SHE’s the sole reigning European champion of 2019 bidding to retain her gold medal title and should Ingrid Klimke win at Avenches, the German rider would become just the third eventer in the history of these championships to record a European hat-trick.

The only other riders to record such a treble are Ginny Leng in the long format era (1985-1989) and Michael Jung (2011-2015), each on three different horses.

Should Klimke win, her triple crown will be up to just one horse: SAP Hale Bob OLD.

Leng’s victories, in the long format era, were courtesy of Priceless, Night Cap and Master Craftsman. Two of the trio – Priceless and Night Cap – were by that popular British sire of event horses, Ben Faerie and Master Craftsman was also by another thoroughbred stallion, Master Spiritus. This meant that the Leng gold medal horses fitted the bill as typical British event horses of that era: at least 75% thoroughbred.

Michael Jung too recorded a treble on three different horses of three different types. La Biosthetique Sam FBW, Halunke FBW and fischerTakinou.

La Biosthetique Sam FBW (Stan The Man xx – Halla, by Heraldik xx. Breeder: Gunter Seiter), the most-medalled horse in modern eventing history, also matched the Jung family’s preference for a high dose of thoroughbred blood in event horses competing at five-star level.

Sam’s bloodlines combine two of the most prolific sires in event horse breeding; Stan The Man and Heraldik. Sold to the Marbach State Stud after previously standing with the late John Shorten in Askeaton, Stan The Man had already produced two Olympic medal horses from his Irish years.

Those horses: Shear H20 (on the British gold medal team at Pau twenty years ago) and Shear L’Eau (two more European team gold medals clocked up with Leslie Law at Punchestown (2003) and Blenheim (2005) were bred in Kilkee by the late Edward Walsh.

The more workmanlike Halunke FBW (Heraldik xx – Jolanda, by Jugol (BAD-WÜ). Breeder: Siegfried Brielmayer) and then the Selle Français, fischerTakinou (Jaguar Mail (SF) – Gita, by Sardana Pierre (AA). Breeder: SCEA Elevage d’Hulm) complete Jung’s golden trio.

Bidding to make history too is SAP Hale Bob OLD (Helikon xx - Goldige, by Noble Champion. Breeder: Dr. Rolf Lueck) with two European championship individual titles (2017, 2019) already to his and Klimke’s credit.

Another with 75% thoroughbred blood, the Oldenburger gelding is typical of the redesigned German event horse competing at four and five-star level. FRH Butts Avondale (Nobre xx – Heraldik’s Amelie, by Heraldik xx. Breeder: Dr. Volker Steinkraus), on the German squad with Anna Siemer, is listed as 99.2% thoroughbred, which is as near thoroughbred as it gets.

You have to go back to 2005 to find any Irish-breds on a German medal-winning team. That year, 50% of their bronze medal team consisted of the brilliant Ringwood Cockatoo (Peacock xx – Baileys Folly, by Skylark (ID). Breeder: Hilary Greer) and Twinkle Bee (Taldi xx – Ballynattin Spring, by Kiltealy Spring (ISH). Breeder: Jay Bowe).

Irish Sport Horses are none too plentiful at this week’s championships. Eleven Irish-breds competed at Luhmühlen two years ago, when Rioghan Rua (Jack of Diamonds (SWB) – Highland Destiny, by Flagmount King. Breeder: Mags Kinsella) and Cathal Daniels won their bronze medal.

That result broke a 10-year gap to the previous Irish-bred medal winner: Some Day Soon (Kiltealy Spring – Hope 2, by Diamond Lad. Breeder: Donald Murphy). That Wexford-bred horse won an individual silver medal for Piggy March, who lines out this week with the sole Irish-bred on the British team: the John Mulvey-bred Brookfield Inocent.

Of the two-dozen European team medals won by Irish Sport Horses in this millennium, 19 of those Irish-bred medal winners were on British teams and Brookfield Inocent is poised to join that elite group.

Daniels, selected again for these championships, was in stellar company on the podium two years ago beside Klimke and Jung, who then won silver on his future Tokyo Olympics horse Chipmunk. By the WBFSH leading event sire Contendro I, Chipmunk changed up the German recipe with a 53% thoroughbred percentage that comes mainly from his Heraldik dam, Havanna.

So how many Irish-breds are on the Avenches list? In addition to Brookfield Inocent, Daniels was selected with LEB Lias Jewel (Limmerick (HOLST) – LEB Liath, by Colin Diamond (ISH) [TIH]. Breeder: Jo Breheny).

Interestingly, the 11-year-old mare’s grandam Gene Pool produced Mary King’s Call Again Cavalier, by Cavalier Royale and bred by John Brennan. King and this other Waterford-bred were on the victorious British gold medal team at Pratoni del Vivaro in 2007.

Owning the sire too of Clare Abbott’s hope Jewelent (Valent (KWPN) – Bellaney Jewel xx, by Rosalier. Breeder: Woods Rosbotham) must be an added bonus for the father and daughter team of Woods and Lisa Rosbotham.

The third Irish Sport Horse on the Irish squad is the sole traditional-bred at these championships: Ballybolger Talisman (Puissance – Ali Row xx, by Ali-Royal. Breeder: Rosemary Ponsonby) who will has a busy schedule, having competed in the Aachen Nations Cup event with Sam Watson last weekend.

Padraig McCarthy was selected with a choice of the veteran Leonidas II (HOLST. Landos – Nairobi III, by Parco xx. Breeder: Gabrielle Pochammer) or Fallulah (WESTF. Fidertanz 2 – Devona, by Di Versace. Breeder: Michael Morris).

Cesar V ((OLD). Casiro I – Cortina R, by Sandro Z. Breeder: ZG Elke & Robert Vietor) is Joseph Murphy’s horse for these championships that kicked off on Thursday.

One Tokyo Olympic horse to line out again for the second major championship this summer is MP Imagine If (Shannondale Sarco – Fast Morning Flight, by Errigal Flight). Bred in West Clare by Pats Hassett and her late husband John, the 10-year-old mare is on the Russian team with Mikhail Nastenko and brings to five the number of Irish Sport Horses at Avenches.

Cathal Daniels, who won bronze at the FEI European Eventing Championships with Rioghan Rua (ISH) in 2019, is selected for Avenches with the Irish-bred LEB Lias Jewel (ISH) (pictured above in action at Rosanna) \ Louise O'Brien Photography

Intriguing year

Rankings-wise, 2021 has proven to be the most intriguing year due to the unprecedented occurrence of both the Olympics and European championships held in the same season.

Just last weekend, the Hippomundo leaderboard scrambled again with Off The Record (VDL Arkansas (KWPN) – Drumagoland Bay, by Ard Ohio. Breeder: Peter G. Brady) overtaking longtime leader Ballaghmor Class after the American team horse’s win at Aachen with Will Coleman.

The Selle Français studbook holds a 200-point lead over nearest rivals, the Holsteiner Verband and Irish Sport Horse rivals in the penultimate WBFSH rankings. It will be interesting to see if the Avenches results will have as much impact on their final rankings of 2021, issued next month, as Aachen has had on the Hippomundo leaderboard.

Did you know

  • This is the third time Switzerland has hosted the European eventing championships. Basel was first in 1954, followed by Frauenfeld (1983) and now, Avenches.
  • The host venue – the Institut Equestre National Avenches (IENA) complex – adjoins the Swiss National Stud. Like many European state studs, the stud also operates as a tourist attraction, educational and research centre.
  • Gustave Eiffel, responsible for the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty, also designed the indoor school at the Swiss National Stud, where stallion residents have included Toulon (Heartbreaker). The INEA indoor school is also modelled on Eiffel’s design.
  • Pre-Covid, up to 800 horses competed at INEA on a busy day. Not only does it run frequent show jumping, dressage and eventing competitions, the centre hosts flat, National Hunt and harness racing.
  • Leslie McNaught, who won an individual bronze medal at the 1999 European show jumping championships on Dulf is the Swiss eventing team’s show jumping coach. Their cross-country coach? None other than Andrew Nicholson, who announced last weekend that he was stepping down from top-level eventing.
  • Durlas Eile (Artists Son. Breeder: Fr Sweeney) and Major Eddie Boylan’s win on home ground at Punchestown in 1967 was the first Irish individual victory in the European championships.
  • The second individual title for Ireland was won by Lucy Thompson on Welton Romance (Welton Louis. Breeder: Sam Barr) at Pratoni del Vivaro in 1995. The British-bred mare was out of a Wilton House dam, Molly Malone.
  • The most recent Irish-bred individual gold medal winner? Sixteen years ago when Toytown (Breeding/breeder unknown) won for Zara Tindall (GB). Four years earlier, Supreme Rock (Edmund Burke xx – Rineen Classic, by Bassompierre xx. Breeder: Lindy Nixon-Good) completed a back-to-back individual gold medal double (1999, 2001).
  • The half-dozen Irish Sport Horses that have won individual medals this millennium are Supreme Rock (Gold. 2001. Edmund Burke – Rineen Classic, by Bassompierre xx. Rider: Pippa Funnell (GB). Breeder: Lindy Nixon-Gray); Toytown (Gold. 2005. Rider: Zara Tindall (GB). Breeding/breeder unknown); Call Again Cavalier (Silver. 2007. Rider: Mary King (GB). Cavalier Royale (HOLST) – My Woodlands Lady VII, by Aristocracy xx. Breeder: Noel Walsh); Ringwood Cockatoo (Bronze. 2007. Rider: Bettina Hoy (GER). Peacock xx – Bailey’s Folly, by Skylark (ID). Breeder: Hilary Greer); One Day Soon (Silver. 2009. Rider: Piggy March (GB). Kiltealy Spring (ISH) – Hope 2, by Diamond Lad. Breeder: Donald Murphy) and Rioghan Rua (Bronze. 2019. Rider: Cathal Daniels (IRL). Jack of Diamonds (SWB) – Highland Destiny, by Flagmount King (ID). Breeder: Mags Kinsella).
  • Little Paint, Frank Ostholt’s individual bronze medal winner in 2011, is by the ZDFP-registered Nitron out of an imported I’m A Star mare, Thank You that jumped at 1.35m level in Germany.
  • Only three stallions – the thoroughbreds Edmund Burke and Helikon, plus the Selle Français, Joly Jumper – have sired dual European champions: Supreme Rock (1999, 2001), Galan de Sauvagère (2003, 2007) and SAP Hale Bob OLD (2017, 2019).
  • John Mulvey, breeder of Brookfield Inocent, originally produced One Too Many NJ (Chacoa – Cul na Breathar, by Colin Diamond. Breeder: John O’Brien) that was on the British silver medal team in 2015 with Nicola Wilson.
  • This week, John is in Lanaken to watch the Richard Bourns-owned Tranquility Bay, bred jointly with Kerrie Anderson, compete in the WBFSH six-year-old classes with Joanne Blair.
  • Despite his capital name, Wilson’s latest championships horse JL Dublin is a Holsteiner by the Diamant de Semilly son, Diarado. Two other Irish-bred possibilities on the Avenches startlist: Shannon Queen (AUT) and Cruising (ESP) turn out to be a Trakehner and Holsteiner.
  • The French team horse Romantic Love traces back on her dam line to a rare stallion son of Shergar: Shercame.
  • Michael Jung’s hopes of a fourth gold medal are pinned on the Holsteiner gelding, fischer Wild Wave, by the Sadler’s Wells grandson Water Dance, while his second dam is by Lux Z.
  • Sarah Bullimore (GB) competed Lilly Corinne (OS. Lovis Corinth – Fatima, by Fierant xx. Breeder: Eberhard Harzendorf) as an individual at the 2015 championships at Blair Castle. Six years later, she’s again part of the British squad for Avenches with Lilly Corinne’s Balou du Rouet 10-year-old son Corouet.

    • Sam Watson and Ballybolger Talisman (ISH) (Puissance - Ali Row xx by Ali-Royal) is the sole traditional Irish-bred selected for the Irish squad at Avenches (pictured above in winning form at Grove) \ Radka Preislerova

    By the numbers

    2007 – the sole year in this millennium for two Irish-breds: Call Again Cavalier (silver) and Ringwood Cockatoo (bronze) to win individual medals.

    2005 – the year when the European championships short format was introduced.

    28 – year gap between Major Eddie Boylan and Lucy Thompson’s individual gold medal wins.

    11– out of 15 individual medals in the past decade won by German riders.

    Nine – of those German riders were on German-bred horses.

    Six – individual medals won by Irish Sport Horses since 2000.

    Three – individual medal-winning horses at the 2015 championships: fischerTakinou (gold), Opgun Louvo (silver) and Qing du Briot (bronze) were all from the Selle Français studbook.

    Two – individual gold medals won by Irish-breds this millennium: Toytown (2005) and Supreme Rock (2001.)

    One – thoroughbred has won individual gold this millennium: Miners Frolic (Miners Lamp – Mighty Frolic, by Oats. Breeder: Maurice Pinto) in 2009 with Kristina Cook.

    Reigning champions

    Gold: SAP Hale Bob OLD (OLD). By Helikon xx - Goldige, by Noble Champion. Breeder: Dr. Rolf Lueck.

    Silver: fischerChipmunk FRH (HANN). By Contendro I – Havanna, by Heraldik. Breeder: Hilmer & Sabine ZG Meyer-Kulenkampff.

    Bronze: Rioghan Rua (ISH). By Jack of Diamonds – Highland Destiny, by Flagmount King. Breeder: Margaret Kinsella.

    Avenches: The Swiss National Stud at Avenches, Switzerland's capital of the horse, is now a major tourist attraction in the area \ Susan Finnerty