Australia’s Boyd Exell wore out the superlatives. What can you say about a man who has taken eight consecutive world four-in-hand driving titles?
Boyd Exell on the podium for his eighth individual medal with Dries Degrieck and Chester Weber. (Photo © FEI / Wilco van Driessen)
Yes, he did it again at the FEI World Championships on Sunday, collecting only 0.3 penalties in the concluding cones segment to stay comfortably ahead of Belgium’s Dries Degrieck, 142.64 penalties to 148.85. Chester Weber of the U.S., who won the dressage phase last week, finished with the bronze medal despite 3 cones penalties that brought his total to 156.77.
Boyd missed out on another gold, however, as the Netherlands took the team title on 315.13 with a boost from a winning cones effort by Bram Chardon, while Australia settled for second with 317.25 after Tor van den Berge, the other member of the two-man team from Down Under, collected 8.89 penalties in cones.
Belgium finished third on 325.52, while the U.S. team that also included Taren Lester and Jimmy Fairclough in addition to Chester was fifth of 13 nations with a score of 354.91. That was just behind fourth-place Germany on 334.35.
So what was Boyd’s reaction after his victory: “I feel relief. We’ve got good horsepower and I brought my old horses to this World Championship.
“I’d like to pay tribute to a horse called Celviro who was injured at Royal Windsor this year and wasn’t able to come. He was a three- ay leader for me, so there was a bit of a change around for the rest of the season. But I brought my favorite old horse, Checkmate, and he’s so good in dressage and cones, and he’s 19, so he gave me a lot of confidence to be strong for the Aachen World Championship.”
Boyd added, “Daan, who is 18 now and has won medals before, was brought in this year because he’s renowned as a fast cones and marathon horse.”
Discussing Australia’s team success, Boyd reflected on his work with teammate Tor van den Berge.
“With no drop score, everything counts, and Tor and I have been working together and practicing for this occasion and that’s paid off.”
The world champion paid tribute to the Australian fans who were vocal in their support at every stage, plus course designer Alexander Flocke of Germany and the grounds team at Aachen, who overcame extreme weather conditions to keep the going as good as possible.
Chester, who also won bronze at the championships in Hungary two years ago, knocked a cone early on the course.
Chester Weber on the cones course. (Photo © FEI / Wilco van Driessen)
He gave credit to his equine partners, saying, “I’m super pleased with the horses. It was a great way to start off the event with an impressive win in the dressage. I was also happy on the cross-country and we had a great team of supporters around.
“I knew what I needed to do to stay in medal contention, knowing that Dries and Bram were going out there fighting too. We tried to drive as cleverly as we could yesterday and it all worked out.
“I had an unfortunate cone number two down, which was my fault and definitely not part of my plan. So I thought, ‘Now I’ve got to make it happen,’ and my horses did a fantastic job. My support staff helped so much, too, because this is a team sport; you just can’t do it alone and you need people around you who are passionate. It takes such a huge level of care to get five horses ready for a World Championship.”
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