To the jumping - the order of jumping was seeded from highest faults to the least faults, faults being carried forward from the 1st class one rounder and the two rounds of the Nations Cup teams events.

The first of the five German riders, Denis Huser and Pablo had a difficult round with 4 fences down and a foot in the water to finish round one with 20 faults.

The first of the 3 Irish riders was William Workman and the 15 year old Clover Hill stallion - pictured below left - , Euro Clover jumped super rounds all week jumping two four fault rounds and producing a super clear round in the first round of the teams event. In the first round of the Individual he had just a foot in the water to finish with four faults and in the second round he had just the one fence down.

The first clear round of the Individual competition came from Belgium's Catherine Van Roosbroek and the 9 year old KWPN gelding Oladin M which moved her 8 places up in the rankings.

The British riders, who had done so well at the 2004 Championships just couldn't produce the goods this year but that didn't stop Chef Mike Florence being a gentleman and good sport throughout the show. Ryan Prater - pictured below - with Otage was the only British rider to make it to

the Individual final and her was looking good until fence 10, a tall vertical fell leaving them with 4 faults.

The next clear round came from Jerome Navet for France on Ipona de Baussy - pictured below - so at the half way point this put Jerome into the lead with a total of 8 faults.
As so often happens, one clear round is followed by a spate of them and today was no exception - Patrick van der Schans for the Netherlands, Elisabeth Kruse for Germany, Dawid Kubiak for

Poland - pictured below left - , Marleen Bruggink for the Netherlands and Tobias Meyer for Germany all returned clear rounds.

Unfortunately for Ireland, the clear rounds did not hold for Darragh Kenny and My Irish Paddy who looked tired at this stage of the competition. After a couple down Darragh took a very mature approach and retired preferring to put his horse first. Considering the rough trip to Switzerland for My Irish Paddy, who suffered minor face injuries during the trip when involved in a tyre blowout causing Paddy to go through the window he did exceptionally well and no doubt owner Christy Cunney will be thrilled with how well his super star horse went. My Irish Paddy is such a fine example of what the Irish horse is all about - intelligent, brave, scopey and highly trainable!

Denise Sulz, again for Germany - pictured below - also came through the finish flags with everything in place and time right leaving her on equal first at this point with Tobias Meyer on a total of 4 faults.
Nicola Fitzgibbon for Ireland with Kathryn Fitzgibbon's Puissance was next to produce a super clear round - this young Dutch bred gelding is producing exceptional jumping and looks to
have the goods to take his rider, Nicola to the International levels in the not too distant future. Nicola - pictured below left - has been gaining excellent results throughout this season having managed to combine riding with her final year of school, and finished her exams just a week prior to these championships, as did many of these Junior riders competing in Schaffhausen this week. Nicola's clear round put her in equal first.

Maikel van der Vleuten for the Netherlands looked like he was going to join the equal firsts but unfortunately lowered the penultimate fence, 13A to finish with four faults in this round.

Fellow country Gerben Morsink with Calina Z rode a text book perfect clear round to join the equals as did Belgium's Wouter Devos and Cantaloup2.

The last of the riders to carry forward 4 faults was Angelica Augustsson and Ramzez but they had the

start every showjumper hates when they lowered fence one but they left it at that to finish with a total of 8 faults.

France's Eymeric George and Fou Chin Trevira - pictured below right - brought just 2 penalties forward to this first round of the Individual final but they too fell victim to the first fence and again they were another combination to go through the finish flags with everything else in place to finish with just the four faults leaving him in 2nd position at this stage with a total of 6 faults.

Italy's Eleonora Zorzetto and Nikita came into the first round of the Individuals with just one time penalty and all was going well for them until the last part of the course when they lowered fences 10, 12 and 13A to finish with an accumulated total of 13 penalties.

Just two riders to go and both had jumped perfect rounds throughout this show carrying forward no faults and clears from both of them in this round would see an interesting battle and huge pressure

on two young men.

First was Kristian Kniha for Germany with his own 10 year old Bayern bred mare Arabella - pictured below left - and they again produced perfect jumping to return from their trip around the course with no jumping penalties and the all clear on time to remain on zero penalties for the entire show to date.
Last to go was Jack Ansems for The Netherlands with the 12 year old KWPN gelding, VDL Groep Minardi - pictured below - and the pressure was on this combination - all was going well with the fences staying put until the final combination, a double of liverpools and Minardi pulled 13A to finish on four faults - their first rail for the show, but sadly a costly rail leaving us with a jump off for Silver and Bronze.

The jump off was between Germany and the Netherlands - and the atmosphere suddenly became electric with people coming to watch what was to be a very exciting and important medal jump off!

First to go was Denise Sulz for Germany, with her 9 year old Oldenburg mare, Quitte CR - pictured below - they put in a super opening round leaving all the fences in place and stopping the clock at 37.51secs which was beatable, but not cautious and the two following had to leave everything in place!

Next out was Gerben Morsink for The Netherlands, Gerben was riding the one of the youngest horse at the show - an 8 year old Dutch bred mare, Calina Z - pictured below.

The pressure was on for Gerben to jump clear.....................

and clear he did jump!

Gerben came through the finish flags with all fences in place and stopped the clock at 35.61sec
which put him into the lead with one last combination to go!
Last to go and carrying all the pressure with him into the ring was Jack Ansem - and the pressure would have been enormous on this young man and unfortunately, even though he had the time beaten he did leave one on the floor to finish with four faults in 34.72secs.
Page One - Page Three

This is Page Two

Back to News Index