was designed by Alain Ponsot and Thierry Touzaint had a time allowed of 110 seconds (view Course Map Here)
Watch the full competition HERE with Karim’s winning round starting at 42:30 minutes in, Maxime at 1:05:00 and Camille at 38 minutes. It’s fast and furious fun!
Karim and Punch De L’Esque now head to the CIX-Arena in Geneva (SUI) next week where they finished second in 2019, as will Maxime Livio.
Australia’s Andrew Hoy and Germany’s Michael Jung are also among the entries for the CIX-Arena in Geneva, so more indoor eventing to look forward to next weekend!
