Puissance specialists clear new personal record height at London, plus drama for runner-up

Rachel Proudley repeated her win from 2024 in the London Horse Show puissance tonight – and went higher than she and class specialist Easy Boy De Laubry Z have ever jumped before when they cleared 2.21m (7ft 3in).

“He’s so brave. I can trust him so much and I think that’s all that matters, really,” said Britain’s 20-year-old young rider European champion after winning the LeMieux-sponsored class. “I didn’t have to put too much pressure on him and he was actually a little bit brave in the first few rounds. In the last round, he really listened to me and and that was definitely his best round.”

This was the pair’s sixth outright or shared puissance win, including starting the trend here last year.

“When you go in, you can’t even see over the wall, but when you’re sat on a horse like him, you feel like you could jump anything. That was our biggest jump yet there tonight and to be honest, it felt easy,” Rachel said.

It may have been easy for Rachel and Graham Ward’s 11-year-old, but the class had plenty of drama.

Thirteen started, which was whittled down to four who attempted the 2.18m fourth round.

First in, Derek McCoppin and Explosief’s Legacy just clipped off the top row of the wall bricks.

“This is our third puissance and she’s getting better every time. She’s got loads of power and she just needs to get a little bit clever at the really tall height. She’ll have her day yet,” said the Irishman.

Nathan Bull was next in with Casaltonia, another attempting her third puissance. The pair left the wall intact, but rocked it dramatically and the nine-year-old mare came down on her knees on landing, sending Nathan over her head.

However, because the pair had passed through the finish before parting company, they were unpenalised, though Nathan sensibly decided to settle for second and not return to jump off against Rachel.

“I’m just glad that she’s okay. She lost her footing when she landed and I went over the handlebars, it wasn’t her fault at all,” said Nathan.

Another Irish rider, Andrew Hodgins, had to display bravery and creativity to get Shanaclough Luichew through each London Horse Show puissance round as the chestnut was very keen, leaping and bounding and proving impossible to settle into any sort of rhythm. Flinging himself at the wall, he faulted in this fourth round to share third place with Derek and Explosief’s Legacy.

“He’s extremely keen, so it’s a reassuring feeling that he’s going to take you to it, but to get the stride right is sometimes maybe not as easy as you think,” said Andrew, who added the horse has a good record in 1.35/1.40m grands prix and also jumps derbies. He will tackle his first six-bar on Saturday here.

“He’s actually a lot of calmer when it comes to just pole jumping, a lot more controllable. The wall is a bit intimidating to him, that’s his response to it and it’s just his character. We just accept it, but we’re mad about him. We love him.”

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