Sandra Auffarth leads for Germany on Opgun Louvo
While Libby Law was snapping away at Aachen for today’s photo gallery, I managed to watch some, sadly not all, of the dressage phase online. Jonelle Price was the first rider I saw on the nine year old grey horse Faerie Dianimo, a stunning young prospect that won the Burghley Young Event Horse 5 year old Championships in 2010. Known as ‘Maggie May’ at home and the princess of the yard, she certainly showed some light elegant movement suited of a princess and, despite breaking in the first medium trot and getting a bit excited during the changes, they went into the lead after the first break on a score of 45.60
Germany’s Dirk Schrade on his WEG nominated mount Hop and Skip immediately followed and scored 46.40 to put them in second place and another very experienced rider, Andrew Hoy riding Rutherglen followed soon after. It wasn’t their day and Rutherglen seemed somewhat toey, especially in the halts; the new arena with its expanded seating (although certainly not full by any means) seemed to be unsettling for some of the horses. By the end of the morning they were in an uncharacteristic 31st place on 50.40 but a clear show jumping round moved them up to 23rd.
The young French riders are really making the world take notice of them in the lead up to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Astier Nicholas riding Piaf de b’Neville rode a relaxed and accurate test to score 44.8 and take the lead from Jonelle and Maxime Livio on Qualio des Mers finished in 12th after dressage (42.40). But it was British born Thomas Carlile who grew up and resides in France who finished the day as the best of the French riders in fourth place, having scored 39.20 in the dressage and added only one time fault to his score in the show jumping riding the Selle Francais gelding Quiro de Hoy. Thomas won both sections of Le Lion d’Angers last year and we chatted to him at Le Pin – this is one to watch in Normandy.
Tim Price and Wesko
Piggy French was clearly delighted with Jakata’s performance in the dressage when they took the lead for a while on a score of 43 with a very polished performance but it was America’s Clark Montgomery on Loughan Glen who were the first to score a sub-40 mark. Finishing third after dressage, they added four faults in the show jumping to be in fifth place heading into the cross country but they have Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam, who added a rail and two time faults to their dressage score of 36.20, hot on their heels in sixth place.
Michael was beaten in the dressage by his team mate, Sandra Auffarth riding Opgun Louvo who put in a lovely test and jumped clear. With her score of 33.80 she has 6 penalties in hand over the Luhmuhlen winner, New Zealand’s Tim Price and Wesko. Sandra’s nemesis, Chris Burton is in eighth place riding Graf Liberty on a score of 43. Chris’ test started really well and he was up on Sandra’s score at the beginning with 8’s and 9’s but an error of course and some sticky moments in the canter circles brought the average down, although interestingly the judge at H, Christina Klingspor from Sweden, still had Chris in the lead. Chris and Graf Liberty also had one rail down in the show jumping
Chris Burton and Graf Liberty
On the surface the judges’ scores seemed a little erratic at times with Andrew Nicholson probably not being a happy bunny –his scores ranged from 164 to 187 but actually, when you look closely at each movement on his test sheet (view here) the variations were not huge – for example only one movement had a variation of more than two marks. Another Kiwi, the long legged Lucy Jackson did a very nice test on Willy Do to be in fifth place after dressage but unfortunately two rails and six time penalties sent her crashing down to 27th.
Can Orlando make the British WEG team?
With Sandra in the lead, Ingrid Klimke riding FRH Escada JS in third and Michael in sixth, it is not surprising that Germany leads the Nations Cup team competition on a combined score of 124.20 while Great Britain are in second place on 136.40, France third on 137.40 and Australia fourth with 139. Young Izzy Taylor who really has been on a roll this year was a stand out in the dressage for Britain on Orlando and is in seventh place while William Fox-Pitt on Chilli Morning is in 12th just ahead of Paul Tapner and Kilronan for Australia but there is an exciting day ahead for them all tomorrow. Check out every fence on the course they will be riding here
Paul Tapner and Kilronan jumped double clear for Australia
View our dressage/show jumping photo gallery
You don't really need to understand German to get the drift of what Ingrid is saying in the video below!