JUST to cement their absolute domination at the highest level of eventing, the British team utterly ruled the 2021 FEI Eventing European Championships in Avenches, Switzerland, winning team gold and taking all three individual medals.
The all-female British team led from the outset to claim gold – adding that to the gold medal at the 2018 World Equestrian Games and the gold at this summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games, meaning they hold all three major titles.
Nicola Wilson made sure that the girls continue to rule the sport when winning individual gold with championship first-timer JL Dublin, ahead of teammate Piggy French and the Irish Sport Horse Brookfield Inocent in silver. Individual rider Sarah Bullimore rode her home-bred gelding Corouet to the bronze medal.
“This has been very, very special, being with this fantastic group of girls who all get along really well. It’s been fun all the way and the horses have been phenomenal. It’s been a fantastic week for all of the Brits and to finish up there on the top is just a dream come true,” Wilson, the newly crowned European champion said afterwards.
The Swiss venue of Avenches had just six months to plan the big championship and it was well received by the competitors at the racecourse venue. There was gratitude for the Organising Committee, headed up by Jean-Pierre Kratzer, President of the Institut Equestre National d’Avenches. A total of 21,000 spectators came through the gates for the event, including over 10,000 on cross-country day.
Sport
Wilson and the 10-year-old Diarado gelding JL Dublin, owned by Jo and James Lambert and Deirdre Johnston, wife of racehorse trainer Mark Johnson, were lying in third place after the dressage on 20.9, only bettered by Germany’s Ingrid Klimke who was going for her third individual title in-a-row with SAP Hale Bob OLD (20.2) and reigning world champions Ros Canter and Allstar B (20.6).
Bullimore was lying fifth with Carouet (22.8), just ahead of Piggy March and the John Mulvey-bred Brookfield Inocent (Inocent x Kings Servant) in sixth on 23.3. The fourth British team member, Kitty King (Vendredi Biats) was eighth and that left Britain 4.9 penalty points ahead of Germany going into the influential cross-day.
Ireland were 11th of the 13 teams after dressage, while best placed was Clare Abbott with Catherine Abbott, Barbra Allen and Lisa Rosbotham’s nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Jewelent (Valent x Roselier), on 30.4 in 31st place.
Cross-country
As expected, Sally Corscadden’s team rocketed up the leaderboard after the cross-country phase to fifth place. Padraig McCarthy and the since-retired Leonidas produced one of just seven clear rounds inside the time over Mike Etherington-Smith’s course to move up to 14th place individually.
“I had a really great to round,” McCarthy said after. “Sally [Corscadden] said the main thing was to go between the flags and not worry about too many time-faults, but with Leonidas the direct way is often the best; he’s a very fast horse. He jumps a bit like a deer, but he is normally a very safe horse – the best thing is not to get too involved with the reins! He ran all the way to the end and he will keep going and going.”
Abbott added just 5.6 time penalties to her dressage score, while Sam Watson and the 10-year-old Puissance gelding Ballybolger Talisman, owned by his mother Julia, also produced an excellent clear round, picking up 6.8 for time.
Cathal Daniels, who won the bronze medal with Rioghan Rua at the 2019 Championships, had an unfortunate stop at the combination at fence 10 with Jo Breheny’s 11-year-old mare LEB Lias Jewel (Limmerick x Colin Diamond) to pick up 20 penalties, as well as 15.6 time penalties.
Britain extended their lead after cross-country, despite a hugely surprising upset for Canter and Allstar B, who had two uncharacteristic run outs near the end of the course to plummet from silver to 55th overnight.
But it was pure class from the other three, with Wilson and March both coming home inside the time, while King added just 0.8 of a time penalty. That meant they extended their lead over Germany to 9.3 penalties.
Wilson took over from Klimke at the top of the leaderboard when the reigning champion crossed the finish line 1.2 seconds over the optimum time to slip in silver, while Frenchman Maxime Livio (Api du Libaire) moved up one place to the bronze when also picking up 1.2 for time. March’s clear moved her up to fourth, while Bullimore was 0.8 of a second over to sit in fifth.
German maestro Michael Jung was another to make the time look easy with championship first-timer fischerWild Wave to move up to sixth, while the home nation’s Felix Vogg (Cartania) and Britain’s individual Izzy Taylor (Monkeying Around) also made the time.
After her path-finding round for the British team, March said of Brookfield Inocent. “Everything is easy when you have a horse like him! The time was tight enough but he’s a real cruiser. What a horse and how lucky am I to have him!”
Tense finale
While Britain had a bit of leeway at the top, there was no room for error on the individual leaderboard in Sunday’s final phase with the top seven combinations all within one fence of each other.
Michael Jung was the first of the final seven to jump clear and he put the pressure on the rest, finishing on his dressage score of 23.9, which was eventually good enough for fourth place, just missing out on a medal by 0.3 of a penalty.
Fifth-last to go, Bullimore piled the pressure on the remaining four with a fabulous clear from Corouet who, by the jumping stallion Balou du Rouet, looks like he could do pure jumping with ease.
March and Brookfield Inocent, fourth last to go, also produced a perfect clear round to finish on their dressage score of 23.3, and they had a nervous wait to see if would be good enough for an individual medal with three left to go.
When Maxime Livio faulted in the middle of the combination, March was guaranteed her place on the podium, and then Klimke, holding silver, hit the vertical three from home to slip to fifth place and put end to her history-making bid.
Wilson, who admitted she was nervous beforehand, held her cool and crossed the finish line with nothing to add aboard the brilliant JL Dublin, winning gold on a score of 20.9. It was all-British individual podium for the seventh time in the history of the European Championships. The last British threesome to do the same were Ian Stark (Glenburnie), Richard Walker (Jacana) and Karen Straker (Get Smart) at Punchestown in 1991.
Emotional afterwards, Wilson said: “It’s a first championship for Dublin, he missed a bit of time when I injured my neck (two years ago) and then Covid came long but now I’m so proud for my owners. I was delighted with his dressage, then he stormed around the cross-country and produced a beautiful round in the show jumping. How lovely it is to have had him since he was a young horse and to build that lovely partnership and trust between us.”
Silver medallist March described Brookfield Inocent as “definitely one of the best I’ve ever ridden – in all three phases he couldn’t have done any more! Personally I think that if we’re ahead of Ingrid Klimke and Micky Jung then that’s a medal in itself, wherever we’d finish! This has just been a fabulous week!”
Germany took the team silver medal ahead of Sweden who were some way behind the top two. The home nation of Switzerland just missed out by less than three penalties.
The Irish team finished seventh and Clare Abbott was best individually in 14th with the Woods Rosbotham-bred Jewelent (36.0) after a fantastic final show jumping clear. Padraig McCarthy slipped from 14th to 34th after 20 faults in the final phase, while Watson was 33rd with 12 jumping faults and Daniels finished 43rd, just picking up four faults in the final phase.
See page 102 for more breeding details.
2021 FEI Eventing European Championships
Gold – Great Britain 73.1
Silver – Germany 86.4
Bronze – Sweden 113.9
Gold – Nicola Wilson (JL Dublin) 20.9
Silver – Piggy March (Brookfield Inocent (ISH)) 23.3
Bronze – Sarah Bullimore (Corouet) 23.6