Ingrid Klimke, Pia, and Ben Leuwer Place Well in Eventing in Saulieu, France

Now that’s what you call exemplary sharing of parental responsibilities—while Pia Leuwer was heavily pregnant with her first child, her husband Ben helped train her horses and keep them in shape. This included Hanami, a Road2LA contestant. In mid-July, their son Hugo was born; now Pia is back in the saddle herself, while her husband takes care of their little one. Last weekend at the eventing competition in Saulieu, France, it was clear that he’d done a great job as an interim rider.

Back in action for the first time, and straight to second place

Pia Leuwer could hardly have hoped for a better return. She and the nine-year-old Westphalian mare Hanami by Hambacher have already achieved placings at the CCI4* level. In Saulieu, they started with two stars and finished right on their dressage score, having received 27.4 penalty points. That put them in second place before the cross-country and jumping, and they remained there until the end.

The only rider to do better was Thailand’s Korntawat Samran, riding the 11-year-old Selle Français stallion Fiorano des deux Lacs, who had already earned a few more percentage points in the dressage arena with 26.1 penalty points and carried that score through to the finish in the cross-country and show jumping. Samran had wowed the crowd the previous weekend with an outstanding cross-country round at the World Cross Country Championships in Aachen. It’s nothing unusual for the 28-year-old, who was born in Bangkok, to compete in tournaments in Europe. He has been training for a long time with the Frenchman Maxime Livio and, among other achievements, competed as an individual rider at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Ben Leuwer also competed in the event and placed. He rode the seven-year-old “Rhenish Hanoverian” Alf PH by Alaba-FS Louis Le Bon to a fourth-place finish. After the dressage, they were still in 16th place with 32.4 penalty points, but were able to work their way up to fourth place thanks to a faultless cross-country and jumping round.

Between the Leuwer couple came—also with a dressage score (30.0)—the Mexican rider Gerardo Parroquin Delfin on Brigada.

Ingrid Klimke’s Kallista Completes a Faultless Cross-Country Run to Advance to the CCI4* Loop

Since the middle of last year, Olympic eventing champion Ingrid Klimke has been riding the Belgian half-blood mare Kallista. She acquired her from Sven Lux, who had ridden the chestnut mare—a descendant of the Holsteiner stallion Chatman—for about two years and brought her up from 2* to 4* level. In CCI3* events, Klimke and Kallista were a perfect match from the start. At the four-star level, they placed in Oudkarspel, but also had two falls and, in each of their last two competitions, incurred 20 penalty points in the cross-country. Now in Saulieu, they finished without any jumping faults, incurring only 11.6 time penalties. However, they then picked up an additional 9.6 penalty points on the course (one knockdown, 5.6 time penalties), so what could have been a second-place finish ultimately turned into eighth place.

Leading the field was another promising young horse from Thomas Carlile’s successful stable: the eight-year-old Selle Français gelding Iam du Loir by Canturano. The pair were in second place after the dressage (26.4), had two time faults on the course, and 7.2 penalty points in the cross-country. This brought their total to 35.6 penalty points, which was easily enough to relegate the dressage leaders, Alexis Goury and Hatchi Des Loges (a nine-year-old Selle Français gelding by Catcher Mail), to second place (43.7). The pair had six penalty points on the course (one knockdown, two time faults) and 12 time faults on the cross-country course.

Dressage Queen Candy

Ingrid Klimke had also brought her eight-year-old Hanoverian mare Candy by Carridam to France to ride her in the CCI3*. In their last five appearances, the pair had placed in the top three every time, and in Saulieu, too, they led the rankings after the dressage (25.0). Candy had a clear round on the course but incurred a few time penalties in the cross-country, which cost her six places amid strong competition, where nearly all riders finished within the time limit. In the end, she finished with 31.8 penalty points and a seventh-place finish.

The winner here was once again Thomas Carlile, this time riding the seven-year-old Selle Français mare Juste Unetoile by Upsilon, who placed seventh at last year’s World Championships for Young Eventing Horses. They finished with a dressage score of 28.5.

Brandon Schäfer-Gehrau also placed with a young horse. In the CCI1* Intro, he rode the Holsteiner mare Limoncello by Livello, bred by Friedrich Riewerts and owned by his new employer, Lips Stables. With just a few time penalties in the show jumping and cross-country courses, in addition to a dressage score of 28.6 penalty points, the pair finished in second place.

You can find all the results from Saulieu here.