Great Britain’s Joe Stockdale has come home on 12 faults in the team medal-deciding final at the European Showjumping Championships at Riesenbeck, Germany, on Thursday (2 September).
Joe, 21, the youngest competitor of the competition, looked confident over the first part of Frank Rothenberger’s track until a slight miscommunication with Joy Cocklin’s 10-year-old mare Equine America Cacharel at fence six resulted in the pair having the first and third part down. They then lost a bit of momentum, rattling the next oxer, and taking down the second part of a double of verticals at fence 12.
“I think today was the best she had jumped. She jumped the first few unreal and 10 times better,” said Joe, who blamed himself for the problem at fence six. “I think she’s learning everyday. I just made a mistake and sort of paid for it. I never really gave her a chance to jump going in [to fence six] and being a two-stride oxer to vertical, with the one stride out [over another oxer], it was too difficult for her to get out of there. She got a bit flustered, but she was trying so hard – it was the wrong fence to make a mistake at.
“She’s certainly not out of her depth at this level. A lot of what she was doing she was doing very comfortably so I think in a year’s time we’re going to be a different partnership.”
The European Showjumping Championships marked Northamptonshire-based Joe’s championship debut. On the second day of competition yesterday (2 September) Joe and Equine America Cacharel came home on eight faults having touched both back rails at the double of oxers in the final line. The pair jumped a beautifully ridden round on the opening day (1 September), picking up four faults at the final fence and four time-penalties.
The top 10 teams, out of 15 nations, have come forward in today’s medal deciding round. Britain started the day in eighth on 33.18. Joe’s score counts towards the team’s final score, after pathfinder Georgia Tame and and Ascot Z7 retired from the competition following a refusal at fence three. Emily Moffitt and Winning Good produced a clear inside the time. William Whitaker and Galtur are last to jump for the Brits.
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