Thursday’s eventing dressage action at the FEI World Championships in Aachen appeared to be somewhat of a ‘warm up’ for what was to come, in both performances and temperature alike, and though I don’t typically enjoy weather chat, I really must emphasise just how hot it was at Aachen on day two of the dressage.
Not a breeze was felt, and a scorching 36 degrees of radiating heat (which hits different in Europe, mainly due to far less air conditioning) encompassed the CHIO Aachen venue.
So hot in fact that the Grand Prix Special dressage was rescheduled to an earlier start and enjoyed a three hour siesta for the hottest part of the day.
The eventers, however, strutted on!
Great Britain holds outright teams lead
With all competitors in both the team and individual competitions having now completed their dressage following Friday’s action, top three results formulated the overall team totals and Great Britain maintained their lead from Thursday with a combined mark of 72.8.
Laura Collett and the iconic London 52 delivered a stunning test to a full crowd, and were unphased by the atmosphere, as fortunately a crowd is something the gelding appreciates. “He loves it here; he loves an atmosphere and loves lots of people,” said Laura. They posted a 22.8 penalty score and are the top ranked British combination.
Ros Canter and the equally famous Lordships Graffalo also drew an abundant cheer squad, and as the second last combination in the order of go, built great suspense towards the final dressage results. Live scoring from the judges held their rank as number one throughout, until one small but costly error with a flying change towards the end of the test bumped them up a couple of penalties and down a couple of placings.
“He decided he’d quite like to walk,” laughed Ros, “but I am proud of the fact that he got it back and did the next two really well.” They hold provisional fourth place with 23.4 penalties.
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin attribute the third score to the team total from their test yesterday, with 26.6 penalties and interim fifth place.
Whilst Great Britain now holds the team lead all to themselves, it’s only by the tiniest of margins – Germany is only 0.8 penalties behind them on a combined total of 73.6.
Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel rocketed into a convincing lead early in the day, with a test adored by the judges from the first to final movement, and deserving of an overnight individual first place on 22.0. The performance bolstered the German team into their strong provisional second place.
Fellow German team member Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH were nearly identical in both performance and result, scoring 23 penalties to hold third place, just one penalty behind Julia.
Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K are currently the third counted score for team Germany and still high on the leaderboard (11th place) after their 28.6 penalty test Thursday at their World Championship debut.
The French team, and Paris 2024 silver medallists, climbed the leaderboard from Thursday’s ranking, with Nicolas Touzaint (Diablo Menthe) and Gaspard Maksud (Zaragoza) delivering top 20 performances to hold sixth and 16th places respectively. France’s overall total of 84.5 may seem to be a decent 10.9 penalties behind Germany currently, but is all up for rapid change on Saturday’s cross country course.
Team New Zealand momentarily held the team lead after day one, and now claim fourth place provisionally on 84.8, just 0.3 penalties behind France.
Monica Spencer and Artist felt an atmosphere that “was lit up out there” but delivered a solid performance in front of some passionate New Zealand fans to score 28.9 penalties and 13th place, just one spot behind team mate Clarke Johnstone (Rocket Man).
The final Kiwi to start their 2026 World Championship campaign was Tim Price aboard Falco, who like his team mates before him was performing a consistent and flowing test until a costly misunderstanding occurred in the transition to counter canter, impacting their final score for a 33.7 and overnight 49th placing.
“He was a bit on edge, everything just became a bit less crisp with the aids,” explained Tim, who is now putting the dressage in the rear mirror and looking ahead to cross country. “I bet he’s going to fly tomorrow!”
Switzerland (90.9), USA (93.2), Ireland (93.3) and Australia (95.6) round out the top eight team positions from 16 nations at the conclusion of the dressage phase.
Impressive Aussie performances
The Australian team delivered impressive performances from both their youngest and oldest team members on Friday.
Twenty-two-year-old Oliver Barrett was first into the arena this morning aboard his homebred Adelaide CCI5* winner Sandhills Briar. They held their own on the world stage to post a score of 31.3 and hold 28th place.
“I was really happy with the way he stuck with me, sometimes he needs to pop in his own little movements,” said Oliver. “To be here is really cool. The last couple of months have been a thrill.”
Speaking of his Adelaide result, Oliver was pleased that he did a very similar test to what he did at the Australian event. “It scored pretty much the same, so it’s good to know that our marking and our competitions [in Australia] really stand up with the world.”
Andrew Hoy and his long-time partner Vassily de Lassos capped off a solid two days of dressage for the Australian team, performing a beautiful test; a result of much understanding between Andrew and his equine companion.
“Vassily is an amazing horse, he’s just very, very special. Every day I learn a new way to understand him, not just riding the movements but preparing a horse in the correct way so that he has the ability to do his best.”
They hold seventh position on a score of 26.9 – a personal best dressage mark for the combination after a remarkable 10 competition season together – heading into the cross country phase, and as the most experienced member for Australia, Andrew said he is looking to go out there and do a performance.
Eighty-seven horse and rider combinations and their support crews are now cooling down overnight and preparing to tackle the Giuseppe Della Chiessa designed course from 9.15am local time Saturday morning.
With 42 jumping efforts, 9 minutes and 50 seconds of galloping, and enough turns to rival a Mario Kart course, Saturday’s scoreboard is sure to be shuffled.
Saturday, 15 August: Australian cross country start times
Cross country begins at 5.15pm AEST (9.15am local time)
- Sophia Hill and Humble Glory: 5:31pm AEST (9:31am local time)
- Sam Woods and SS Eight Count: 7:07pm AEST (11:07am local time)
- Olivia Barton and APH Sodoku: 8:15pm AEST (12:15pm local time)
- Oliver Barrett and Sandhills Briar: 9:15pm AEST (1:15pm local time)
- Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos: 10:55pm AEST (2:55pm local time)
Watch the action live with ClipMyHorse.TV
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