Great Britain is down to three team members following the withdrawal of Oliver Townend’s Cooley SRS before the final horse inspection at the European Eventing Championships this morning (Sunday 20 August).
The British Equestrian Federation reported that the 10-year-old bay, who acted as pathfinder for the Brits, has suffered “a minor injury”.
However, Great Britain remains in team gold position because Oliver was the discount score yesterday following two cross-country run-outs.
Nicola Wilson’s Bulana, Tina Cook’s Billy The Red and Ros Canter’s Allstar B were all accepted at the final horse inspection.
Both British individual horses, Gemma Tattersall’s Quicklook V and Piggy French’s Quarrycrest Echo, were also passed by the ground jury.
All German horses are through and the defending champions remain in team silver going into the final phase.
The Swedish — the only nation with six horses still in the competition — were also all accepted and they remain on target for bronze.
The top 10 in the individual standings also remain unchanged.
Poland’s Banderas, ridden by Pawel Spisak, became the highest placed casualty of the final horse inspection. The 10-year-old chestnut, 11th overnight, was sent to the holding box and not accepted when represented.
The Belgians lost Lully des Aulnes, who was also sent to the holding box. When represented, Joris Vanspringel’s 18-year-old gelding became very lame while trotting back towards the ground jury and wasn’t accepted.
The Netherlands’ Rumour Has It was withdrawn from the holding box by Merel Blom.
A further three horses were withdrawn ahead of the final inspection: Arianna Schivo’s Quefira de l’Ormeau for Italy, Cristina Pinedo Sendagorta’s Helena XII for Spain and Xavier Snackers’ En Silence Otrang for Belgium.
It leaves 56 horses to come forward for the showjumping phase, which kicks off at 11am (10am BST). The top 25 riders will showjump at 2.30pm (1.30pm BST).
Come back to horseandhound.co.uk later to find out whether Great Britain has held on to team gold. Full Europeans report in next week’s Horse & Hound (24 August).
