Tim has been out in Holland since Tuesday morning so has had plenty of time with Falco and Coup de Coeur Dudevin (Joker) to get into three day mode. Yesterday they jogged up and the relatively small class of 4L horses did dressage this morning (Friday). There are just 19 starters in the 4L compared to 66 in the 4S but you have to be pretty on song with your horse to do a 4L this early in the season!
A fruitful morning though as by lunchtime Tim was in the lead on Falco on a very smart 23.6 and lying 5th on Joker on 29.6. Impressive form from both horses as Joker hasn’t been in a proper international arena since he won Fairhill in 2022. Falco hasn’t been in one since Aachen in July last year either so they both pulled out all the stops with just a couple of OI’s under their (muddy) belts at Tweseldown and Lincoln in the last couple of weeks.
The judges all agreed that Falco was their winner but the Spanish judge at E was some way behind the other 2 with Joker which dragged his score down a little but impossible not to be happy going into cross country with 2 in the top 4!.
Qualification is the name of the game this weekend though so I am pretty sure the boys may slip down the order a little tomorrow. Both horses are very much in strong contention for Paris and no will remember who won Kronenberg in 6 months time.
Live results and start times on Rechenstelle: https://rechenstelle.de/en/agenda/2024/kronenberg/
And Cross country will be live on ClipMy Horse: https://www.clipmyhorse.tv/en_GB/