FEI League of Nations Abu Dhabi

In round one, it still looked as if Friday would be the 13th four-fault day for the German show jumpers. Daniel Deußer and his lively chestnut mare Pepita van’t Meulenhof (who visually cannot deny that she is a maternal half-sister of Emerald van’t Ruytershof) had one fault, as did Sophie Hinners with Lommers and Jörne Sprehe on the twelve-year-old Hanoverian stallion Toys by Toulon.

Only Marco Kutscher and his 14-year-old Holsteiner Catelly remained faultless. The pair have been competing together for a good year now. At the Nations Cups in Hickstead and Dublin, they played a major part in Germany’s victory and second place respectively. And the Catalido son also fulfilled all expectations today, not only in the first round, but also later in the second round.

Second round

After round one, Germany had eight faults to its name. The ranking was led by France and Ireland, who had a clean sheet. Great Britain and the UAE had four faults. Like Germany, the USA, Switzerland and Brazil had eight faults.

In the second round, only three riders per team compete in the League of Nations. So every result counted. The cards were reshuffled. Daniel Deußer and Pepita raised the hopes of the German fans when they galloped clear to the finish. But a stone fell out of the wall for Sophie Hinners and her Carrera VDL. The slightest touch and then it was over. There were now twelve faults that counted for Otto Becker’s team. The pressure on Marco Kutscher and Catelly as the third and final pair was correspondingly high. But the former double European champion and Olympic bronze medal winner kept his nerve with all his experience: another zero faults. That left Germany with twelve faults.

The same result was achieved by Brazil, where Luciana Diniz and Vertigo du Desert jumped clear twice. The other teams, both those with four and those with eight penalty points from the first round, were eliminated by knockdowns.

The decision

But France was able to maintain its form. At least the first pair, the Olympic bronze medallists with the team, Olivier Perreau and the home-bred Kannan daughter Dorai d’Aiguilly, jumped clear again. When Nicolas Sers had a knockdown with Eleven de Riverland, the lead shrank. Simon Delestre and his ten-year-old Diamant de Semilly son Golden Boy now had it in their hands. They could afford one fault, two would have meant a jump-off for victory. But that did not happen. Delestre and Golden Boy did make a mistake on the third last jump, but that was all.

France was thus crowned the winner of the first League of Nations stage in 2026 with eight faults. Germany took second place with twelve penalty points thanks to the faster time, ahead of Brazil (12) and Switzerland (16).