The lead changes at the show jumping World Cup finals

The deck was shuffled in the second jumping competition at the Longines FEI World Cup Finals in Omaha, with two riders on the move tied at the top, while Wednesday’s leader, world champion Henrik von Eckermann of Sweden, found himself demoted to third. A downed rail kept him out of the eight-horse jump-off, an uncharacteristic mistake with the superb King Edward.

Richard Vogel of Germany, who ended Wellington, Florida’s Winter Equestrian Festival with a win in the featured $500,000 5-star Rolex class on Cepano Baloubet, topped last night’s test with United Touch S, an 11-year-old Westfalen stallion he saved for his Cup campaign.

Despite his victory, he is fourth in the overall standings.

Andreas Schou of Denmark, third in the class, with the Holsteiner Darc de Lux is tied overall at the top of the standings on 0 penalties with Switzerland’s Pius Schwizer (Vancouver de Laniore), who was fourth in the class. They are two points ahead of Henrik, and five ahead of Richard, in the Cup’s complicated scoring system. I won’t even try to explain it; all I was told was that “fractions are rounded down” in determining placings.

Interestingly, although Richard was advised by McLain Ward to come to Omaha (where McLain won the Cup in 2017), he couldn’t enter until someone else scratched.

Training with McLain was important for Richard’s success in Florida.

“Every step he takes, he thinks about first and that helped me a lot, because I am naturally more an instinct rider and don’t try to over-think it, so it’s a very good combination for me and I benefitted a lot from his support,” Richard explained.

United S was second at the German young horse championship, which gave him his claim to fame. But Richard pointed out, “To be honest, everyone thought he was a bit too slow. Scopewise, of course, he can jump everything, but was he clever enough in technical courses?”

I guess we now know the answer to that one.

“So I am happy that we have such a good relationship and he helps me out enough times and I try to help him as much as I can,” Richard continued. I

“It works very well, and we had some great results indoors and outdoors, so I think we have a very good partnership,” added Richard about the horse he started riding six months ago.

Richard’s fault-free jump-off round in 35.11 seconds was just a narrow 0.14 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Harry Charles of Great Britain on Balou du Reventon. If that horse’s name sounds familiar, it’s because until the end of last year, he was ridden by Brian Moggre of the U.S., who competed in the  2022 world championships on him. And if Harry’s name rings a bell, it might be because he’s the son of Peter Charles, a member of Britain’s 2012 Olympic gold medal team.

A lost stirrup probably affected Harry’s time, the top Under 25 rider said, also noting that his mount is “not really a horse, he’s Pegasus.”

Hunter Holloway with the clever Pepita con Spita is still the highest-placing American, fifth overall, while Devin Ryan, on the comeback trail with Eddie Blue, is tied for ninth with Britain’s Scott Brash (Hello Jefferson) and Norway’s Victoria Gulliksen (Equine America Papa Roach). They all have 10 penalties. But enough of the numbers; my head is spinning.

Hunter, whose family is in Kansas, two hours from Omaha, is a regular at the Omaha Equestrian Foundations shows in this city, so she’s at home here.

Calling her mare “stronger than ever,” Hunter noted she “has really come this week to play and she’s definitely top of her game and I’m just trying to keep up with her. Round one was super today and she jumped great again and fought hard for me and we had an unlucky rail when I was a little deep in the jump-off, but she was excellent.

Devin hit the heights in 2018 when he came from seemingly out of nowhere to finish second at the World Cup finals in Paris before going on to ride on the U.S. gold medal team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games. An injury to Eddie took Devin off the Olympic shortlist for Tokyo.

But they’re back now, though Devin makes sure not to overuse his horse of a lifetime. Naturally, he was hoping to jump double-clear (Eddie can handle big fences, but he’s not a speed demon). The back rail at the final fence in the tiebreaker derailed Devin’s otherwise perfect trip as Eddie twisted in the air a little over the obstacle and touched the pole with his back toe. Devin felt in retrospect it would have been better to do seven strides to that oxer rather than eight. Nothing like 20/20 hindsight, as every rider can testify. True to form, he wasn’t fast, finishing on four faults in 38.95 seconds.

I saw Devin having a post-competition conversation with U.S. coach Robert Ridland, so that should tell you something about the future of this combination.

The course built by Bernardo Costa Cabral of Portugal used a lot of solid-colored rails, which can be harder for horses to see than poles with a pattern or stripes. There were also a couple of airy verticals, and even an airy wall (solid on top, pillars on the bottom).

Richard called the first round “pretty technical, there were enough short lines.” He termed it, “a tough enough class. Not too easy, not too soft. I think the course builder did a good job.”

McLain dropped from 11th–theoretically in striking distance of victory–to 30th, the cut-off to qualify for Saturday’s final competition. He toppled three rails with Callas and collected a time fault.

Even so, “It felt like quite a nice round,” McLain reflected.

“I could maybe fault myself a little at the first oxer (at fence 6).  I was a little worried about the front rail and pulled her a little bit off the floor and she didn’t finish.

“She felt a little bit tired tonight,” he mentioned.

“She hasn’t done back-to-back days since I’ve been riding her. I thought the course was really good, I thought it was a much better course tonight than last night (Wednesday), which I thought was not challenging enough.

“The ground (footing) is average and I think that affects the horses a lot ,” noted McLain, who believes that may have caused Callas’ fatigue. Henrik had mentioned last night that he felt the footing was deep and tiring in spots.

Friday is all about the dressage freestyle. The jumpers have the day off and will come back on Saturday night for the two-round finale. Click here for the results of Thursday’s class. Click here for the overall Cup standings. Want to see the course? Click this link.