Text © World of Showjumping

The formidable duo of Daniel Coyle and Legacy (Chippendale Z x Bon Ami) top the individual standings after day one of competition at the Longines FEI Jumping European Championship 2025 at Casas Novas Equestrian Centre in A Coruña, Spain. Hot on their heels are Germany’s Richard Vogel and United Touch S (Untouched x Lux Z), as well as Great Britain’s Donald Whitaker and Millfield Colette (Cornet Obolensky x Clearway) – but it’s a long way to go with another four rounds coming up in the individual championship. 

As per the FEI rules, the first round was set at 1.50m and judged as a Table C – with faults converted into time. With Spain’s Olympic course designer Santiago Varela in charge, it was no doubt that the quality of the tracks for this year’s Europeans was going to be top notch. Wednesday’s 14-fence course lived up to the expectations, and had all the championship elements included; the open water, a wall, a triple combination, a liverpool, a flimsy plank, a double – all with super-light material, as well as a discrete, fresh and modern look on the fences. The course also provided the riders with quite a few options, such as the choice of an inside turn from the oxer at no. 5 to the wall at no. 6, as well as from the plank at no. 11 to the oxer at no. 12 – where considerable time could be saved.

This opening round counted both individually and for the teams. The individual championship is jumped over five rounds with the medals being decided on Sunday, while the team championship has three rounds of competition with Friday being the title-defining moment. 

With some of Europe’s absolutely best horses and riders at start, Varela’s course proved to be on point with all pairs within the top 22 jumping clear rounds. The fastest of them all was Ireland’s Coyle, who competes individually in A Coruña, and whose result – perhaps regrettably – does not count for the team. With a time of 73.93 seconds as no. 67 into the ring at Casas Novas, Coyle was both clear and lightning-fast aboard his 15-year-old mare that he has had huge success with over the last five years. 

That was a time none of the remaining competitors could match. Closest came Richard Vogel and the phenomenal United Touch S as no. 76 into the ring, who made light work of the inside turns – where others struggled – to cross the finish line in 73.96 seconds. Donald Whitaker and Millfield Colette once again proved that their partnership is something special when completing the top three with a time of 75.27 seconds in their championship debut. France’s Julien Epaillard and Donatello d’Auge (Jarnac x Hello Pierville) finished fourth in 75.72 seconds, followed by Great Britain’s Scott Brash and the incredibly charming Hello Folie (Luidam x Diamant de Semilly) in fifth in 76.09 seconds.

“For the first day of a championship, I think it was right on,” Coyle said about Santiago Varela’s track. “When there are fourteen fences and seventeen jumps, it is a long way around to get to the last so I thought it was a bit risky,” Coyle said about not taking the inside turn to the wall. 

“I think when you compete as an individual, you have to take risks. When it is for the team, yes, you go as quickly as you can, but you are a little more careful because you don’t want to waste it for the team as well – so it was easier for me,” Coyle said about only having to think about himself in today’s round and not the Irish squad as well. 

“I was at Spruce Meadows for the summer, and I took Legacy with me – but she does not like it there, so she has not been in great form,” Coyle explained about the decision to jump as an individual instead of being part of Michael Blake’s Irish squad. “I said to Michael that I think she would be good here, but it was a risk to bring her even as an individual because her form has not been great of late. And I was happy enough to come as an individual.” 

“We are now just trying to pick and choose what is the right thing to do with her, so I am not sure we will go to the end – which is upsetting, but I’ll do whatever is the right thing for her,” Coyle shared about his view of the week ahead with the 15-year-old Legacy. “I am very excited for today and we will see what the rest of the week brings.” 

“United went for it,” second-placed Vogel said after his round. “I am just lucky to be in his saddle. He was too close to me, so I did not see Daniel, but I saw the others who were in top positions before I went in. However, it is hard to judge because United has such a different stride; his stride is way bigger and I did quite a few different numbers. Also, for example Donald and Daniel did not do the inside turn to the wall. With a different track and different numbers, it is hard to compare – but I was hoping to be in the top five. United felt very good today, to be honest I was almost panicking in the warm-up because he felt way too fresh.”

“You got to take as much chance as possible while also taking a bit of care, it just depends on how much risk you want to take,” third-placed Donald Whitaker commented. “And when it is the European Championship, you want to be at your best. Matt Sampson did a brilliant round, he did everything perfect in my opinion, and I thought that if I just do the same, my horse is so fast, that she will do the rest. I just tried to focus on doing the right numbers and the right distances, and the rest was her.”

“It always feels amazing when you ride her, she goes in there like a panther,” Whitaker said about his 12-year-old Millfield Colette. “She knows what she is doing and I think she wants to win even more than I do. She wants to run and jump, that is all she wants to do.” 

After the conversion of today’s scores into penalties, Coyle leads the way on a clean sheet, followed by Vogel on 0.01, Whitaker on 0.67, Epaillard on 0.89 and Brash on 1.08. Reigning European champion Steve Guerdat had a good start to his campaign of defending his 2023-title from Milan, sitting 6th overnight with Albführen’s Iashin Sitte (Bamako de Muze x Tinka’s Boy) as best of the Swiss on a score of 1.19 penalty points. 

Among the 18 nations fielding teams, reigning Olympic champion Great Britain is the best on the overnight standings on a total score of 3.96 – with Matt Sampson and Medoc de Toxandria (Der Senaat x Kelvin de Sainte Hermelle) posting a clear in addition to Whitaker and Brash, leaving Ben Maher with the drop-score today. It’s tight on top with Germany following on a score of 4.19, Belgium on 4.61, France on 5.69 and Italy on 5.93 penalties. Defending team champion Sweden was not up to the usual standards today, and sit 14th on the standings – far off the medals. 

Tomorrow, the horses and riders return for the first of the two rounds of the team final – which also count for the individual standings. This will be a Table A not against the clock and without a jump-off, and the course will be a max. of 1.60m. First to start on Thursday are all individuals, then the teams in two groups based on the results of the best three horse-and-rider combinations on each team from Wednesday. Thursday's competition starts at 15.00, and will sort out the ten best teams that will be allowed to return for Friday’s medal-decider.