Joe Stockdale leading Brit on Day One at the Euros
Wednesday 01 September 2021
Great Britain’s young quartet got underway today in the first qualifying competition at the LONGINES FEI Jumping European Championship in Reisenbeck, Germany. It was a big occasion for three riders and four horses as they made their senior championship debut, with anchorman William Whitaker the one athlete with previous team appearances, back at the Gothenburg Europeans in 2017 and at the World Equestrian Games the following year.
It was 21 year-old Joe Stockdale, the youngest rider at the Championships and making his first appearance at this level that finished heading up the Brits overnigh with his solid performance in the opening speed leg. A heart-breaking 4 seconds to add at the final fence, in what was otherwise a foot-perfect round with Joy Cocklin’s 10 year-old bay mare Equine America Cacharel, positions them in 26th place going forward.
Commenting on his round Joe said “Personally I’m really happy and I’m delighted with how she [Equine America Cacharel] jumped and how she felt. She’s feeling good going forward and I’m looking forward to jumping again tomorrow and through the rest of the competition. I really enjoyed it out there; it’s such an amazing arena and just riding under the tunnel and into it really gets your blood pumping that’s for sure”.
About the course and the final fence he said “I thought the course rode well. There was a lot of careful fences there like the planks and a couple of tricky lines; the doubles were hard enough as well. When you walked the course you thought it walked well and then when you rode it there was a few that perhaps took a little more riding than you first thought. I think the final fence was a bit wider than the other oxers, it was very square and you couldn’t necessarily see the back bar as it was slightly uphill as you turned back towards it; I was naturally gutted to be caught by it.
William Whitaker with Philip Tuckwell’s 11 year-old grey gelding Galtur also put in an impressive performance to finish just outside the top 50% of the 65 strong field. The first element of a double caught them out to see 4 seconds to add giving them a finish time of 81.77 seconds and into 34th place.
Afterwards, William said: “I was very pleased with the way he jumped – obviously disappointed to have that one near the end but, on the whole, I was pleased. It’s quite an eyeful for the horses in there and he’s not got so much experience. He went in there and got stuck in, and I think he’ll only improve from that. It’s difficult at this level because you don’t get a second in there, it comes so quick and it’s relentless – tricky jumps and lines. Maybe I sat a bit quiet at that fence, but we did the tricky bits. I didn’t want him to rush that double, I wanted to make it easy for him. He had a good pop round yesterday, he’s been in today and he’s generally a horse that gets better through the show. The conditions are brilliant here, plus the support from the World Class Programme staff is second to none – so if you can’t come up with the goods on a weekend like this, you never will! I’m really pleased for his owners – to breed and own a horse at a championship is special, so hats off to them!”
On his young team mates, he commented: “I’ve been in that position before and it’s daunting. You have so many emotions throughout the week and you try to keep everything the same as you always do. You have to think to yourself ‘I’ve got here for a reason’ and what we do is working, but then you arrive, the atmosphere changes – you see all the other teams and when you’ve not done it before, there’s a lot of pressure. For me, it’s what I do it for and I’ll just try and help them where I can.”
Emily Moffitt, also making her first appearance at Championship level, and Winning Good a 12 year-old bay gelding owned by Neil & Heidi Moffitt and Poden Farm, finished with 12 seconds to add at the end of their round. Winning Good certainly covered the ground in the vast grass arena at Riesenbeck, which saw them finish on a total of 87.90 seconds and within the 80 second barrier which almost half of the field finished on.
“He was very eager to get to the jumps today!” explained Emily. “I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be the easiest day. In fact, today was probably my most difficult day for how to manage him. He can be very difficult when you try and go that bit quicker. We try and keep him ‘in a box’ and the second you allow him to get out of the box, it’s difficult to put him back in! So for me it was a difficult course on the first day. From here, we can manage him easier because I don’t have to think about going quicker. We’ll try our best and hopefully we can get two clear rounds in and do well for the team. Every day at a show he gets a bit easier – today we tried our best and it didn’t go our way, but tomorrow and the following day I can focus on the jumps, not the time, and hopefully we can do what we do best – jump some clear rounds.”
Georgia Tame and Z7 Ascot, a 10 year-old bay owned by Breen Equestrian Ltd, Shane Breen and Team Z7, opened up not only for the team but for the entire competition by being first out. An incredibly hard position for anyone to be in, it would have been even more so for Georgia who was also making her debut at this level. Having been drawn so early Georgia opted to take it steady and she was very unlucky to pick up a 4 second penalty, having clipped an early oxer to see her finish just behind Emily with a time of 91.92 seconds in 58th.
After her round Georgia said: “It was really great – I really enjoyed it. I’m a bit annoyed with myself for the fence down, but it’s all learning. It’s a big thing for him and me to be here, so it was a really great experience. I thought it was a great course, the designer has done a good job and he left options everywhere for you to choose. I want to keep my horse happy and consistent throughout the week – he wouldn’t be experienced enough to go in quick and turn tight on the first day, so with him it’s just about teaching him and we hope for the future he’ll be a great horse.”
Second qualifying competition
Tomorrow will see the second leg of the competition where all four riders come forward to jump again with the top three scores counting. Great Britain currently sit in 12th place as a team and will be the 4th nation to compete with Turkey, Austria and Norway going before them. Competing in reverse order the remainder of the 15 nations taking part will come forward in the following order of Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden.
Recently crowned Olympic Team champions Sweden established an early lead today to sit in pole position overnight having posted three fast clear rounds. German rider David Will holds the lead individually having jumped across the 13-fence track clear in a time of 71.66 seconds, almost a full second ahead of his nearest rival Peder Fredericson (SWE) and Catch Me Not and Douglas Lindelow (SWE) with Casquo Blue in 3rd place with a time of 73.99 seconds.
Di Lampard, World Class Performance Manager for Showjumping, said about the second leg tomorrow “The team have now got today’s opening leg under their belt and are all in a positive state of mind going forward. We start tomorrow in 12th position and our plans are to move up the leaderboard and finish within the top 10 so we are in a good position for Friday.”
Full results here
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