Thrills and spills from the Turkish Airlines-Prize of Europe at CHIO Aachen

Wednesday's Turkish Airlines-Prize of Europe at CHIO Aachen was full of unexpected twists and turns, and had it all: Emotional clear rounds, plenty of poles down, refusals, eliminations and at its most unkind also falls... We look back at some of the thrills and spills. All photos (c) Tiffany Van Halle.

Brazil's Yuri Mansur jumped a beautiful first round on Vitiki to move on to the jump-off, where he very unfortunately had a bad fall at the third jump – a big oxer. Vitki had to be transported out of the ring in a horse ambulance, and was later diagnosed with an injury on the pastern bone. We wish him a quick recovery!

It took eighteen riders in between the two first clear rounds, which speaks volumes for the difficulties of the 1.60m track set by Frank Rothenberger: Here Leopold van Asten who delivered the second clear round of the class on VDL Groep Miss Untouchable.

The double of uprights with wavy black planks at the very end of the course was definetly the heartbreaker of the class, and it fell again and again. Simone Blum and DSP Alice cleared it however, but that did not help with an early rail down.

Laura Klaphake was as always smiling, perhaps a little bit more than usual after her clear on the lovely Catch Me If You Can.

Many horses were struggling yesterday, one of them was Denis Nielsen's DSP Cashmoaker who decided enough was enough at the last combination and was eliminated.

Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum jumped a great round with the only 9-year-old Calle 67, and was very pleased even with one rail down.

Both the older and the younger generation are in Aachen: Eric Lamaze is to consider a veteran in this game...

...while the 19-year-old Harry Charles is jumping for his first time in Aachen, after being crowned European Young Rider Champion last week.

It looked so, so good for Steve Guerdat and Bianca all the way to the penultimate fence in the jump-off where the two had an unpleasant meeting with the poles.