DERRY’S Jordan Coyle has been having great success lately and he continued this run of form at the four-star show at the Longines Tops International Arena in Valkenswaard in The Netherlands over the weekend. Coyle secured a double at the Dutch venue, riding two different horses.

The first of Coyle’s wins came in the two-star 1.45m Big Tour Grand Prix qualifier, when he rode the nine-year-old gelding King Kannan GP. From a start list of 50, 19 managed to keep all the fences standing, but times were vastly different between the competitors!

Coyle sped round the course with ease, stopping the clock in 62.60 seconds – amazingly more than five seconds ahead of runner-up Annabel Francis (NZL) on Nebraska van’t Vianahof, who jumped clear in 67.69. Third place on the podium was taken by Sanne Thijssen (NED) on Chiara VDH (68.84).

Coyle didn’t rest on his laurels and was quickly back in the ring again, this time riding the 13-year-old gelding For Gold in the four-star 1.50m Grand Prix qualifier. This time 37 combinations took on the course, with 13 jumping clear rounds. Once again, Coyle rode a lightening-quick round, finishing in a time of 65.45 seconds, more than four seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Khaled Almobty (KSA) on Spacecake (69.46). Dutch rider Kevin Jochems on Name It were almost two seconds behind that again, completing the course in 71.38 seconds.

Following his win with For Gold, Coyle said: “It’s always nice to win. I think he jumped very well today. It’s my first time competing in Europe other than the Dublin Horse Show. It’s really fantastic here. I would like to win all the classes this weekend. I actually have some very good horses here. So, fingers crossed!”

Ribbons

Competition at the second Summer Festival in Valkenswaard commenced on Friday, July 26th and ran until Sunday, July 28th. Friday’s four-star 1.45m two-phase class saw a sixth place finish for Mikey Pender on HHS Los Angeles, while Saturday saw Pender place fifth in the two-star 1.45m Big Tour Grand Prix qualifier with HHS Cornetta.

Coyle was on the podium again in Saturday’s two-star 1.40m Medium Tour class, when he finished third with Jorisca.

Pender and HHS Flonix finished on the podium in Sunday’s one-star Young Horse Six and Seven-year-old Final.

They jumped double clear in a jump-off time of 40.52 seconds to claim third place – less than a second behind winner Italy’s Giampiero Garofalo on Clarimo van de Dijkhoeve Z (39.77).

Pender went on to finish eighth in the four-star 1.45m class on HHS Calais and then rode HHS Cornetta into seventh place in the two-star 1.45m Grand Prix.