SEVERAL Irish combinations made the journey to Germany last week to compete at the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials, (June 13th to 16th), hosting four-star and five-star competitions.

Best of the seven Irish athletes (nine combinations in all) was Jennifer Kuehnle, who had a whirlwind event, especially as it was her first five-star. She was double-handed in the CCI5*-L and remarkably finished with both her mounts in the top 10!

The terrain at Luhmühlen is very similar to that being used for the forthcoming Olympics - it is rather flat, with fields and some forest, so it provides perfect conditions to prepare for Paris. While the Irish Olympic squad has already been nominated, Luhmühlen represented the last big Olympic trial for a lot of the British and German riders, and therefore attracted an impressive field of 42 top-class athletes at five-star level.

Cross-country course designer Mike Etherington-Smith had anticipated that some riders would be using the event as a pre-Olympic run and set out to ‘give them and their horses confidence, as well as a suitable test’. His emphasis was on the riders’ ability to ride well and make good decisions as they went.

Clearly, Kuehnle did that to perfection, as she and Polly Blue Eyes, owned by Hans Kuehnle and the rider, whilst sitting in 22nd after dressage, had a phenomenal clear cross-country round to finish within the time, a feat that rocketed them to second place after Saturday’s challenging track.

Kuehnle’s Polly Blue Eyes seemed absolutely unfazed by Etherington-Smith’s influential five-star course, smoothly tackling all the questions. They were one of only four combinations to finish without time faults: “My horse is just great. I’ve had her for six years and we’ve worked our way up the levels. She’s just the best horse I could ever wish for, she’s just amazing!”

With a change in weather, Kuehnle had a contrasting experience with her other mount Sammy Davis Junior (ISH) (Imperial Hights x Cornasaus Connie x Condios, bred by Amanda Vogan, Co Cavan), owned by Cathal Daniels and Margaret and Frank Kinsella, as they rode an impeccable dressage test to sit in eighth place going into the cross-country and, while they jumped around clear, they incurred a number of time penalties to push them to 12th at that stage.

Show jumping was to have a huge bearing on Kuehnle’s final placings though, as two down and a fraction of a time fault with Polly Blues Eyes put them in seventh at the finish, whereas, she jumped clear with just 0.4 time penalties to add to Sammy Davis Junior’s score to move them up to eighth place overall.

The next best of the Irish contingent was Susannah Berry on Monbeg By Design, who finished in 14th place, closely followed by Ian Cassells, another five-star debutant, on Master Point in 16th. Patrick Whelan on Ikoon Lan and Robbie Kearns on Ballyvillane OBOS finished further down the field.

Five-star win

The CCI5*-L was won by Belgian rider Lara de Liedekerke-Meier on board Hooney d’Arville, who added just four cross-country time penalties to her dressage score and jumped a clear show jumping round to secure the win.

De Liedekerke-Meier won the hearts of the Luhmühlen crowd, with the obvious love she has for her home-bred horse. The pair had steadily moved up the leaderboard from sixth after dressage to third after cross-country and they went clear in the final show jumping phase. The Belgian rider was happy with that, but was not expecting to take the win.

She retired to the warm-up for a quiet moment with Hooney. When she heard that she’d won the first five-star of her career, the first hug was reserved for her horse: “It’s hard to take in. My horse is an incredible athlete. I never thought there would be a chance to win the five-star today. I just knew I had a good horse and wanted to jump the best round that I could. Today was our day. I just managed to put everything together. Thanks to my team and thank you Luhmühlen for organising a show of this calibre - all the public was amazing.”

The next five positions on the final leaderboard belonged to the very strong team of British riders, with Tom McEwen on the Irish Sport Horse CHF Cooliser (Womanizer x Super Spring (ISH) x Ramiro B, bred by Raymond Carroll, Offaly) in second; Yasmin Ingham on Rehy DJ (by Tinarana’s Inspector x Rehy Misty x Big Sink Hope, bred by Noell Russell, Co Clare) in third, Rosalind Canter on Izilot DHI (who had been in the lead following dressage and cross-country) in fourth, Alice Casburn on Topspin in fifth and Kirsty Chabert on Opposition Heraldik Girl in sixth, followed by Kuehnle and her two mounts.

Jennifer Kuehnle with Sammy Davis Junior [ISH] (IRL) on the cross-country phase of the CCI5*-L at Luhmühlen, where they finished eighth at their first five-star event \ Equus Pix

Superstars

Following her first five-star success, Kuehnle told The Irish Field: “To be honest, I couldn’t be more happy and proud of what my two superstars have achieved last weekend.

“I always said that, if I do a five-star, I would like to go to Luhmühlen. I went the past few years, grooming for Cathal [Daniels, her partner] twice for the five-star class and then I competed with Polly in the four-star there last year and I really got a feel for the venue and really liked it there. Obviously, the atmosphere grew as the week went on and the crowd on the final day was enormous! It was great, it always gives me the extra drive.”

When asked about the cross-country, Kuehnle said: “I thought it was quite intense, especially the first 18 fences – it was literally just combination after combination; there were problems all over the course from start to finish. It was twisty, the lines were hard and you just had to be so focused and in line with your horse at every fence.

“We had some typical Irish weather – the cross-country had to be stopped just minutes before I went on course with my second horse, Sammy Davis Junior, with thunder and lightening going on!”

Kuehnle went on to describe how her two mounts differ: “The two horses I took are completely different animals. Both have completely different ways of going. Having Polly six years now and starting from 100 level, I’m so proud of how far we’ve come. I would have never thought we’d be going five-star one day and to finish in seventh place was just the icing on the cake.

“She’s not the biggest mover on the flat, so she’s always middle of the pack after dressage, but I knew with a quick cross-country ride, she’d move up the places. She literally amazed me around the cross-country, making everything feel easy and she fought so hard. I didn’t even want to learn the minute markers, as I knew if I keep my pace, she should make the time easy, which she just went and did!

“Warming up on Sunday for the show jumping, she felt as good as she’s always felt, but with the uproar of the crowd before my round, she got very, very tense and I couldn’t get her calm quite quick enough, but I’m still so proud of what we have reached in our time.”

Dancing shoes

On her second mount, Kuehnle said: “Sammy had his usual dancing shoes on for the dressage, being in eighth place before cross-country. With the wet day and mini tsunami before my cross-country, the ground got slippy and unexpectedly deep the first half of the course, so he couldn’t have travelled as quick over the ground as I hoped we could, but he still amazed me by flying around so effortlessly - sometimes, when I try to be the boss, Sammy just takes over and says ‘let me at it!’. So we had to settle for 12th place after cross-country... but we won the ‘ride of the day’ for our cross-country round!

“On Sunday, he jumped a phenomenal clear round and moved up to eighth place. He really loves jumping on a Sunday after cross-country, he just flies around where other horses are still trying to recover.

“Big thanks to Cathal Daniels and Mags and Frank Kinsella for letting me ride him! I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped me reach where I am today, but especially my family – without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

“For my first five-star, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. At the minute, my parents and Cathal are trying to convince me to take on the five-star at Pau in October, so we’ll see about that!”

Two Irish combinations were among the participants in the CCI4*-S, with Robbie Kearns on Chance Encounter finishing the better of these in 27th place, after the unfortunate elimination of Stephan Dubsky on Karla.

The class was won by an on-form Yasmin Ingham, this time riding Banzai Du Loir, with Tom McEwen in the runner-up spot again, with JL Dublin this time around. Germany’s Michael Jung and fischerChipmunk FRH placed third, but that was enough to secure them the German Championship title.

Jung also claimed fourth place with the Irish Sport Horse Kilcandra Ocean Power (BGS Ocean View (ISH)[TIH] x Bonnie Dolly [ISH] x Bonnie Prince (TB), bred by Kilcandra Stud, Co Wicklow).