Britain lost half its team relatively early in the cross-country phase of the Agria FEI European Eventing Championships, as a fall by pathfinder and world champion Yasmin Ingham (Rehy DJ), then a tumble from Halo into the water by Piggy March, means their nation will not come near the podium for team medals on home ground at Blenheim Palace. But individual medals are still well in sight for the Brits.
Following dressage, the British –who had been favored to take the title — were second as a team to the Germans, whose Michael Jung was leading the individual standings on fischerChipmunk FRH. But after her team was eliminated from contention Saturday, Laura Collett shone a light for Britain individually on cross-country, overtaking Michi to lead the individual standings with London 52 (26.6). She had only 6 time penalties on the Mark Phillips-designed route. No one made the 10:01 optimum time.
Laura Collett and London 52 lead the way at the championships. (FEI Photo by Benjamin Clark)
The score is now 28.3 for Michi, who had 10 time penalties with fischerChipmunk FRH, so he switched places with Laura and stands second. Another British bright light was Tom McEwen, third with JL Dublin on 33 penalties, 6.8 of which involved time penalties.
The course designer observed, “The rounds from Collett, Jung, and McEwen were world-class. The time was always going to be tough because of the water and the terrain. And I added a few extra speed bumps.”
While Mark knew it would have been possible to make the time, he commented, “There weren’t many horses capable of it. What you saw was that the best-trained horses, those three, were simply in another league.”
Tom McEwen agreed, “The time is doable, but you have to be as quick as you are smooth, which is quite a tough combination.”
Laura was full of praise for her horse, saying, “I can’t quite believe it. He just dug so deep. He owes me nothing, but he keeps on giving. The crowd was amazing, and you can see from the dressage he loves all that and it really got us going and kept us going all the way to the end.”
Discussing Sunday’s show jumping finale, Laura thought about what happened when she faced Michi in the 2024 Olympics.
“I let him beat me in Paris last year after a fence down. Let’s hope I don’t do it two years on the trot,” she said.
Michi said of his 17-year-old campaigner’s cross-country performance, ““He galloped really well; fast, strong, and responsive. He gave me a super feeling everywhere. My plan was to go as fast as possible without pushing him too much.”
Meanwhile, Bubby Upton, riding as an individual for Britain, continued her country’s bad luck streak when she was eliminated for a fall from Its Cooley Time. Another British individual rider, Caroline Harris (D.Day), also had a fall.
Germany continues to lead the team standings, as Calvin Bockmann is in fourth place with the fastest time of the day, a mere 5.6 time penalties on Phantom of the Opera (36.5). He is tied with Austria’s Lea Siegl (Van Helsing P), who had 9.6 time penalties added to her total, but was better in dressage.
The Irish team is second with 150.7 penalties, giving Germany a more than comfortable margin of 37 penalties for its 150.7 total. Switzerland is third on 161.3.
Click here for the individual standings Click this link for team standings