Sensitive soul and a British leader: dressage shake-up early on day two of eventing Europeans

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European Eventing Championships dressage: Sandra Auffarth and Viamant Du Matz
Sandra Auffarth and Viamant Du Matz at the 2023 European Championships.
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

The leaderboard has had a shake-up on the second morning of the European Eventing Championships dressage in Haras du Pin, France. Tom McEwen and JL Dublin produced a sublime peformance for 22, a personal best for the pair, to take the lead. They currently sit just ahead of the overnight leaders Yasmin Ingham and Banzai Du Loir on 23.6.

Germany’s Sandra Auffarth has great memories from Haras du Pin as the world champion back in 2014, and this time she is riding Viamant Du Matz. This energetic chestnut thrives on the jumping phases, but he knuckled down to produce a correct test for 28.6, fifth at this stage. Although this 14-year-old Diamant De Semilly gelding is not quite in the same stratosphere as Sandra’s previous star Opgun Louvo, this is his fifth championship and he delivered one of his best dressage tests to date.

Martha Terry
Martha Terry
Features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.