Laura Collett

LONGINES CCI5*-L: Ros Canter in pole position

With a beautiful dressage test, Rosalind Canter (GBR) and Izilot DHI took the five-star lead (24.9). Eleven of the top twenty positions are held by British riders, including the top three with Ros, Tom McEwen (Brookfield Quality 28.3) and Laura Collett (Hester 30.6)

The Olympic Gold medalist was very pleased with her horse: “He’s fantastic, I’m absolutely delighted with him. He’s become a real professional. He can obviously be a bit spooky which he wasn’t today, he’s much more settled in his brain than he used to be and he’s very established with his movements now, so now I’ve just got to train the brain and keep him in a happy place.”

Having walked the five-star course four times, Ros Canter’s focus is now on Saturday. “I’ve got a good plan and I’m going out with the intention of going fast and clear. I haven’t come here to be middle of the pack. So hopefully I can give him a good start. It’s quite nice here at the start in that it’s not overly dressed. I’m going to go out and give it a good shot.”

After having secured a great result with CHF Cooliser yesterday (30.8, rank 4), Tom McEwen now has two irons in the fire: “Brookfield Quality was absolutely brilliant. Outside he was struggling with people on benches but in there he switched to focus and was just mega! He’s pretty perfect and always performs on the day – whatever he’s up to outside you can always trust him.”

Cross Country flash quotes

Laura Collett: “It’s a five-star course. The first water is serious. It comes very much up in your face. But I think they’ve been very kind in that there’s a get out of jail card. If things go wrong in the first part you can take a long route. There are questions all the way round, so you’ve got to be on your game.”

Tom Mc Ewen: “We came here because the ground’s always good, especially considering how much rain we’ve had. I’ve got three different rides, two very different rides in the five star, so I can reevaluate between both horses and assess what needs to be done on each one. But for him I think it will suit him really well. I just need to build him up into the course and flow because there’s plenty of questions all the way round – a lot to do!”

Nicolai Aldinger: “It’s very intense, there are a lot of questions all the way round so you have to focus and the horses have to be fit. Timmo is a super cross-country horse and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”

Going cross country with Mike Etherington-Smith
“I think one of the biggest developments over the last years is that the communication between riders and officials has become much closer. We’re all in this sport together and share the same values and objectives. If any athlete has a query or a question, we are keen that they feel they can talk to us at any time. As it happens, we haven’t had any questions at all this year but it’s important to have an open line of communication. Other major improvements in the sport in recent years is the development and increasing use of frangible pins and MIM Clips. We use them on fences wherever we can. Led by research in the UK, we also spend a lot of time considering what horses see and how they see it. We know through research that they see in contrast and definition and we also know the colors that horses can see well. We are also very conscious about the background and all of this helps horses understand what is in front of them. Another important aspect is the profile of the fences. The rules now state that all fences have to have ground lines but it goes beyond this: it’s about the height and type of material used. Additionally, we are conscious of trying to manage speed without sacrificing the flow and the rhythm. One way of doing this is to place the fences off a turn.

The final ingredient is the ground. Horses need to feel secure and so the importance of good ground cannot be overestimated. We’re lucky here in Luhmühlen in that the ground is primarily sand and will hold up in any weather conditions.”

IMAGES © TGL/Annette Dölger