Great Britain Wins the Nations Cup in Eventing at Boekelo; Julia Krajewski Wins the Individual Title

It was a start-to-finish victory for Julia Krajewski and Ero de Cantraie in the Nations Cup in Boekelo—not quite, but almost, based on their dressage score. The two 2023 German champions added just 0.4 penalty points yesterday for exceeding the time limit by one second in the cross-country. But today on the show jumping course, they delivered a flawless clear round, securing the victory. Their final score was 24.3 penalty points.

After yesterday’s cross-country round, less than one jumping fault separated the top seven pairs. As a result, even time penalty points proved costly—not to mention knockdowns. This proved to be the downfall of, among others, the two British riders Yasmin Ingham on Kinda Corvette and Gemma Stevens on Chilli Morning IV. Ingham and her nine-year-old Diarado son had one knockdown, which dropped them from third to seventh place. It was even more bitter for Stevens and her young horse world champion from two years ago—the Chilli Morning clone—who slipped from second to 15th place after accumulating eight penalty points.

Among those who benefited from this was her teammate Katie Magee, riding the nine-year-old Irish horse Cushlas Indigo. After the cross-country, she was in fourth place. Thanks to her clear round and the mistakes made by the others, she ultimately finished second with 26.4 penalty points behind Krajewski and also led the team to victory.

Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier took third place in the individual standings with her 10-year-old Belgian horse Quintus, a son of Diarado. Like Katie Magee, the pair finished with their dressage score—in their case, 27.6 penalty points.

Brits in the Lead

After yesterday’s cross-country, the Germans had taken the

lead

in the Nations Cup standings, but the Brits were hot on their heels. That’s exactly how today’s show jumping event ended. With 84.4 penalty points, the team world champions from Great Britain secured the victory ahead of Germany and Ireland (97.5), who were ultimately able to edge out the U.S. team in the show jumping (105.4).

In addition to Katie Magee and Yasmin Ingham, Gemma Stevens also rode for the winning team, though not on her young horse Chilli Morning IV, but rather on the Irish horse Coole Park Muze by Pollux die Muze L, who is one year older. With him, she was in eighth place after dressage and cross-country and worked her way up to fifth place in the show jumping course.

The fourth British pair, Kirsty Chabert on Classic VI, had a refusal and a fall at jump 17c in the cross-country section and was therefore out of contention for the team standings.

Tough break for Team Germany

If Stevens’ Chilli Morning’s result had counted toward the team standings, Germany would have won. As it was, they finished in second place again today, despite another strong performance on the course.

In addition to Julia Krajewski, who had set the tone from the dressage test all the way through the awards ceremony, Arne Bergendahl stood out in particular on his promising young horse Bronco NRW. The gray horse, listed as a Road2LA horse and whose dam, Luthien NRW, had already helped Bergendahl reach the finish line at Badminton, delivered a dressage score of 27.7 penalty points. Top-notch performance from start to finish, ultimately securing fourth place in a world-class field.

Brandon Schäfer-Gehrau also made it into the top ten with his Hanoverian mare Very Special—another Road2LA pair. The pair were not part of the team—which is a shame, really, because they added just 1.2 time penalties to their dressage score of 29.8 penalty points in both the cross-country and the show jumping, ultimately finishing in ninth place.

In dressage and cross-country, Pauline Knorr’s Hanoverian mare Aevolet M-A-F was the team’s lowest-scoring rider in both disciplines, despite a superb round in the cross-country with only a few time penalties. Today in show jumping, they made a valuable contribution to the team’s result by once again clearing all the obstacles and finishing with only 1.2 time penalties. With 35 penalty points, they ultimately placed 22nd.

Christoph Wahler had some bad luck with his French Mylord Carthago son, Gainsbourg de Bedon, who had easily finished within the time limit yesterday despite losing a shoe and was in a promising fifth place heading into today’s final round. But any hope of a top finish was dashed at the very first jump. Another knockdown followed at obstacle 4a. With 35.5 penalty points, the pair finished 24th—still in the rankings, but their score counted as the team’s discard.

More German results

Ingrid Klimke and the 10-year-old Belgian sport horse mare Kallista (by Chapman) narrowly missed the top 25 with 39.7 penalty points. They, too, knocked down a rail at jump 4a. In the end, the multi-medalist from Münster and her promising young horse finished in 27th place.

Thanks to a clear round on the course—and having incurred only a few time penalties in the cross-country section—Nadine Marzahl and Victoria moved up from 43rd place after the cross-country to 29th place among the 74 competitors who were able to finish the event.

Among them were Ann-Catrin Bierlein and her horse, Sir Scotty. The 18-year-old Hanoverian veteran had once again proven to be a sure bet on the cross-country course. Today, another 5.6 penalty points were added, 1.6 of which were for exceeding the time limit—placing her 33rd with 42 penalty points.

Things didn’t go quite as well in the jumping competition for Antonia Baumgart and her 11-year-old Holsteiner, Ris de Talm. The 11-year-old son of Adagio de Talma had three knockdowns—at obstacles 1 and 4a, as well as an additional one at jump 10. They also incurred 3.6 time penalties. As a result, the pair slipped from 17th place after the cross-country to 41st in the final standings.

You can find all the results from Boekelo here.

Overall Standings: FEI Nations Cup

With their victory in Boekelo, the British team also secured the overall title in the FEI Nations Cup Series in eventing. Even before the final in Boekelo, they were tied on points with the leading French team for second place. But in Boekelo, all teams started from scratch—bad luck for the French, who finished only eighth here, and good luck for the Germans, who were in fourth place in the rankings and managed to clinch second place in the final.