Expect the unexpected
History shows anything can happen at European Championships — it’s all part of the thrill of one of the greatest equestrian events on the calendar, says Jennifer Donald
WITH so much at stake — and we all know how unpredictable horses can be — it’s no wonder that sometimes European Championships don’t always run by the script. Odds-on favourites have crashed out and previously unknown debutantes have produced the most expressive piaffe you’ve ever seen. But since the medals were first decided in 1953, we’ve also witnessed some great heroics. So ahead of next month’s championships, we dip into the history books to celebrate some of the weird and wonderful achievements from the past 60 years of Europeans.
CHARLOTTE DUJARDIN has reigned as queen of the European Championship dressage arena since 2013, but she’s still one championship short of the hat-trick of golds won by the most successful eventing and showjumping riders.
Michael Jung is unbeaten in the past three European Eventing Championships and he could become the first rider to claim a fourth individual gold medal in Poland in August.
The great Ginny Elliot (née Holgate, later Leng) is the only other eventer to have won the individual title three times in succession, in 1985, 1987 and 1989 on Priceless, Night Cap II and Master Craftsman respectively.
“Records are there to be broken, but he hasn’t done it quite yet, we’re still sharing it!” says Ginny. “Not maligning Michael’s achievements, but we did the long format, riders also had to carry weight and it was still a four-star, rather than three-star competition. Back then you needed almost heroic horses and I had three who were equally brilliant in their own way.
“Priceless and Master Craftsman were in a league of their own — you could face them at anything. Night Cap was more of a worrier and his victory in Luhmühlen was perhaps his limit; not a bad limit to have, though!”
Eddy Stibbe holds the record for 12 European Championship appearances, winning individual bronze on Bahlua for the Netherlands in 1993. Mention must also go to the legendary Lucinda Green (née PriorPalmer) who in 1977 became the first rider to defend her title successfully. She rode in seven European Championships, winning 10 medals.
Great Britain’s David Broome and Paul Schockemöhle of Germany remain the only showjumpers to have achieved the European gold hat-trick, but between them brothers John and Michael Whitaker have a haul of seven individual and 18 team European medals. They have jumped on the same team eight times and in Rotterdam in 1989 John (riding Milton) and Michael (Mon Santa) had to fight it out for individual honours. Michael led until the final round when he had the fourth fence down, thus handing the gold to John.
“In Dinard [1985] we’d been lying first and second going into the final and Michael went wrong and I finished third,” says John. “So in Rotterdam we said to each other, ‘Don’t get carried away, as long as one of us wins.’ I was watching Michael thinking, ‘I want to win, but I don’t want Michael to lose’.”
TO anyone of a certain age, the name Deister will immediately resonate as one of the greatest showjumping horses of all times. He and Paul Schockemöhle are the only jumping combination to have earned three European golds, proving invincible between 1981 and 1985 after securing individual silver on their debut in 1979. They also helped the German team to gold, silver and two bronze medals.
Before this duo’s dominance, the charismatic Irish-bred Mr Softee had secured a European treble, with two different riders. Britain’s David Barker took the title with the white-legged gelding in London in 1962, but it wasn’t until five years later that David Broome conquered Europe with individual titles on Mr Softee in 1967 and 1969.
“I said to people they were lucky to see him that day at Hickstead [in 1969] because he was just phenomenal,” says David Broome. “He was a pretty ordinary looking horse, only about 16.1hh, but he was very special — always so positive when you rode him.
“We came from behind to beat Alwin Schockemöhle [on Donald Rex] who was a big star then, so I look back proudly.”
Eventer Jeanette Brakewell’s super partner Over To You may not have secured an individual European medal, but their team performance was second-to-none, with four consecutive European Championship appearances, all of which resulted in gold for Great Britain. “Jack’s” record eighth championship came in 2005 aged 17.
“There won’t be a horse like him again. I’ll be amazed if anyone breaks his records,” said Jeanette.
Pippa Funnell’s exquisitely handsome Supreme Rock also holds a place in the record books as the only event horse to win back-toback titles (1999-2001).
“As soon as I rode Rocky in a couple of novice and intermediate events, I knew he had what it takes,” said Pippa.
The hugely powerful dressage champion Gigolo, ridden by Isabell Werth, produced gold-medal winning performances at an astounding four consecutive European championships between 1991 and 1997.
OBVIOUSLY championships are designed to filter through the best in the sport, but occasionally a shock result proves you should always expect the unexpected.
British eventer Piggy French, then 29, was called up off the subs bench two weeks before the 2009 Europeans and ended up winning individual silver on her senior championship debut riding Some Day Soon, with whom she only teamed up at the start of the year.
“When I was put on the reserve list, I thought the selectors just wanted to show they were interested in me for one day — I didn’t think this was my year at all,” she said at the time. “This just shows dreams can come true, miracles can happen and pigs can fly.”
At the rain-soaked 1993 championships in Achselschwang, Germany, the British team failed to complete for the first time while
Ginny Leng, bidding for a record fourth title and the clear leader after dressage, had a shock run-out in the steeplechase on Welton Houdini.
“He was a spooky horse and there was a grandstand right next to the steeplechase fence,” Ginny recalls.
“The crowd stood up and clapped as we came towards it and Houdini cocked his jaw and ran left — I had both hands on one rein, but I couldn’t stop him. It wasn’t even a proper run-out as it happened about 20 yards in front of the fence. But that goes down as one of my most embarrassing experiences.
“I had another nerve-racking moment the year Priceless won — we were coming downhill towards an enormous bullfinch with a massive ditch in front of it and I thought ‘I need to get cracking’, so I gave him a tiny tap on the shoulder. He gave three big bucks in retaliation and my heart nearly stopped.”
‘This just shows dreams can come true, miracles can happen and pigs can fly’
PIGGY FRENCH
In 2011 in Madrid, John Whitaker, riding Peppermill, made a rare mistake in the opening speed round of the European Showjumping Championships when crashing into an unusual-looking wall. Crucially, though, John remained in the saddle, thus avoiding elimination, helping Great Britain to secure the bronze medal.
William Fox-Pitt (Cool Mountain) made a similarly spectacular save at the second water complex at Luhmühlen in 2011, when Great Britain was already down to a three-man team. Despite floundering round Cool Mountain’s neck when the horse landed awkwardly — and another risky moment later on — William managed to finish clear inside the time.
“I thought I’d keep you all on your toes,” joked William, who finished up the week with team bronze. “We landed underwater and I don’t know how he stood up again.”
In 1973 in Kiev, Princess Anne was one of several riders to fall dramatically at the second cross-country fence, a big spread over a ditch with a downhill approach. The Russians gave her team-mate Janet Hodgson a bravery award for carrying on despite her facial injuries.
And who would have thought that four of Europe’s leading dressage riders would forget their test — and yet three would still make it to the podium? At Herning, Denmark, in 2013, there was brain freeze all-round in the grand prix special as Charlotte Dujardin (Valegro), Helen Langehanenberg (Damon Hill) and Adelinde Cornelissen (Parzival) all went wrong en route to collecting medals.
“It was a case of pat the horse and slap the rider,” said Charlotte.
THE European Championships as we know them haven’t always been such a slick, safe and prestigious affair.
The first medals were awarded in eventing at Badminton in 1953 when six teams were invited, although only Britain and Switzerland had their horses fit in time to compete, as the April date was deemed too early in the season.
At the inaugural showjumping championship in Rotterdam in 1957, only eight riders from five nations turned up (but hats off nevertheless to the first ever gold medallist Hans Günter Winkler).
For the first 18 years, it ran as an individual competition and began with the changeof-horse final format. Hans Günter of West Germany won on Sonnenglanz, as he didn’t want his top mare Halla to be ridden by the other finalists. The following year, without this controversial decider, he and Halla returned along with 23 other contenders to take bronze.
Competitor numbers were well into the 20s for David Broome’s first two gold medals, but at Hickstead in 1969, another new format was in place.
“Competition was always hot though — probably even hotter than it is now,” says
David. “The course that year consisted of 18 numbered obstacles against the clock and it takes a special horse to be able to jump that many fences at speed. The first six were Nations Cup style jumps around the 5ft mark, then the middle section was a set of six puissance jumps, then the final six were speed jumps. The final round was another 12 jumps against the clock, so to come out of that as the winner was just phenomenal.”
Interestingly, the jumping title was once won by a non-European. In 1966 in Lucerne, the competition was opened up to become a global affair and Brazilian Nelson Pessoa became the first and only South American winner. Silver went to Frank Chapot of
USA and bronze to Hugo Arrambide from Argentina. The championships were firmly closed to outsiders once again after that.
The rest of the world was invited to the
1995 and 1997 eventing championships. At the latter, a powerful New Zealand invasion resulted in an overall win for Mark Todd on Broadcast News, although Bettina Hoy (then Overesch) of Germany was crowned the official “European champion.”
A European Dressage Championships was introduced six years after the jumping, having previously been run as an “FEI grand prix”, despite the winners being referred to as European champions. A team competition followed in 1963, but it took another two years for the requisite minimum three countries to be able to field a team of three. From
1965 to 2005, the only country to win gold was Germany (earlier West Germany) — a phenomenal 21 championships in a row.
So it is with great anticipation that we await this year’s European eventing, dressage, jumping and para-dressage championships. Win, lose or draw, it’s all part of the thrill of contesting one of the greatest events.
What are your most memorable European Championship moments? Let us know at hhletters@timeinc.com