Main image: Lara de Liedekerke-Meier homebred Hooney d’Arville. Image: Luhmühlen Horse Trials.
Lara de Liedekerke-Meier (BEL) and Hooney d’Arville have won the LONGINES CCI5*-L at Luhmühlen Horse Trials, while Tom McEwen (GBR) with CHF Cooliser and Yasmin Inham (GBR) with Rehy DJ took second and third place respectively.
Lara won the hearts of the Luhmühlen crowd with the obvious love for her self-bred horse. Having steadily moved up the leaderboard from sixth after dressage to third after cross-country, the pair went clear in the final show-jumping. Happy, but not expecting to take the win, she retired to the warm-up for a quiet moment with Hooney. When the news hit, that she’d won the first five-star of her career, the first hug was reserved for her horse: “It’s hard to take in. My horse is an incredible athlete. I never thought there would be a chance to win the five-star. I just knew I had a good horse and wanted to jump the best round that I could. [Sunday] was our day. I just managed to put everything together. Thanks to my team and thank you Luhmühlen for organising a show of this calibre – all the public was amazing.”
Tom McEwen: “I’m absolutely delighted with Cooliser. She was brilliant [Saturday] and [Sunday]. She’s very game and in the arena, I remembered why it’s much easier to do things her way. I wasn’t expecting to move up the ranks. Ros is probably the best rider in the world and Izilot is one of the best jumpers, so I absolutely wasn’t expecting this.”
Yasmin Ingham, who has climbed from 28th to third, finishing on her dressage score was delighted: “That’s the story of eventing, it’s never over until we have finished on the final day. I was a little disappointed after the dressage because we lost some points there but I know what to work on now. I know he’s a phenomenal cross-country horse and jumper, so I was really looking forward to Saturday and [Sunday]. He was just amazing, careful, rhythmical and fast, making my job so easy. He doesn’t look fast but he just eats up the ground and is just so ridable and adjustable, I don’t have to set him up much before the fences. We know each other inside out, because our partnership has developed over such a long time. I’ve had him for so long now and we’ve worked our way up the ranks from novice.”
Yasmin Ingham wins the CCI4*-S Meßmer Trophy
Yasmin Ingham (GBR) and Banzai du Loir (29.3) won the CCI4*S, while Tom McEwen (GBR) and JL Dublin (29.6) finished in the runner-up position, and Michael Jung (GER) and fischerChipmunk FRH (30.9) dropped to third place but won German Championship title.
It was her weekend: Yasmin Ingham already placed third in the LONGINES CCI5*-L, before taking the win in the CCI4*-S Meßmer Trophy with a beautiful clear round in Sunday’s influential show-jumping course.
The British rider was delighted with her horse’s performance: “It means the world to me. This weekend he’s excelled in all three phases. He was absolutely fantastic [Saturday] in the cross-country, on all his lines with pricked ears, looking for the flags. In the show-jumping he was also pretty perfect and felt brilliant. He’s the perfect athlete because he has ability in every phase: very elegant with a lot of presence in the dressage, brave and fast in the cross-country phase and agile in the show-jumping. So he has the ability to come out on top in all three phases. I feel very lucky that I’m able to ride him.”
Fellow Brit Tom McEwen, was also full of praise for his horse: “Dubs has been absolutely fantastic, he can go a lot better on the flat but he was really smooth across country and the show-jumping was beautiful. I’m delighted with him.”
Michael Jung was in the lead until fischerChipmunk had a rail in the show-jumping, dropping the pair into third place. He still managed to secure the title of German champion and didn’t show any disappointment, focusing instead on everything that went well: “It’s been a fantastic week. I want to thank my whole team and the crowd here in Luhmühlen. Thank you for cheering us on, it means a lot. I’m very proud of my horse. Sadly, we had one fence down, but he gave me a very good feeling in the warm-up and also in the course, I was just a bit unlucky in the last combination.”
Sandra Auffarth, runner-up in the German Championship with Viamant du Matz was very pleased with her Luhmühlen weekend: “I’m super happy. It was a pleasure to ride here, so much fun to ride in the cross-country course and the show-jumping with the crowd cheering us on. My horse did a really good job in all three disciplines. We’ve really worked on improving the dressage and it’s starting to pay off.” Calvin Böckmann, who took the bronze with his horse Altair de la Cense, explained that he’d come to Luhmühlen hoping to improve his horse’s self-confidence further: “We’ve been partners for seven years now. Last season we had some misunderstandings in some of the courses, so this was just the second four-star again, so I just wanted to help him gain self-confidence and take it step by step and fence by fence. He was just amazing [Saturday and Sunday].”
Ryan Wood, who travelled from his base in the US to compete at the event with horse Cooley Flight, was the highest placed Australian in 29th place on a score of 45.4, with just one rail down on the final day. Kenya Wilson and Sandros Salute MW were 44th on 78.8; and Isabel English and Cil Dara Dallas were 48th on 85.
