“I’M JUST as much in love with that horse as I am with my wife,” was how the newly crowned European Champion, Andre Thieme, described his relationship with DSP Chakaria on Sunday afternoon in Riesenbeck, Germany.

The home crowd, capped at 2,100 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, went wild when, last to go in the final round, Thieme secured the title, turning the tables on the overnight leader and 2019 champion Martin Fuchs who had to settle for silver with the nine-year-old gelding Leone Jei. It was the first European title for a German rider since Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum won in 2007 with the great Shutterfly.

It is not often Sweden’s Peder Fredricson leaves a major championship without a medal and Riesenbeck was no different. He put the disappointment of missing a team medal behind him to secure bronze with Catch me Not S and add a third medal for 2021 to the trophy cabinet following gold and silver at the Tokyo Olympics.

The sun shone again for the final day of top-class competition at the venue in the North Rhine region of Germany. Just as he had all week, course designer Frank Rothenberger built a track that was technical and beefy, with tough questions, but found the perfect balance for the 24 that made it through to the final.

Just two – Fuchs and Greece’s Ioli Mytilineou – came into the final round not having knocked a pole, and Fuchs was in pole position on a score of 1.31, ahead of Thieme on 2.84, while Belgium’s Pieter Devos held the bronze medal position on 3.16. At her first senior championships, 24-four-year-old Mytilineou was in fourth place with Levis de Muze.

Martin Fuchs (silver), Andre Thieme (gold) and Peder Fredricson (bronze) \ FEI/Christophe Taniere

Three Irish riders – Daniel Coyle, Eoin McMahon and Michael Duffy – made it through to the top 24, with just the top 12 to progress to the final.

The standing changed after the first round. Just four riders were clear inside the time; Thieme was one of them to take over the gold medal position with one round to jump. Fredricson was also clear to move into silver, while Mytilineou crossed the line with a single time fault to sit in third. Fuchs knocked his first fence of the competition to move down to fourth place.

Ireland’s Eoin McMahon was clear over the fences but had a time fault to move through to the final round in 10th place, while Daniel Coyle and Legacy also qualified in 12th place. They were unlucky to knock the second part of the combination. Michael Duffy finished in 16th place with HMF Equestrian’s 10-year-old gelding Zilton SL Z when picking up five faults.

Final round

The final round saw 12 riders from seven nations take on the 10 huge fences. All the top six had fences down, including Fuchs who knocked the first part of the tricky triple combination to finish on 9.31. However, when Mytilineou retired after meeting the combination wrong, the 2019 champion was guaranteed a podium finish.

Martin Fuchs and Leone Jei won team gold and individual silver at the FEI Jumping European Championships in Riesenbeck, Germany \ Tomas Holcbecher

Second last into the arena, Fredricson knocked the second fence and, agonisingly, picked up a time fault to put him 0.15 of a penalty behind Fuchs to take the bronze.

The pressure was piled on Thieme and DSP Chakaria, who also competed at the Olympic Games earlier this summer; they had 6.47 penalties in hand, so could afford a fence down, but not two. When they knocked the middle part of the combinations at fence four, the German fans held their breath. From there, they stayed calm and crossed the finish line on a final score of 6.84 to take the gold.

Germany’s Christian Kukuk finished fourth (9.93) with Mumbai, ahead of Belgium’s Nicola Philippaerts with Katanga v/h Dingeshof (13.28) in fifth. .

On home soil in Riesenbeck where he rides for Beerbaum, Co Clare’s Eoin McMahon finished eighth with Madeleine Winter-Schulze’s 15-year-old gelding Chacon 2 (16.70) after picking up five faults in the last round. Derry’s Daniel Coyle filled 10th place with Ariel Grange’s 11-year-old mare Legacy (18.39), also finishing with five faults last time out (see comments below).

Difficult

Thieme talked about the challenge of that second course. “Walking it you could see that triple combination was going to be very difficult for everybody. The course designer was just very smart. You had to ride it perfect, and even then there was a chance to have it down,” he explained.

“I got there exactly the way I wanted to, and then boom I hit the front rail and I thought we have a long way to go. So I tried to stay calm, and she stayed calm with me and I don’t know how many times I can say it but I’m very blessed with that horse! It’s something very special,” he said about the 11-year-old German-bred mare by Chap 47.

Fuchs admitted that he doesn’t like to be second. “For the first few minutes I was disappointed about the result… that it wasn’t good enough for gold, but now I’m really happy with silver! I’ll go home with two medals, one gold (team) one silver,” Fuchs said.

Fredricson blamed himself for the mistake with Catch Me Not made at the second fence, after he changed his original plan on how to ride that line, as well as the expensive time fault. “I think the course designer built in a really clever way, questions all the way around, time just tight enough. Like Martin, at first I was really disappointed with the choice I made... but 45 minutes later I feel happy for my bronze medal,” he said.