Yasmin Ingham moves up to silver medal position after testing World Championships track 

There’s been a leader board reshuffle on the Eventing World Championships cross-country day, with senior championship debutante Yasmin Ingham best of the Brits going into tomorrow’s showjumping 

We were warned it wouldn’t be a dressage test and after cross-country day (Saturday 17 September) at the Eventing World Championships, it’s fair to say that there’s been quite the reshuffle on the leader board. Star performers were Britain’s senior championship debutantes, Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir, who were competing as individuals and moved up from provisional bronze to silver medal position going into tomorrow’s showjumping after a phenomenal round that defied their relative inexperience.  

Meanwhile, there were thrills and spills galore for the team riders. Ros Canter rode Lordships Graffalo and Oliver Townend rode Ballaghmor Class to clear rounds inside the time to stand eighth and fourth ahead of tomorrow’s showjumping. Tom McEwen added a few seconds to Toledo de Kerser’s dressage score to go into 13^th place, and Laura Collett suffered an unfortunate run-out to more than double their incredible dressage score that now sees them sitting in 48^th position. Britain now lies in bronze medal position, just two poles behind the USA in silver and Germany in gold. 

Competing as an individual, 22-year-old Yasmin Ingham rode Banzai du Loir exceptionally well through the course despite her relative inexperience to add just three seconds, or 1.2 penalties, taking her dressage score of 22.0 up to 23.2.  

“It was hard work,” she said after her round. “It was very intense; I think it was the terrain more than anything. You were just constantly on a camber up and down. As I’ve said from the beginning, I’m just so glad I’m sat on Banzai. He really took it all in his stride and felt really at home up in the hills.” 

The 11-year-old French-bred gelding, owned by Janette Chinn and Sue Davies, looked confident from start to finish, a sentiment Yasmin echoed. “He grew in confidence the whole way and was just looking for the flags I’m really pleased.” 

Making her senior championship debut, Yasmin finished the cross-country safe in the knowledge she’d be starting the showjumping in no worse than bronze medal position. This, surely, is dream-come-true material? “Honestly, I could never have even dreamed of being in this position,” Yasmin finished. “I know Banzai is more than capable I think so much of him. He deserves it so much he’s just such an incredible all-round horse in the dressage and showjumping and touch wood tomorrow he will show everyone that he really is the ultimate event horse.” 

Oliver Townend added nothing to his score and will go into the showjumping in fourth place. He was diplomatic in his feedback after the cross-country, identifying that it perhaps didn’t play to the strengths of the more seasoned five-star campaigners. “It was very good and a very different test to normal, but I think very fair and cleverly designed,” he explained. “I don’t think it particularly suits some of the older horses – London 52, Toledo de Kerser, Ballaghmor Class – who have all been round those big five-stars like Burghley and Badminton.  

“The distances didn’t suit my horse but he’s so genuine that even when he didn’t want to listen, he eventually did,” he continued. “The one thing he does love is jumping between the flags, which makes my job a lot more relaxing. If he sees the fence, he’s going to try and jump it for you.” 

One horse that the course certainly did suit was Lordships Graffalo, the ride of reigning World Champion Ros Canter. First to go for Britain, the pair ultimately rose from fourteenth place after dressage to eighth going into the showjumping after their seamless round saw them add nothing to their solid dressage score of 26.2. The pair were the first to come home within the time and in fact had seven seconds spare on crossing the finishing line.  

At just 10 years old, ‘Walter’ had youth and exuberance on his side but didn’t have the cumulative fitness that comes with more top-level competition experience. However, you’d be forgiven for thinking the gelding had walked the course himself as Ros guided him round the tricky track expertly, with Walter, ears pricked, bravely taking on every question asked like he’d done it dozens of times before. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of him,” Ros said, speaking after her round. “He is just a phenomenal cross-country horse. He’s only 10 years old but it just feels like child’s play to him. He is green and inexperienced, but he treats it like a big kid, and he just plays with it and focuses when he needs to focus. He’s fantastic.” 

Speaking of the undulating track, which offered a handful of longer stretches to claw back some seconds sandwiched between tricky climbs and drops, Ros continued: “We haven’t done as much galloping work at home because of the hard ground and we only go on grass, but he experiences hills like that all the time at home whether he’s hacking or cantering so I knew he’d be able to keep his speed or accelerate up the hills and I think that’s key. Once you’ve done the hills it gets very twisty and if they feel a bit tired that’s going to be when they’re going to be harder to steer so I was fortunate in that sense that he kept galloping right to the end. 

“It actually rode as I walked it. I think it helps having a horse like Lordships Graffalo to be sat on there’ll be plenty of horses that won’t be as easy to ride as him that it will probably become harder work. It was a relief to jump the last fence to be honest but looking back it was great fun and he was very rideable throughout.” 

Next best Brit, Tom McEwen, was given quite the ride from his trusty partner Toledo de Kerser. Coming in 12 seconds over the time, and with some provisional additional penalties for a flag that were fortunately later revoked, they’ll go into tomorrow’s showjumping in 13^th place on a score of 30.4. 

Reflecting on his round, Tom commented, “I’d sum it up with one word being enthusiastic. He absolutely loved every second. He was wanting to run and jump. For a horse like him that has multiple five-star runs under his belt it probably was on the slightly smaller side and being his traditional self, he was rather keen and wanted to jump absolutely everything   

He was brilliant, foot-perfect, but it wouldn’t have been the smoothest ride we’ve ever had as a combination. 

“He was absolutely on one, he warmed up very settled and he just wanted to jump everything,” Tom continued.  

“He was awesome, though. Usual Toledo, legs going in every direction wanting to jump every single fence. He was fantastic, honest, good, true,” Tom said, before adding, “I’d usually call him a pure pleasure but today the pleasure was definitely at the finish.”

A dream second place after dressage was quickly dashed for reigning Badminton champions Laura Collett and London 52, when an early run-out at the second of a double of skinnies set the tone for their result. Out of World title contention, the combination added 38.8 penalties to their dressage score of 19.3, which duly saw them plummet down the leader board. 

“Obviously, I’m absolutely gutted but these things happen with horses. He’s been pretty perfect for two years, so he’s allowed to have an off day, sadly it was today. He just jumped a bit too big over the first element and ran down the hill, locked on and didn’t realise there were two skinnies until it was too late,” Laura explained after her test.  

The fighting fit but opinionated London 52 gave a strong performance around the rest of the course, Laura opting for some of the longer routes, which will have added a few seconds to their clock, too. 

“He was fantastic, very keen the whole way round, he finished really well – that’s the main thing,” Laura finished. “I’m still really proud of him to have jumped round that track. I didn’t know what he’d be like with the hills, and he finished really well and he’s in the wash-down thinking he’d like to have another go! I’ve got a fit, sound horse at the end of the day, that’s the most important part of it.” 

Results as they stand 

The top 20 individual results as they stand are… 

1. Germany’s Michael Jung and Fischerchipmunk FRH 
2. Great Britain’s Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir 
3. USA’s Tamie Smith and Mai Baum 
4. Great Britian’s Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class 
5. Germany’s Julia Krajewski and Amanda de b’Neville 
6. USA’s Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg TSF 
7. New Zealand’s Tim Price and Falco 
8. Great Britain’s Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo 
9. France’s Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza 
10. Japan’s Kazuma Tomoto and Vinci de la Vigne JRA 
11. USA’s Will Coleman and Off The Record 
12. New Zealand’s Monica Spencer and Artist 
13. Great Britain’s Tom McEwen and Toledo de Kerser 
14. Germany’s Sandra Auffarth and Viamant du Matz 
15. Switzerland’s Felix Vogg and Cartania 
16. New Zealan’s Jonelle Price and McClaren 
17. USA’s Ariel Grald and Leamore Master Plan 
18. USA’s Lauren Nicholson and Vermiculus 
19. Ireland’s Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue 
20. New Zealand’s Amanda Pottinger and Just Kidding 

The team table as it stands is as follows…

1. Germany 
2. USA 
3. Great Britain 
4. New Zealand 
5. Switzerland 
6. Japan 
7. Ireland 
8. Belgium 
9. Sweden 
10. Australia 
11. Italy 
12. Canada 
13. Brazil 
14. France 
15. Austria 
16. Spain 

Photo credit: Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir © FEI / Massimo Argenziano