Laura Collett and London 52 delivered a showstopping test to take their place at the top of the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials dressage results.
The 2022 Badminton champions are so consistent in their ability to produce wow-factor performances time and again. London 52 rose to the atmosphere, with Laura’s ringcraft ensuring they squeezed every possible mark to head into the cross-country on a score of 20.3.
The 14-year-old gelding’s scoresheet was littered with eights and nines, with the pair earning two 10s for their halts, and cheers from the crowd at the end of their test.
“I was having a whale of a time in there, because he was just so with me and you can just really show him off now. He went through a phase of being very fragile and now he just loves it,” said Laura, who trains with Ian Woodhead and Carl Hester.
“They’ve both been super helpful. I was sending Ian videos yesterday, because he’s gutted he’s not here.
“We’ve got a system with him now; it’s quite difficult to stick to sometimes as like the last couple of days he’s been really fresh and over excited about being here.
“He came out this morning, did some poles and felt really good. It’s just a case of being brave enough to stick to what we know now with him.”
Their polished test gave no hint at the last-minute wobble in the warm-up.
“He started off in the big arena and felt really nice, really relaxed. Then we went over to the final warm-up arena and I totally lost him,” said Laura.
“He hasn’t done that to me for a long time and I was getting a little bit nervous because he just tensed up and I totally lost the connection. They said, ‘you’ve got three minutes’, he took a deep breath and Dickie Waygood said, ‘don’t panic!’
“He kind of needs to be on edge. It’s a fine line and we got it right today.”
It was a special moment too for London 52’s breeder, Ocke Riewerts, who travelled to Luhmühlen Horse Trials from the tiny island of Föhr to see the horse he bred in the flesh for the first time in 14 years. That beautiful leggy foal, who he was initially worried was slightly on the small side, is now an Olympic team gold medallist with two five-star titles to his name.
“It’s amazing that he’s here, I said to him, ‘where’s the next one?’,” said Laura, who owns “Dan” with Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett.
The pair have a handful of seconds in hand over Thursday’s dressage leaders, Pippa Funnell and her 2019 Burghley winner MGH Grafton Street (23.1), owned by Jonathan and Jane Clarke, who now hold second place. Kitty King is now in provisional third with Vendredi Biats (26.8), owned by Diana Bown, Sally Lloyd Baker, Sally Eyre and Samantha Wilson.
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