Eventing Junior and young rider European Championships, Upton House, Eridge and more
Britain’s juniors claim double silver, while the young riders miss out on a team medal but Alex Kennedy takes bronze
BRITAIN’S Racesafe-sponsored all-girl junior eventing team, made up of individual silver medallist Heidi Coy on Royal Fury, Sasha Hargreaves on Playtime, Georgia Bartlett on Spano De Nazca and Elicia Miller on A Sunny Bay, took home team and individual silver at this year’s Europeans. They moved up from third in the team rankings after cross-country, thanks to four fault-free showjumping rounds.
Heidi was competing at her first junior Europeans, after being first reserve last year. Sixth after dressage, she moved up to bronze medal position after an immaculate cross-country round over Pierre Michelet’s course on her own eight-year-old Royal Fury — an “exceptional” horse
who has only once had a crosscountry jumping fault in the three years Heidi has evented him. On Sunday, she overtook Germany’s Alina Dibowski for silver.
“The cross-country started off nice and easy, but the first big question was quite early on, at the first water at fence four. I walked it many different ways as I wasn’t sure how it was going to ride, and after watching a few I decided I was going to go on five strides,” said Heidi.
“It was followed by a nice easy fence, and then another combination, a brush to another angle, then an inviting fence and yet another combination, the barrels. So there were a lot of combinations at the start, to test your brakes and steering.
“After a gallop through the woods, coming back into the main arena, you had the jump coming into the trade stands which was very scary,” added Heidi. “Even my very bold horse was a little taken aback by it — he was always going, but he was just a bit confused which way we’d go. The course ended with more questions at the final water complex.
“In the showjumping, he wasn’t quite as good as he can be, maybe because of the atmosphere. He was a bit tricky, but he is so careful and so genuine that he still jumped a really good round,” added Heidi, who trains with Caroline Moore and with Ian Woodhead on the flat.
The second best-placed Brit was Sasha Hargreaves, 16th after dressage but fifth on Sunday after two clear rounds.
“It’s been an amazing week, with fantastic team spirit. We’ve been able to watch the pure showjumping and dressage which has been really cool,” said Sasha, whose aim was to improve on last year’s placing of 21st.
“The cross-country was a good, testing track — Playtime was quite feisty so I had to work hard with him, but he flew round and the new scoring system made it very intense up at the top. But he jumped really well and tried his heart out, so I’m proud of him.”
France took team and individual gold, with Anouk Canteloup, second after dressage, moving up to gold-medal position after cross-country with Daniel Del Impermeable, and staying there after showjumping.
BRITISH BLUES
IN the young rider section, the cross-country caused some dramatic changes in the rankings, sadly leading to disappointment for the NAF-sponsored British squad. Brits Sam Ecroyd and Bubby Upton were respectively second and third after dressage, but Sam had a refusal at the arrowhead in the last water, dropping down to 32nd.
“We missed some energy at the end of the course, which made it more complicated. I probably did not ride this fence as I should have done,” said Sam. His ride Kasseedorf, like last year’s gold medallist Carismo 22 (Hanna Knüppel), was then spun at the second horse inspection.
Bubby had two refusals at the tricky jump into the trade stands, dropping to 49th, while German dressage leader Emma Brüssau was relegated to sixth place after incurring time-penalties.
Again it was a French combination who took the lead after the cross-country — Victor Levecque and Phunambule
Des Auges, fifth after dressage, moved up to first on Saturday and maintained the position with a clear showjumping round.
“We so wanted to sing the Marseillaise here. The [gold medal-winning] juniors really pushed us, and we had to finish the job,” beamed Victor, who was being referred to by his teammates as “our Mbappé” after the football World Cup hero.
Last year’s individual silver medallist, Brit Alex Kennedy, managed to conclude her young rider career with another individual medal, taking bronze on Lissangle Cavaletto B.
“When we walked the crosscountry, we thought the course itself wasn’t that big, but because of the terrain and deep sand in the forest, the time was going to be very tight,” said Alex. Indeed, the time allowed was crucial, with only four pairs completing the course without time-penalties.
“Horses were coming back tired, also because it was very hot. We were thinking it was going to be really tough to bring the horses back clear and close to the time.
“I was last to go but actually he coped really well,” added
Alex. “He did tire in the woods but when he came back out, he jumped through the water really well. On Sunday, lying sixth before the showjumping, all I wanted to do was go clear.”
Alex credited Emma Fisher for her work in the lead-up to the Euros: “He’s not naturally flashy like the foreign horses, but Emma’s really helped me to unlock a few marks that helped us be a bit further up when really, when you look at him, you wouldn’t think he’d be so far up after dressage! She’s managed us so well during the week, and kept the morale really high,” concluded the Winchester-based rider.
The second-best-placed Brit was Yasmin Ingham, on Edwin and Sue Davies’ and Janette Chinn’s eight-year-old Rehy DJ. They finished on the same score as the bronze medallists, but in fourth as Alex had better dressage collectives. After an excellent dressage, scoring 28.5, Yasmin had a bit of an issue during the cross-country.
Yasmin explained: “Halfway around the course, at fence 12, I was waved down by the fence judges. It turned out the fence was broken and we weren’t allowed to jump it, but I didn’t know and at first I thought I was being held. Then they waved me on past the fence to continue, but at this point I was in trot. I cantered off, and we completed an amazing clear round, but came back with 5.2 time-faults.”
These were appealed, as Yasmin felt she had been slowed down for five or six seconds. Some of the penalties were eventually removed from her score, leaving her with four time-penalties.
Individual Brit Mollie Summerland and Charly Van
Ter Heiden were lying in second on Sunday morning, but two showjumps down dropped her to ninth, making it three British riders in the top 10. The British team finished fourth, behind France, Italy and Sweden.