A beautiful sunny morning in Aachen and the dressage stadium awaited the eventing riders even if the stands had to be said were relatively vacant! it is a very knowledgeable audience in Aachen and the prospect of watching the equivalent of an advanced medium at 8.30 am wasn’t much of a draw it seemed.
It became clear from the outset that the marking was tough and Equiratings announced after the first rotation of team riders that it was the hardest marking Aachen in its present form has seen. Jonelle and Hiarado (Jools) warmed up looking on song and did a superb test with just one error in the first change which was croup high. The rest of the test was mistake free but Jonelle was disappointed with the score of 34.5 which left her in 19th spot.
It’s all relative though…Vitali went in last of the NZ team and performed a beautiful supple and obedient test that was stunning to watch. He did end up in the joint lead with the also stunning Black Ice ( Germany’s Jerome Robine) but it was on a score of 27.3 so with a mistake Jools ended up just 7 marks off the lead. I did point out my stats to her but she just sort of looked at me as if I was consoling a child who had lost their ice cream to a seagull and said that the point was she needed to NOT be some 7 points off the lead. Ever the competitor our Jonelle!
The crowd started to filter back in as they realised that the real dressage was starting again and the riders grabbed some lunch and headed out to walk the track. Monica Spencer was sitting in 3rd on Artist (Max) on 28.8, Clarke Johnstone and Rocket Man ((Rocco) 9th on 32.4 and Sam Lissington on Lord Seekonig (Charlie) in 20th on 34.1 which was good enough to put the team in second by a mere 3 points.
Showjumping started at 6pm and again it was noticeable the crowd thinned but there was plenty of atmosphere in the main arena for a really classy field of eventers. Jonelle and Tim had the luxury of Shane Breen in the warm up and he really is a legend of the sport who is not just one of Ireland’s most capped riders but a true horseman in his own right. Jonelle and Jools jumped a class round for a clear to move up into 13th spot and when Vitali jumped his first fence in the atmospheric last collecting ring he looked like pure jumper. Tim and Vitali executed a fabulous clear round and a clearly delighted Tim was overjoyed to show off his prize pony to the world in his best light. It really was magic to witness when such a world class horse is always derided for his third day jumping. Jerome and Black Ice hit a rail so Tim now leads going into crisis country by 2.7 from Bubby Upton.
Team wise Sam and Charlie jumped clear, as did Clarke and Rocco. Monica and Max picked up 8 faults but it’s still good enough to sit in silver going into cross country tomorrow ahead of the Brits.
Fingers crossed it goes to plan!
