Even on their home ground at Blenheim, eventers from Great Britain couldn’t top The Terminator.
Although the Brits made their mark in the top 10 to stand second as a team when the dressage phase wrapped up Friday at the FEI Agria European Championships, Germany’s Michael Jung went to the top of the leaderboard as usual, with fischerChipmunk FRH on a sparkling mark of 18.3 penalties. He also led Germany to the top of the team standings.
Judge Sandy Phillips characterized the dressage over which she officiated as “the gold standard.”
She explained, “We had some very high-class competitors, and they put on an amazing show, showing the balance and suppleness that are essential for achieving top marks in this phase.”
Michael Jung and Fischerchipmunk FRH (FEI photo/Benjamin Clark)
The home team’s Laura Collett on the irrepressible London 52 settled for second, earning a mere 20.6 penalties. Another Brit, Tom McEwen, is third with the reliable JL Dublin on 26.2 penalties, just 0.7 penalties ahead of Austria’s Lea Siegl (Van Helsing P), while Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier slipped into fifth guiding Hooney D’Arvile (27.7). But Britain’s Bubby Upton aboard Its Cooley Time (28.9) stands eighth and her country’s world champion, Yasmin Ingham (Rehy DJ), is ninth (29).
The Germans, while leading in the team standings, also are in hot pursuit individually behind Michi. The overnight leader from Thursday, Malin Hansen-Hotopp, a member of her nation’s silver medal team at the last Europeans, is sixth with 27.8 on Carlitos Quidditch K. Her countrywoman, Libessa Lubeke (Caramia 47), ranks seventh with Caramia 34.
Michi reported on his first visit to Blenheim Palace, “I am really excited and very proud of FischerChipmunk, he’s just an amazing horse. A big thank you to his owners, my friends at the Fischer Group. It’s such a joy to ride this horse every day. He was really good in front of me; I could always ride him forward from my legs. Of course, there are always little things to improve, but that’s normal.”
For her part, Laura Collett noted about her mount, ““He is a total showman. He goes in there and just loves showing off to a crowd. I was shaking when I came out, he owes me absolutely nothing, but he just keeps delivering.
“He’s done this test so many times now that he’s got a bit wise to it; he thought he should have halted at X, which was a shame, but otherwise he was completely with me,” she added.
Laura admitted her build-up to the event hadn’t been entirely smooth.
“I had a lesson on Tuesday and missed every single flying change. I had a complete meltdown; it was a disaster. Then today, just as I was about to ride into the arena, he grabbed the bit and tried to run off,” she confided.
“But once inside, it’s as if butter wouldn’t melt. He knows everyone’s watching and he’s ready. He tests my nerves that way, but I just have to trust the system, and trust that he knows when it matters. To get that real wow factor, he apparently needs a palace and a big crowd. He just knows when it really counts.”
There probably is little doubt that the 1.4-penalty difference between the leading German squad and the Brits will change dramatically in one direction or another after Saturday’s cross-country, but we have to wait and see how the course designed by Mark Phillips (Sandy Phillips’ ex-husband) will ride.
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