‘She‘s an absolute ****ing machine!’ How top riders are faring at the World Championships

Olympic eventing champions Julia Krajewski and Amande De B’Neville of Germany kept the pressure on Britain in the World Eventing Championships cross-country by finishing clear and inside the time. The combination finished on their dressage score of 26.0 to put them in second place individually, behind Britain’s Yazmin Ingham and Banzai Du Loir.

“She’s just an absolute f***ing machine!” said Julia. “For me, she’s the coolest horse. She’s got such a character and she’s super-honest, genuine yet clever. That’s what I love most.”

Julia said the 12-year-old Selle Francais mare is similar to her teammate Sandra Auffarth’s Viamant Du Matz, who also jumped clear this morning, and “if he can do it like that, she’s up to it as well”.

“She felt amazing throughout the course, there’s nothing I can complain about. Yes, it’s a twisty course, but it’s a championship. Tokyo was for me more intense and more stressful to ride. Here, there were difficult questions, but you always had some time in between to reorganise yourself, and pat your horse.

“I find it’s a course built in a way that we might have to work, but if you’re not quite up at the level, you have the chance to get home because you can just slow down a bit and the horses have the chance to jump and make it home in a good way. So I have to say, well built. I know that some riders complained more, but for my horse it was very good.”

British-based Frenchman Gaspard Maksud and the nine-year-old mare Zaragoza also finished inside the time, by four seconds, to add nothing to their 27.1 dressage score to put them in fourth place at that stage.

“It was hard work!” Gaspard said. “The mare was very good. She’s super-class; nine years old, galloping round the World Championships – to do what she did, clear inside the time, not too many nine-year-olds do that. It doesn’t matter who’s on top of them, they’ve got to be quite special to do it.”

Gaspard said he was “a bit worried” about the first combination, the Slide, adding: “I prepared a lot to make sure she went down slowly and jumped well, and she was very good. I thought all the way, she was good.”

The USA’s Tamie Smith and Mai Baum jumped a super world Eventing Championships cross-country clear inside the time to put them in second place at this stage, on a score of 24.

“He and I have such a great partnership now,” Tamie said. “He felt strong getting towards the end; this is a hard course for those horses. I said the other day, ‘I think it’s going to be hard for our five-star horses because the jumps aren’t big, but they’re super-technical and twisty and you lose rideability. But he’s such a good jumper and the striding kept getting shorter and shorter and so I had to wrangle him in a couple of times but he was right there, he was just on it and super. I’m really pleased.”

Tamie added that she “didn’t really want to see six” strides down the Slide.

“That was a little ‘Aaargh’!” she said. “But the six was right there and he’s just got a massive stride. He saw it and it was phenomenal. I’m actually glad he did it; it’s always fun to leave one out and have it work!”

Looking forward to tomorrow’s showjumping, Tamie added: “I have an unbelievable magical unicorn in all three phases. He’s a horse of a lifetime and he’s made a lot of dreams come true. So tomorrow – I will take care of him tonight, he felt great to the end. And I know his heart is as big as mine. So I know he’ll give me everything he has.”

New Zealand’s Jonelle Price jumped clear on McClaren, but with six time-penalties to finish on 32.1.

“I felt like I was working a bit, fighting for a few flags,” Jonelle said. “You find yourself leaning in a little bit, trying to get inside those flags, but he travelled very well and he really was genuine for me a couple of times.

“He was a little tired coming home and I just had to nurse him a bit those last couple of minutes. But other than that, I’m happy enough. Clear. I was hoping to get a get-out-of-jail-free card with two clear rounds before me, but that didn’t quite happen and suddenly pressure was on for a clear round.”

Jonelle added: “The showjumping is historically probably his forte, so we’ll just be hoping to get him through the night well and looking for a good one tomorrow.”

Individual Australian combination Shenae Lowings and Bold Venture were initially given 20 penalties for a run-out at the water, but this was removed as it was judged she had not crossed her tracks. This means she finished on 34.7, adding 8.4 time-penalties to their dressage score.

“The horse gave so much, he was very genuine and it was a really almost fun round,” she said. “It was awesome, I could do it again.”

Shenae said her route that initially meant the penalties were given was “a bit of an S line”.

“I did have in the back of my mind that he might jump out a bit far over that top brush, so I had that plan of attack and I just thought ‘I’m just gonna do it’,” she said. “It wasted a couple of seconds but overall, I’m really pleased with him.”

Ariel Grald of the USA, riding Leamore Master Plan as individuals on the World Eventing Championships cross-country, finished 10 seconds inside the time to stay on their dressage score of 32.5.

“This is the horse’s best phase,” she said. “I’ll be honest, I tend to play a little bit safe with him. I know he’s a good horse, but he’s so strong, he has a huge stride. And early in his career I had some mistakes on the cross-country just because of the stride getting away from me. It’s taken me a bunch of years and, honestly, him doing a bunch of five-stars and finally having something hard enough for him to make him go ‘Ooh, this is impressive’! But he was really good.”

You might also be interested in:

‘It’s absolutely gutting’: disappointment for Laura Collett on World Championships cross-country course

‘I could never have dreamed of being in this position’: Yasmin Ingham impresses on World Championships cross-country day

‘It feels like child’s play to him’: Ros Canter first to make the time in Pratoni

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