Ingrid Klimke has won her first CCI4*, finishing top in the opening leg of the FEI Classics series at Les Etoiles de Pau in France (26 October).
Tougher than ever
Pau proved tougher than ever this year, with errors and early retirements from some of the world’s top competitors.
Ingrid and Horseware Hale Bob led from the off, although they shared their position at the top of the leaderboard with William Fox-Pitt and Parklane Hawk after the dressage. They were the only two combinations to break the 40pen barrier, both scoring 39.3pen.
William was also fifth with Seacookie, on whom he won at Pau last year. However the world number one pulled the 15-year-old up at fence six on the cross-country, citing hard ground. William then decided not to run ‘Parker’.
‘Difficult decision’
“Sadly Cookie was not enjoying the ground so I pulled him up before fence six, and after long discussion with Catherine Witt [Parklane’s owner] we decided not to take the risk running Parker,” said William.
“The ground was just not best suited to him and we feel it is more important he starts next season on top form.
“It was a very difficult decision being in the lead but there is always another day.”
Challenging
The cross-country at Pau is notoriously challenging, and this year was no exception. Pippa Funnell retired Mirage D’Elle after a run-out at the sharply angled corner at fence four and then took a tumble from Redesigned, when he clipped the second arrowhead at fence 20.
Jock Paget (Shady Grey) and Francis Whittington (West Side) also had problems at fence four. Nicola Wilson, who was fourth after dressage, had a frustrating run-out in the final water complex at fence 25 riding One Two Many – a horse formerly ridden buy Australian eventer Bill Levett.
‘Biggest fear’
Going into the final phase, Electric Cruise was eliminated after failing the final horse inspection. This moved Andreas Dibowski (GER) and FRH Butts Avedon into the runner-up spot. They had two fences down in the showjumping, but still managed to hold onto second place (54.3pen).
The meant Ingrid had three fences in hand, but Horseware Hale Bob only hit one rail at the triple oxer to land the prestigious title (44.1pen). Despite winning six team gold at Olympic, World and European level – including this year’s World Equestrian Games – this is the German eventer’s first four-star win.
“This was a pure show jumping course and you needed an adjustable horse for the varying distances, which wasn’t easy the day after a 12-minute cross-country course,” said Klimke. “Often the jumping phase is my biggest fear, but this time I had no worries because I knew my horse is a great jumper.”
Highest Brit
There were only three clear showjumping rounds, with Arnaud Boiteau (FRA) and Jonelle Price (NZ) producing two of them, to move up into third and fourth places respectively.
The British riders were noticeable by their absence from the top ten. Nicola Wilson was the highest placed, finishing eighth with One Two Many (80.8pen).