Epaillard and Sweden stick to their clues
It was a hot day at Stutteri Ask Stadium, and while many around Herning may have felt it was the perfect time to head to the beach, the riders and their riders had to contend with heat and increasingly long shadows throughout the afternoon.
The triple combination on the Louis Konickx course was the nemesis for several duos on Thursday. And as the shadows lengthened, more horses struggled with what might otherwise have been fairly straightforward verticals and oxers, some adding penalties for time over the allowed 86 seconds.
Every rail and every mistake matters when the competition is so close and only fractions of a point can separate the podium from the rest of the field. A few riders had banner days, such as Tiffany Foster of Canada and Figor, who rode clear again and moved up from sixth to fifth place.
Other athletes who climbed the leaderboard include Ben Maher of Great Britain (Faltic HB), Jérôme Guery of Belgium (Quel Homme de Hus), Maikel van der Vleuten of the Netherlands (Beauville Z NOP) and McLain Ward of the United States (Smittsam).
When all points were tallied and converted into points to carry over to Friday’s event, Maher was sixth, followed by Van der Vleuten, Guery, Germany’s Marcus Ehning (Stargold) and Jens Fredricson in the top 10 individually.
Unfortunately, it was not for 10 of the 22 nations competing on Thursday, although some of their athletes may be back as individuals. The USA was shut out, as were others on the verge, such as Austria, Italy and Denmark’s home team.
Countries advancing to the team finals on Friday behind Sweden, France and Germany are the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland and Brazil.
Words from Patricia Salem