D. Day Storms to Luhmühlen Cross-Country Lead with Caroline Harris

Just fifteen horses and riders remain in the hunt for the 2026 Longines Luhmühlen CCI5* title after an influential – and very, very warm – cross-country day shook up the 20-strong leaderboard.

It’s clear that course designer Mike Etherington-Smith has championships on the brain, because both his courses today – this one, and the CCI4*-S Meßmer Trophy this afternoon – were even more technical than usual, ensuring that the day’s sport had a true five-star feel despite a smaller-than-normal field.

Of those fifteen finishers, just nine completed without incurring jumping penalties, and only one horse and rider would catch the tight eleven-minute optimum time.

Great Britain’s Caroline Harris and her 2024 Pau winner D. Day didn’t just sneak inside it, either: they eclipsed it by some eighteen seconds, despite never looking hurried.

“I actually have no idea how we managed that,” laughs Caroline. “I was trying to make up a bit of time earlier on, because the course got really intense later, but somehow I just kept hitting my minute markers and then getting more and more up on the clock.”

She did, she says, “have Dicky Waygood and Chris Bartle in my head telling me not to set my preparation point too early, and because D. Day is so polite, I tried to dare myself to do it. Even then, I did sometimes think, ‘oh, god, I’ve set up way too early!’”

The ease with which Caroline and the twelve-year-old gelding, who she rides for breeder Fiona Olivier and co-owners Lucy Matthews, Marie Anne Richardson, and Heather Royle, allowed them to top the leaderboard at the end of the morning’s sport, stepping up from fourth place after dressage on their score of 31.1.

This is a third five-star start for Caroline and the son of the Funnell’s Billy Mexico alike: they made their debut here in 2024, finishing twelfth, before going on to take victory at Pau later that year over a course that looked more like a swimming pool, except all the pool floaties were solid and frightening rather than, like, inflatable flamingos with cupholders.

There was a moment – or about three hours, really – in the early hours of this morning when Caroline and her little horse might have had a war flashback or two. Luhmühlen at this time of year is famous for its extremes of weather, which I devoted myself to finding out more about earlier this week but got as far as learning something about weather fronts out of Russia clashing with something to do with the sea. I don’t know. Anyway, in real world terms, that means that even when the event is a sun-trap, as it is this week, it’s also nearly guaranteed that at some point the heavens will open so dramatically that any other event would be forced to hold its hands up and stop the show.

Not so Luhmühlen, with its ground like a sponge, which benefitted enormously from the apocalyptic storm that kept most of us awake until it was time to get up and get moving. Caroline and D. Day didn’t have to use their previous excellent form in wet going at all, and instead cruised along the top of the ground to make the whole round like a bit more like a schooling exercise than a five-star marathon.

Part of that comes down to this year’s course direction, Caroline explains.

“This year really suited us, because in this direction, it eases you in and the last seven minutes is very intense,” she says. “The last time I was here it started out very intense and then eased off, but this way, we really got into our rhythm. He can start out a bit careful, and so the lessened intensity early on really got us going.”

It would be easy to assume that, coming into a smaller five-star line-up on a horse that’s already won at the level, Caroline might have been feeling that the odds were fully in her favour ahead of today’s cross-country. That wasn’t quite the case.

“I was pretty nervous, actually,” she admits. “I was very aware of what went wrong at the Blenheim Europeans last year [the pair had a 20, and then suffered a rider fall] and I really wanted to put that to bed a bit. But he’s come out this year feeling better than ever, so I think that’s a lesson we’ve both learned, and we’ve both come back better for it.”

Last year’s disappointment was, she explains, a bit of a mystery.

“If I’m really honest, last year he just never felt quite 100% himself. He gave me some brilliant runs, like at Aachen, but would I say he felt as good cross-country as he’s feeling this year? Probably not. I don’t know why that is, but we gave him a long, long holiday, and he’s come back feeling really good.”

Today, she says, “he was perfect. He absolutely flew. There wasn’t a moment where I was worried – it all rode exactly as I’d walked it. He’s just a little horse who gives you everything – he might not be big and flashy like some of the others, but he’ll always dig very, very deep and do his best.”

Caroline and D. Day’s storming success stole them the top spot from dressage leaders Emily King and Valmy Biats, who added 6.8 time penalties after Emily decided to ease off the 17-year-old a touch.

“He’s an amazingly brave horse, which can sometimes make him a little bit hard to ride, and I’ve fallen into that trap a few times around some bigger events,” she says. “I wanted to just think a little bit extra for him around the course today. I’m not sure whether it was the heat, but he was a little bit quieter today, so actually, this crazy lion that I’m normally trying to navigate around a course was not so lion-y, and I had to adapt a bit to that.”

“It’s lovely having your plan, and when it all comes off and your horse is exactly how he normally is, it all happens seamlessly and is the most amazing feeling, but that’s not always the case, is it?” she continues. “It was a bit like that with Valmy today. I thought, ‘my goodness, I need to start thinking about a different plan’. He was super, though. Maybe some of the strides or the approaches weren’t quite as I’d imagined them, but he was so good on the fences, super quick with his legs, really straight, and came through the finish super quick.”

It was evident that Valmy had gained a second wind in the back end of the course, and the gelding’s cruising pace increased to regain the pair some valuable time back on the clock. They were also granted another nine penalty reprieve, when a flag on their scorecard was removed at the end of the class.

On a hot day like today, most riders are just desperate to see their horses finish well and happy, and that was Emily’s top priority.

“These horses mean so much to us, and I think we can all agree that we just want to get them home safe and sound,” she says. “In England, it’s only been heating up over the past month, and it’s not been like this, nor as close as this, so I think we all had to ride with the feeling that we could only go as quickly as we felt safe to in order to get them home safe and sound.”

There’s just 2.7 penalties separating Caroline and Emily as we head into tomorrow’s showjumping finale, but the margin opens up a touch as we look to third place, which is the domain of Boyd Martin and his five-star debutant, Shanroe Cooley. They added just 2.4 time penalties in an educational, confidence-building round for the eleven-year-old, boosting them up the order from eleventh after dressage and putting them just a hair over a rail behind Emily and Valmy.

“I’m thrilled with him today,” says Boyd. “He’s a new ride for me, and the dressage is still a work in progress – yesterday we had moments of brilliance and moments of disaster all in the one test – but I really didn’t know what to expect here today. We came to Luhmühlen wondering if he was a five-star horse, and as he kept going through the track, I’m thinking to myself, ‘hey, he’s feeling pretty good!’ I’m looking at my watch and thinking, ‘we’re in this!’”

Like much of the class’s entrants, Shanroe Cooley tired in the last couple of minutes of the course, but that’s when Boyd really got a sense of what sort of a horse he might be.

“He was tired, but he just gritted his teeth and pricked his ears. I’ve got so much admiration for these horses; they’re really just true competitors, and he really fought hard for me out there today. I’m thrilled for the horse, I’m thrilled for the owners, and most importantly, I’m thrilled for Liz Halliday, because to have a successful round at five-star is a great accomplishment, and she’s done a magnificent job of producing him.”

Shanroe Cooley’s path to this level hasn’t been straightforward: after his accident at the AECs with Liz in 2024, which curtailed her eventing career, he pivoted into a career in the equitation ring – which, Boyd laughs, “was a massive failure! Then Peter Wylde and Eric Duvander convinced me to take him, and I was sort of on the fence about whether to do it or not, but they assured me he was a champion horse.”

The five-star’s early finish today might sound like it spells an afternoon of rest and relaxation for Boyd, but not so: “I’ve got half of America texting my phone at the moment, because he’s got such a massive following – all of Liz’s students and fans and owners are cheering this horse on. There’s only a handful of Americans here, but we’ve got the whole country waking up very early this morning and glued to this live stream, so I reckon I’ve got to reply to about 400 texts now!”

Jonelle Price finished the dressage with two horses in the top ten, and finished cross-country with both in the top five after two textbook rounds. The 2022 Pau winner Grappa Nera was our pathfinder today, and set a smart pace to add just 4.4 time penalties and step up from 10^th to fourth, while the five-star first-timer Capitaine de Hus Z, formerly the ride of Ginny Thomasen, cruised around for 7.2 time penalties and a leap from seventh to fifth.

One of the rounds of the day was that of France’s Benjamin Massie and the Upsilon daughter Guess Star, who might not be built for the first phase, but for whom cross-country is truly just a game. The pair shot up from last place yesterday to sixth today, crossing the finish line just one second over the optimum time. At just ten years old, this is only her thirteenth FEI competition and her fifth long-format; today’s single second on the clock is the first she’s ever racked up in any long.

Day one dressage leaders Hallie Coon and Kapriccio – another of the first-timer horses in this field – looked stylish and confident around the track, but were one of several combinations to have a pin from a light touch at the corner complex at 22B, adding 11 penalties to their tally. It would be easy to be frustrated with that in a round that otherwise added just 4.4 time penalties to their score card, but Hallie is too busy looking at the gelding with hearts in her eyes to worry too much about the details.

“He is,” she texts me, “the most amazing!”

The pair will head into Sunday in a still very respectable seventh place, some 12 penalties away from the leading spot.

German five-star debutants Katharina Meyer and Aspen T brought it home for the enthusiastic spectators lining the ropes, and will hold eighth place overnight. Like Hallie and Kapriccio, they came home in a time of 11:11 (make a wish!), but added no further penalties on course.

New Zealand’s James Avery and his exciting Dallas 13, who also steps up this week, moved from third to ninth place after they, too, barely tapped the rail at 22B to have the pin. Their round was otherwise a picture, and they came home fifteen seconds over the time to add 6 time penalties.

British five-star debutant Harry Horton had expected to put a 40 on the board with Cooley With Ambition yesterday, and admitted that when he actually managed a 35.6 and a top ten position, that made him morenervous, not less.

But you’d be hard-pressed to spot nerves in horse or rider as they made their way around the course, picking out a couple of sensible long routes – including at that tricksy corner combination at 22 – to come home as a confirmed five-star partnership with a clear round and 35.6 time penalties. They’ll head into Sunday morning in tenth place.

“I’m enormously relieved and incredibly proud,” says Harry. “And I came down in the lorry with Caroline Harris, so the journey home’s going to be alright!”

The mighty Kiwi contingent here took a bit of a knock today, with a retirement on course for Vicky Browne-Cole and her lovely Thoroughbred, Cutting Edge, and a non-injurious rider fall at 22B for Abby Jones and Henton Audacious, who had sat sixth after dressage. But the biggest story of the day was arguably that of Tim Price and Happy Boy, who were fifth coming into cross-country, and have some major wins under their belt already, like Boekelo in 2022 and the Seven-Year-Old World Championship in 2019. But the gelding is also a bit of a wild card in this phase, and although he started well, he took a dislike to the skinny on dry land in the middle of the Meßmer Water, the second water complex on course. He dropped his left shoulder, bid adieu to the fence, and sent his poor rider careening across the grass, too. Poor Tim’s indignities didn’t end there, either: after gamely fixing the flag back on the fence for the next rider, he attempted to make his way off course by walking over the top of the alternative fence… and fell off that, too. Someone get the man a beer.

So: fifteen left in it, and just the small matter of the final horse inspection to get through at 9.15 a.m. tomorrow morning (8.15 a.m. BST/3.15 a.m. EST). After that, we’ll see the CCI4*-S horses trot up, before another scorcher of a day of sport beckons.

That CCI4*-S, which incorporates the German National Championship and acts as an important selection trial for the World Championships, too, is down to 43 from 50 starters, and was every bit as influential as we expect from this class. Much like Kentucky’s accompanying CCI4*-S, it’s no run-of-the-mill spin at the level – and we saw that play out with some surprising mishaps on course.

Germany’s Arne Bergendahl has arguably one of the most exciting young horses in the sport in Bronco NRW, who placed at Boekelo last year, but the pair failed to complete today after a rider fall at fence 22B, while New Zealand’s Sam Lissington and her sixth-placed Delarado retired on course after picking up twenty penalties midway around the course.

There’s little change in the upper echelons, though: Julia Krajewski and the sublime Uelzener’s Nickel retain their lead, adding just 4 time penalties to their 22.9 dressage score to take a rail in hand into tomorrow. Julia also sits fourth with the inexperienced Tullabeg Platinum, who added 7.2 time penalties to drop down one spot on the leaderboard.

“Nickel’s round was, from my point of view, faultless – he’s really a pro at this level, and I was very happy with myself that I didn’t take too many pulls,” says Julia. “So we were able to be very fluid, and that’s how we can be quick, because he doesn’t have high speed but he’s always so on it.”

Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and 2025 Boekelo winner Kiarado d’Arville move from fourth place to second, also adding just four time penalties to their first-phase score in a run that Lara hopes will be a crucial preparation for August’s World Championships.

“He’s just ten, and he’s done a lot already, but he never came to a show like Luhmühlen,” says Lara. “I’m aiming him for Aachen, which is why he came here – it’s a little bit similar, with a twisty track that’s like what we’ll have. Everything this week is with an eye on a few weeks’ time – I could have gone faster today, but I didn’t take on the risk, and I’m glad I didn’t.”

Malin Hansen-Hotopp and her five-star and championship mount Carlitos Quidditch K cruised home with 6.8 time penalties to sit third overnight.

“I’m so happy with him – he’s such a smart, clever event horse,” says Malin. “He’s always in front of me and makes it so easy for me to ride the right lines – it’s just fun. I think I had a big smile on my face the whole time.”

The fastest rider of the day in this class was Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and Top Job’s Jalisco, who came home just one second over the 6:40 optimum time. British-based US rider Cosby Green retains ninth place with the evergreen Highly Suspicious, who added 6.4 time penalties, while compatriot Tommy Greengard opted to give his exciting nine-year-old That’s Me Z a steadier clear for 18.4 time, dropping them from 12^th to 28^th but giving them both a huge amount of mileage for the future.

We’ll be back tomorrow with all the news you need to know from the final horse inspection and beyond. Until then, Go Eventing.

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