Andrew Hoy has confirmed that he has the World Championships in his sights as he hopes to impress Australian selectors with his Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials performance.
The eight-time Olympian is contesting the Luhmühlen CCI4*-S with his double Tokyo medallist 17-year-old Vassily De Lassos, who he owns with Dreams Come True V LLC.
The pair – who have a combined age of 84 – look on super form. They had small blip in the right counter canter transition in their dressage and finished on a score of 32.7, which puts them 16th going into the cross-country phase.
Andrew told H&H he was “really happy” with the test.
“I’ve had a 10-year relationship with Vassily, and with all the dressage training that I’ve done in that 10 years, the score is somewhere between a 27 on an absolutely fantastic day to a 33 or 34 – so I’m very happy,” he said.
Andrew Hoy confirmed that he has brought Vassily to Luhmühlen Horse Trials with the aim of selection for the World Championships in Aachen, having had discussions with the Australian team management. If selected, it will be their fourth championships together. They were last on the world stage at the 2022 World Championships, having won individual bronze and team silver at the Tokyo Olympics a year earlier.
“There have been many horses that have run at championship level at 17 years of age, and many horses at the top level at that age,” he said.
“With him being healthy and me being healthy, if he’s feeling well and got the performances, then that’s something we want to do. Vassily is a horse that just absolutely loves competition.”
Andrew Hoy: “He feels absolutely amazing”
Discussing how he’s preparing Vassily for Aachen, Andrew said a key part of that is “not running him at every show possible”.
“This is his third run this year. He’ll have another run before Aachen, should I be selected,” he said.
“He feels absolutely amazing; walking out of the main arena today all he wanted to do was buck and gallop out. He’s ready for the next phase.”
Andrew is another rider who believes time will be a big factor in tomorrow’s cross-country (20 June).
“I think the time is going to be a real challenge. Mike Etherington-Smith designs a very good course with the distance in combinations just a little bit wide, which means you need to slow down for them,” he said.
“There are many sectors in the course where you’re only going to be doing 400-450 metres a minute – and the areas that don’t have fences you can’t go really, really fast in all cases. Just in the last 40 seconds you’ve got six jumping efforts, so that’s not a quick part of the course.”
Luhmühlen Horse Trials CCI4*-S leaderboard
It’s a German top three in the CCI4*-S Meßser Trophy; Julia Krajewski and Bernd Heicke’s Uelzener’s Nickel are on top after posting a superb 22.9 dressage. Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Bodil Ipsen’s Carlitos Quidditch K are second on 27, and Julia is third with Tullabeg Platinum, with 27.2 on the scoreboard.
Cross-country day begins with the CCI5* in the morning at 9am UK time (10am local) with pathfinder Jonelle Price and Grappa Nera. The CCI4*-S gets under way at 1.26pm (2.26pm) and Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp will be first out on her other ride, Callfield. Andrew and Vassily are on at 1.56pm UK time (2.56pm local).
Check out the cross-country times.
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