Text © World of Showjumping

Topping the overnight team standings after day one of competition at the Longines FEI Jumping European Championship 2025 at Casas Novas Equestrian Centre in A Coruña, Spain, Great Britain managed to hang on – by a thin thread – to the number one position after the second round was jumped on Thursday. In a class full of twists and turns, the British boys showed some serious fighting spirit to stay on their overnight team score of 3.96 penalty points.

After Wednesday’s opening competition, a Table C, the horses and riders returned for the first of the two rounds of the team final on Thursday – also counting towards the individual standings. Today the fences were higher – up to 1.60m – and the course was as expected more technical, as it was jumped as a Table A not against the clock. Again, course builder Santiago Varela had included all the championship elements in his 14-fence track: The open water, a triple combination, a liverpool, a double, and a very light wall as the penultimate fence. Ultimately, it was the triple combination that would turn out to play the lead role today – causing a lot of unexpected drama along the way. 

First to start on Thursday were the individual riders, followed by the teams that jumped in two groups based on the results of the best three horse-and-rider combinations on each team from Wednesday. With only ten tickets available for Friday’s medal-deciding round for the teams, the pressure was on for the 18 nations in contention. 

Topping the overnight team standings, Great Britain – 2024 Olympic team champions – came into Thursday’s round last on a total score of 3.96, but hot on their heels were Germany on 4.19, Belgium on 4.61, France on 5.69 and Italy on 5.93 penalties. 

Great Britain started strong with a clear round from their pathfinders Ben Maher and Dallas Vegas Batilly (Cap Kennedy x L’arc de Triomphe), but things took a turn for the worse when Matt Sampson and Medoc de Toxandria (Der Senaat x Kelvin de Sainte Hermelle) were eliminated after two refusals inside the triple combination. Donald Whitaker then brought the hopes back up after a lovely clear with Millfield Colette (Cornet Obolensky x Clearway), who gives everything for her rider in a partnership that is truly special. 

With the Germans breathing the Brits down their necks after four clear rounds from their four riders to keep on a score of 4.19, it would all come down to the last man in the ring who was no other than Scott Brash on the relatively inexperienced but determined mare Hello Folie (Luidam x Diamant de Semilly) – who had no room for error. 

That turned into a round that was definitely not scripted to suit the faint-hearted. Hello Folie is doing her first championship at the age of 10, and is a charming, determined, feisty and opinionated chestnut lady who most of the time seems to want to have the last word – and today, the latter was clearly the case. Approaching the triple combination – that had caught out so many – Brash somehow lost his reins and ended up way too deep on the vertical on 8a, almost for a split-second looking as if he wanted to pull up, which of course was not possible with no steering, but the situation he was now caught in also made it seemingly impossible to get out over the b- and c-element which consisted of two wide oxers. However, with full belief in herself and her rider, Hello Folie took the matter into her own hands – or hooves in this case – giving Brash her absolute whole heart to jump clear out of the treble. 

It was a miraculous moment in time, and thanks to Brash’s lack of nerves he continued on as if nothing had happened to cross the finish line clear. That meant the Brits had posted three clear rounds, and could discharge Sampson’s elimination score to keep their lead on 3.96 penalty points.  

“What an amazing attitude and fighting spirit she showed, being able to jump through that triple clear. I am super proud of her,” Brash said after his round. “She was jumping incredible, felt really good. She does pull me a bit and snatch at me a little bit; she is just eager to please and get on with the job. After the green oxer, I don’t know what really happened, she snatched, and I just lost the rein. To be fair, she didn’t really know she was going to the triple, and it was a tough triple as it was. I just managed to grab the reins in the right time, but, yes, I was very deep coming in and then just asked her to jump and she responded so well. What was nice was that obviously that line didn’t feel great, but she settled down and jumped the rest home very good. I think that shows how confident she is with me – we have a great partnership. Hopefully, we will be in a better place tomorrow.”

“She is green, and it gets tougher and bigger each day, but I must say she warmed up fantastic, started off good and finished well; there are a lot of positives to take,” Brash continued. “The team has been fantastic. It was unfortunate for Matt, but he will bounce back tomorrow and we will support him all we can. We are all there for one another and we will be fighting tomorrow, but there is still a lot to do,” the 2024 Olympic team champion shared about his thoughts on Friday’s medal deciding round. 

With four clear rounds, Germany showcased incredible strength today and sits right behind Great Britain on 4.19 penalties – adding nothing to their score. While all German riders jumped clear, it was also not without excitement – but it was with considerably less adrenaline involved than in Great Britain’s case. Belgium, third overnight, also kept on their score of 4.61 – as three of their four riders jumped clear, with Thibeau Spits being deserving of a style award today after his absolutely immaculate round on Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z (Indoktro van’t Kattenheye Z x Vagabond de La Pomme) which was without a doubt the most beautiful and harmonious of the class. 

Jumping up on the scoreboard, Ireland now sits fourth on 8.39 penalty points, followed by France in fifth on 9.69. Another five teams join in for Friday’s medal deciding round; Switzerland on 11.10 penalty points, Netherlands on 14.19, Italy on 17.93, Denmark on 21.72 and defending champions Sweden on 23.93.

Individually, overnight leader Daniel Coyle opted to withdraw Legacy (Chippendale Z x Bon Ami) prior to Thursday’s competition as the 15-year-old mare was not feeling 100%. That left the door open for those that were breathing him in the neck, and they all made good use of the opportunity to move up a notch on the standings. With a clear round in today’s competition, Richard Vogel and the phenomenal stallion United Touch S (Untouched x Lux Z) kept on their score of 0.01 to take the lead.

“It was a tough course, and we had to have everything right. For sure tomorrow will be more challenging,” Vogel said after his round. “I am just very happy with how United jumped, especially after going fast yesterday. He was with me everywhere today, I didn’t really do any leave-outs, I tried to keep all the numbers as they are, and he was a bit more collected than yesterday.”

“I try to not have that in mind at all, to be honest,” Vogel said about his individual lead moving on to day three. “It is a very long journey still in the individual finals, we are only thinking about the team now as we are currently second in the team rankings and it is very close: Very close behind the Brits, and very close in front of Belgium. We have to keep the focus and do the best we can with the team. It looks promising because all the horses jumped really well.” 

Individually, Vogel is followed by Donald Whitaker on 0.67 penalty points in second and France’s Julien Epaillard and Donatello d’Auge (Jarnac x Hello Pierville) on 0.89 in third – who also added nothing to their overnight tally. Brash now sits fourth on his score of 1.08, while reigning European champion Steve Guerdat completes the current top five 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. 

“Today was the day to settle the group of the ten best teams and I think the course worked well,” course designer Santiago Varela told World of Showjumping. “We have to go day by day; this is a long championship and people sometimes like to be too much in a hurry. This is a cumulating score from the first day until the end and I think the horses jumped well. It was not an easy day, because in the morning we could not see anything due to the fog, then it rained, and in the end, we had sun – we had three completely different weather conditions during the day.”

“Tomorrow is probably more complicated, but I think that we can expect something a bit bigger,” Varela said about what is to come as the competition moves on to the third day and team medal deciding round on Friday. “We are going step by step, and there will also be the individual final on Sunday. However, tomorrow will be the team final, dedicated to the ten best teams.” 

The best 50 horse-and-rider combinations, plus those tied for 50th place, after Wednesday and Thursday's competitions are allowed to participate in Friday's class which will decide the podium for the teams. This competition starts at 16.15 CET.