Photo credit Rachel Good
“It’s been a wild day here at Royal Jump” said Jonelle tonight, describing the day as “utter chaos!”. This was backed up by many sources but to be fair to Royal Jump they had an unbelievable spike in entries from 2025, they have been hit by a heatwave that has rocked Europe, breaking May records going back to 1954 and the OC, and the Jump1 team on course, have done their best to sort the problems.
The 4*L kicked off the day early to avoid the heat for the longest XC track but that seemed to have been measured a tad on the generous side with a huge amount of combinations coming under some 30 seconds under time. After that the day was marred with hold after hold which in turn impacted the showjumping schedule as many riders have multiple rides.
Jonelle had her two 2L horses this morning and J’Orange (Daisy) ticked off her first International with a clear in time. It’s not been an easy start to 2026 for Daisy who sat out most of 2025 with an annoying splint bone injury and she has tried to make rapid progress ever since. It was a seriously good decision of Jonelle’s to run her at the 2L level and she bounded around the track with ease.
LSF The Boss didn’t let his supporters down with a solid clear in time to retain his 3rd spot going into showjumping tomorrow. He is little embarrassed that he is a bit older than those heading out to Le Lion but it is not easy when you have spent allot of your formative years in a rural Irish establishment and are a little late to the party. Boy, is Boss making strides to redeem that! He is like a mature student at Uni..
Meanwhile Tim jumped an immaculate clear on Jarillo ( Milo) to retain the lead in the 4*S ( No surprise there but a nice box to tick off) as always, happiest in the arena on his own and away from the other horses. It was pure class and showed Milo is ready for the big stage again on his next outing.
Some long time later than published Jonelle was out on the 3L cross country on her little superstar Faerie Good Golly and was some 20 seconds up on the time when was held at 5 minutes and after a 30 min wait Golly tied up. ( which in horses is the equivalent of cramp in humans…temporary but painful at he same time). So she had no option but to do the long, slow walk home and Jon Hurcomb is out there representing Andre Buthe vets for Team NZ so he will make sure Golly is comfortable tonight. Very frustrating and Golly’s first time ever non completion!
Jonelle returned to the showjumping with Indian Tonic (Indie) who just tapped a rail out in the 3*S. Its a very frenetic arena late in the day with allot of loud crowds and Indie found it really exciting stuff!
Tim then jumped Gloire de Marcheval ( Louis) in the 3S in the early evening to move up to 7th from 10th and complete a long old day in Chaumont-en-Vexin. Shout out to Rosie, Louella and Ruby for keeping the show in the road as always.
Just another day in the rollercoaster ride that is European Eventing!
Results below: