‘Being sat on a horse like that is something I have to treasure’: Laura Collett leads the way at Luhmühlen following action-packed cross-country

Fast clear rounds were few and far between during the five-star Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country today (14 June).

Just four of the 46 cross-country starters completed clear inside the time around the 11 minute 2 second track, which was designed by Mike Etherington-Smith.

The fastest of those was dressage leader Laura Collett on the second of her two rides, London 52, who stopped the clock with five seconds to spare and remain on their 25.4 dressage score.

“He’s sensational – I’m not very good with words and I genuinely don’t have enough to do him justice, but he’s insane,” said Laura, who is looking to maintain this horse’s unbeaten record at five-star having won this event in 2023, Badminton in 2022 and Pau in 2020.

“The feeling he gives is like no other, so to be in my position and sat on a horse like that is something that I just have to treasure.

“Everything he does, the way he gallops, the way he listens – he’s a big horse, but he’s so adjustable and nippy around these tracks, and at the end of the day, he just loves it.

“He’s so honest, and he looks for the flags, and he makes my job very easy.”

Of the 46 combinations that started the cross-country, there were 20 clears, while 32 completed. This means that 10.8% of the field jumped clear, inside the time, 43.5% of the field jumped clear and 69.6% of the field completed.

“There was nowhere you felt like you could just sit and breathe and gather your thoughts,” explained Laura of the track. “It was, bang, bang, bang, whether it was turning and twisting through the trees or setting up for a combination.”

Ros Canter and Izilot DHI maintain their second place after the dressage. Ros and the 12-year-old she owns alongside Alex Moody, picked up 2.8 time-faults, a contributing factor of which is this horse’s inherently spooky nature.

“I rode him earlier this morning and he wouldn’t go near one of the showjumps, which was slightly concerning,” laughed Ros. “But when he got out there, he really settled. I think having the woods to gallop through at the beginning really channelled and helped him focus. He ducked and dived all over going into the main arena and coming out of it again.

“He doesn’t find it so easy to gallop for so long, but that’s why he can dance so easily in the dressage, so we know his strengths and weaknesses, but I couldn’t fault his attitude today.”

“It felt fast!”: other top riders reflect on performances

British-based New Zealander Samantha Lissington continues her superb run of form, having recently filled the top three spots in the CCI4*-L at Royal Jump in France, where she also finished third in the CCI4*-S on her ride this weekend, Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ.

Sam and this striking black 14-year-old gelding, who she owns alongside her husband Brayden and Pip McCarroll, had the pedal to the metal around today’s track and finished with just .4 of a time penalty, one second over the optimum time.

“I’m really proud of him, and it felt fast!” said Sam, who said she was still wracking her brains this morning about today’s track. “I like to watch some go and then make decisions for myself, but this course was one of the ones where I was a little undecided going out the start box, and I didn’t know quite what I was going to do in the main arena, so I felt like I just had to ride it off feel, and thankfully, it came off.”

The most influential fence on Mark Etherington-Smith’s Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country track was the much talked about fence 8abc, the Longines Kombination. This consisted of a maximum width oxer at the first part, followed by a right-handed turn to two acutely angled brush fences with blue water trays below on a forward one stride distance.

Some riders opted to put in a small curve in-between the b and c elements and clever horses made this look comfortable, however, with the nature of the main arena, with plenty of crowds and marquees to distract horses, some quite simply didn’t lock on to the c element and ran out. Ultimately, this fence caught 15 combinations out – almost a third of the field (32.6%).

Kitty King fourth after Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country

Kitty King and the now incredibly consistent Vendredi Biats – who both really deserve a five-star win having knocked on the door so many times with three top-five five-star placings, including finishing second here last year – finished bang on the optimum time and go into tomorrow’s showjumping in fourth on 31.2.

Kitty was emotional following her round, dreading the day this 16-year-old, owned by Diana Bown, John Eyre, Sally Lloyd Baker and Samantha Wilson, retires from top level sport.

“It wasn’t our tidiest of rounds and we were a bit scrappy in places, but I think that’s the makeup of the course.,” explained Kitty. “It’s very twisty and fast with lots of lines, and the horses don’t really know where they’re going, but he kept helping me out, and I helped him occasionally. He’s just such a dream and I’m going to miss him so much when he has to retire.”

This marked “Froggy’s” fifth run of the season and Kitty has been experimenting with bitting after this horse’s original Myler combination bit was banned for 2025.

“We’ve been trying to find new bits for him – he’s very sensitive and tricky, so this year we’ve run in a different bit at every event,” said Kitty. “Therefore we haven’t really got that continuity yet, because on his first few runs, the bits didn’t work, so we had to keep swapping, so for an older horse, he’s been quite confused.”

Kitty and Froggy finished fourth in the CCI4*-S at Bicton on their most recent run and she decided to stick with the new combination bit she used there for Luhmühlen.

“Although we had a good run at Bicton, we’re probably still a little bit at sea,” said Kitty. “I was really nervous going out the start box here, because I sometimes when you put the bit on the second time, they don’t work at all and he was a bit stiff and wooden in the warm up – I was thinking, ‘oh gosh, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to turn’.

“But he just did his job and was fast as we could be – I was smacking my head into branches everywhere in an effort to save time!”

Young US rider impresses on Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country day

US rider Cosby Green, 24, who is based with Tim and Jonelle Price in Dorset, impressed with polished performances aboard both of her rides today.

She clocked the second fastest round of the day with the second of her rides, Highly Suspicious, finishing four seconds inside the optimum time to move from 16th after the dressage into fifth.

Cosby also finished just one second over the optimum time on her other ride, Jos UFO De Quidam to rocket from 36th after the first phase into ninth.

Laura Collett is another rider to have two horses inside the top 10, with the grey mare Hester seeming to have grown in confidence over the past 12 months – she retired across country at Badminton last year and then picked up 20 penalties in the five-star here last year, but today she finished just three seconds over the optimum time and has moved from 13th into sixth.

“She was phenomenal. The improvement in her in 12 months from where she was here last year was amazing,” said Laura. “And for me, that’s what it’s all about, is building that partnership.

“I’ve had her all the way through her career, like Dan [London 52], so it’s taken years but she feels amazing. She’s like my little unicorn that I get to fly around.”

Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country: the rest of the top 10

Origi, the mount of last year’s winner, Belgium’s Lara De Liedekerke-Meier, finished one second inside the optimum time to currently sit in seventh, but the gelding pulled up lame at the finish. Lara has since posted on social media to say that “he is being taken care of by the vet team and is happy in his stable”.

Rounding off the top 10 is Austria’s Lea Siegl, who at the age of 26 is another young rider to have two horses inside the top 10 following the Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country. She has DSP Fighting Line in eighth having picked up 3.2 time-faults and Van Helsing P in 10th. Van Helsing P dropped from sixth after the dressage having picked up 11.2 time-faults. Lea has been given a yellow card by the ground jury for “abuse of horse for excessive use of the whip” aboard DSP Fighting Line.

Some of those who dropped out of the top 10 today included Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno, who were in fifth after the dressage. Gemma pulled this 17-year-old mare up quickly after jumping through all elements of Manske’s Irish Bank at fence 20. Jalapeno was loaded onto a horse ambulance and Gemma posted on Instagram to say the mare was “comfortable in her stable”.

Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp dropped from third to 12th with Carlitos Quidditch K after activating a frangible device jumping into the second water at fence 11, while Piggy March and Halo dropped from seventh to 24th due to a run out at the final part of this same water fence at 12b. Finally, Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat, who held ninth after the first phase, opted to retire after a run out at 8c was followed by a run out at the middle part of the second water at 12a.

The final showjumping phase will get under way tomorrow morning after the final trot-up, which is at 7.45am (6.45am UK time), with less than one fence down separating the top three.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in: