Lara De Liedekerke-Meier (BEL) and Hooney d’Arville win the CCI5*-L LonginesTurniergesellschaft Luhmühlen Horse Trials 2024
Tom McEwen and CHF Cooliser take second and Yasmin Ingham Eventing and Rehy DJ are third
Lara won the hearts of the Luhmühlen crowd with the obvious love for her self-bred horse. Having steadily moved up the leaderboard from sixth after dressage to third after cross-country, the pair went clear in the final show-jumping.
Happy, but not expecting to take the win, she retired to the warm-up for a quiet moment with Hooney. When the news hit, that she’d won the first five-star of her career, the first hug was reserved for her horse: “It’s hard to take in. My horse is an incredible athlete. I never thought there would be a chance to win the five-star today. I just knew I had a good horse and wanted to jump the best round that I could. Today was our day. I just managed to put everything together. Thanks to my team and thank you Luhmühlen for organising a show of this calibre – all the public was amazing.”
Tom McEwen: “I’m absolutely delighted with Cooliser. She was brilliant yesterday and today. She’s very game and in the arena, I remembered why it’s much easier to do things her way. I wasn’t expecting to move up the ranks. Ros is probably the best rider in the world and Izilot is one of the best jumpers, so I absolutely wasn’t expecting this.”
Yasmin Ingham, who has climbed from 28th to third, finishing on her dressage score was delighted: “That’s the story of eventing, it’s never over until we have finished on the final day. I was a little disappointed after the dressage because we lost some points there but I know what to work on now. I know he’s a phenomenal cross-country horse and jumper, so I was really looking forward to Saturday and today. He was just amazing, careful, rhythmical and fast, making my job so easy. He doesn’t look fast but he just eats up the ground and is just so ridable and adjustable, I don’t have to set him up much before the fences. We know each other inside out because our partnership has developed over such a long time. I’ve had him for so long now and we’ve worked our way up the ranks from novice.”
