German eventers got off to a flying start at the World Equestrian Festival, the CHIO Aachen. After dressage and jumping, the superstar German team holds a significant lead, though tomorrow’s road to victory is over a tough course.
“Our message is that we want the trophy back!” says Hans Melzer, the eventing national coach, who feels sure that the team can clinch it. His riders, Ingrid Klimke with Horseware Hale Bob OLD, Michael Jung with La Bioshetique-Sam FBW, Sandra Auffarth with Opgun Louvo and Josefa Sommer with Hamilton – are lying first, second, third and 14th, in that order, after the dressage and jumping.
To achieve his aim, Hans seems to be modelling his strategy on that of his colleague Otto Becker, the German national jumping coach: combining three old hands (the silver-winning Olympic team of Rio, Klimke, Jung, Auffarth) and one newcomer (Sommer) results in Nations’ Cup victory.
Although designer Rüdiger Schwarz has set some difficult tasks in his cross-country track over the Aachen Soers meadows, Hans says, “The course is comparable with a championships one, really difficult, but I don’t think riding clear is going to be the problem – remaining under the allowed time is going to be the decisive criterion. That’s not going to be easy!”
The Germans have a clear lead. With an interim score of 105 penalty points after dressage and jumping, they are ahead of last year’s winners from Australia (122.70) and Sweden (135.80). Team New Zealand was in third spot at the end of the dressage, but slipped to fourth after the show jumping on their score of 144.
Team GB is fifth, followed by France and Ireland. Pippa Funnell and Billy the Biz were eliminated in the show jumping when Billy pecked badly on landing at the penultimate double, firing Pippa off.
Sir Mark Todd (riding Leonidas II) is the best of the Kiwis, fifth after the first two phases on 38.1, with Blyth Tait and Darius 21st on 51.4, Jock Paget and Xavier Faer 27th on 54.6 and Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy 30th on 55.1. Tim is also competing as an individual on Cooley Showtime, and they are 31st on 55.7.
In the dressage, the top 10 combinations in the 38-strong field all scored under 40, with Sir Mark on 37.1 for fifth, Jock 42.6 for 17th, Tim on Ringwood Sky Boy 47.1 for 22nd, and on Cooley Showtime 23rd on 47.7 and Blyth 29th with 51.4. However, the jumping saw a big change, with only 18 competitors going clear inside the time. One of these was Blyth. Sir Mark picked up a single time fault and held his fifth placing, Tim added eight faults apiece with Ringwood Sky Boy and Cooley Showtime, and Jock, who obviously had a challenge having just picked up the ride – only for this event – on Xavier Faer, added 12 penalties to his dressage score.
The Australians also have promising prospects in the individual classification. Shane Rose with CP Qualified is currently lying fourth on 36.70, and Christopher Burton and Nobilis are seventh (40.60). The remaining team members are Emma McNab with Fernhill Tabasco (45.40) and Katja Weimann with BP Cosmopolitan (66.50).
