That Nations’ Cup of the eventers, the DHL Prize, got off to a turbulent start today at the CHIO Aachen! Before the supreme discipline of the eventing takes place tomorrow, today the dressage and jumping competitions were on the agenda. The jumping competition took place in the Main Stadium of the Aachen Soers, so to speak the Wimbledon of the equestrian sport. The outcome of the second discipline totally shook up the rankings, because a lot of the pairs picked up faults. The National Coach, Hans Melzer knew why: “This ring has its own rules.” What he meant was that the vastness and the awesome setting of the Soers is unknown territory for most of the eventing horses, which can distract them from the actual tasks at hand. This was also apparent in the Deutsche Bank Stadium in the morning in the case of some of the eventing horses. The Soers is quite simply extremely impressive and the horses sense this.

After the dressage and jumping, Julia Krajewski, the National Coach of the aspiring young German eventers, who came third at the CCI4* in Luhmühlen, with her top horse, Samourai du Thot, is now in the lead. Her current score is 37.20 minus points – just like the Rolex Grand Slam winner Michael Jung with his potential Olympic Games candidate, Takinou. Krajewski ranks first because she was faster than Jung in the jumping. He will, nevertheless, still set off on the cross-country course as the leader, because the National Coach has given Julia Krajewski a dispensation. Aachen is the last trial for Rio for the German participants. So one doesn’t risk any injuries when the horses have already proved themselves with good performances. And Samourai du Thot already did that in Luhmühlen. The same applies for the two double World Champions, Sandra Auffarth and Opgun Louvo. The gelding already proved that he is in good form in the dressage (38.10 minus points) and in the jumping (clear round), so he doesn’t have to compete in the cross-country either. The pair are currently lying in third place, but their results won’t count for the combined result.

Bettina Hoy with the elegant Seigneur Medicott profits from the “withdrawals”. The two of them had won the dressage, but two poles fell in the jumping. That pushed her back into fourth place, or after scratching the results of Auffarth and Krajewski, second place. In fifth place, the best foreigner under the top ten is the Australian eventer, Shane Rose with CP Qualified (41.20). Last year’s winning pair Ingrid Klimke and SAP Escada FRH currently rank sixth (42.90).

In the team classification, the Australians are heading the field with a total score of 139.80 points ahead of New Zealand (142.20), Great Britain (142.50) and Germany (142.90). Germany’s team comprises of Ingrid Klimke with SAP Escada FRH, Michael Jung with the winner of the CCI4* in Badminton, La Biostetique-Sam FBW (44.50 minus points, ninth place), Dirk Schrade with Hop and Skip (55.50, 29^th) and Andreas Ostholt, with So is et, the horse he came second with in Badminton, who against expectations formed the scratch result with 56.10 minus points (30^th).