“All I Wanted Was To Let Him Be the Best Version of Himself”: Lara de Liedekerke-Meier Takes Boekelo Victory

In the months leading up to Military Boekelo, Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier found herself sitting on the metaphorical fence. It had been her goal all year to bring the nine-year-old Kiarado d’Arville back to the event, which he’d made his CCI4*-L debut at last year, and this season, she’d known she wanted to improve upon that first trip, which saw her retire the young horse after two refusals on cross-country.

Certainly, the first half of the season had felt like it was going in the right direction: she’d rerouted him to Kronenberg for a consolidating CCI3*-L run after Boekelo, handily winning the class after starting with a 20.8 dressage, and the first four FEI events of 2025 saw them finish in the top seven, culminating in a win in the CCI4*-L at Baborowko.

But then CHIO Aachen, with its colossal championship atmosphere, came along, and the wheels fell off the bus, as they can do with young, talented horses who still have a few things to figure out. Though the pair completed the weekend, Kiarado scored a much higher than usual 36.9 and had two late runouts and a frangible penalty. In the aftermath of the event, Lara realised that something had been shaken within their solid foundation of trust – not an issue, per se, with jumping solid fences, but simply a sudden lack of ‘togetherness’ that had its roots, she felt, in the overwhelming occasion of Aachen.

And so, since then, she’s pulled everything back – she’s brought him out and about to hang out at shows, train a bit, and then head home; has given him an easy run at CCI3*-S at an ‘away’ show and then let him cruise around the CCI4*-S at home at Arville, where he could go back to his own bed each night and face no surprises it all. She even brought him to the FEI European Eventing Championships last month, where he hung out with his maternal half-sister, Hooney d’Arville, hacked, schooled, and had a no-pressure kind of time.

It’s long, slow, patient work; a labour of love by any stretch of the imagination. And, Lara admitted when we caught up after her dressage test on Friday, when the pair scored a 28.4 for sixth place, “The whole year, I had this aim of bringing him to Boekelo again, and I thought, ‘I won’t manage it.’ Then, you start to put yourself a bit under pressure, and you start to question it a little bit.”

But no man is an island, and no horse and rider are alone in their goals. Rallied and supported by her close-knit team, helmed by groom Betty Cardinael and husband and Belgian chef d’equipe Kai-Steffen Meier, she kept her eyes on the goal and decided to give it her best shot.

First, there was that dressage test – decisive proof that Kiarado was back on side and brimming with confidence even in a busy atmosphere. Then, there was yesterday’s cross-country challenge, which required the gelding to face some 50,000 raucous spectators, 50 or so boomingly loud party tents next to the fences, and, of course, a track that had caught him out previously.

But when we say Kiarado is back, we mean Kiarado is back. As in his dressage test, he pricked his ears, took in his surroundings, and gobbled up the challenge, gamely cantering across the finish line fresh, full of running, and inside the time by two seconds. The pair would retain their fifth place position going into the final day.

What a final day it’s turned out to be. We began with a busy horse inspection, which took two of our top ten out of contention – seventh-placed Christoph Wahler opted not to present D’Accord, and ninth-placed Astier Nicolas and Babylon de Gamma weren’t accepted by the ground jury – and then moved swiftly into a typical Boekelo showjumping phase: technical, tight on the clock, and tough, tough, tough. Even very good jumping horses were tipping rails, and in this field packed with younger, less experienced horses, it would have been a fool’s game to bet any money at all on the outcome.

Boekelo’s showjumping order of go is one of the world’s great mysteries: in the final session of 25 riders, it’s not run in reverse order of merit, but rather in reverse order of team merit and in rotations, like a showjumping nations cup. In most years, that means that the overnight leader doesn’t jump last at all, though this year, cross-country leaders Laura Collett and Count Onyx were also on the leading team, so that bit, at least, felt sort of normal.

But by the time Lara entered the arena with Kiarado, two riders ahead of her on the leaderboard, Padraig McCarthy and Jesse Campbell, had already jumped and had rails, knocking them down the order.

“I went in there and I heard [announcer] John Kyle say that I was fighting for a podium place,” says Lara. “I thought to myself, ‘how did that happen?!’ I didn’t follow the results [while I was warming up], so I didn’t know.”

Then, she says, “I just had to concentrate and try my best. He went in there and got a little bit on fire when the music was playing for Arne Bergendahl’s clear round, and I was just like, ‘okay, let him settle, we’re going to do one fence at a time.’ I knew if I didn’t make a mistake, he would try to jump clear for me – and that’s such a great feeling, going in there and knowing your horse wants to try for you.”

In the fishbowl of the stadium, with spectators packed against every fenceline, Kiarado did what Kiarado has been doing all week: he stepped up from being the little boy of years gone by and showed that he’s a fully-fledged four-star competitor. He and Lara jumped neatly around the track, not so much as breathing on a single rail, but they didn’t finish without penalties: they picked up 0.4 for crossing the finish line one second over the time allowed. It was enough to secure them third place at worst, but Lara knew how tightly-packed the leaderboard was, and she was well aware how expensive that fraction of a second could be.

Next up to bat was France’s Alexis Goury, also well-mounted on the remarkable nine-year-old Coloree de Poteau. Just like Lara and Kiarado, they entered the ring with a question mark over their heads, purely because of the horse’s inexperience. Like Lara and Kiarado, they kept every fence up. And like Lara and Kiarado, they, too, added time penalties – 1.2, to be exact. They could have afforded 0.8, one second less, to take over the lead: that would have put them on equal finishing scores, but as Lara was one second faster yesterday, she would have lost the tie-break for being further from the optimum time.

Last to go was two-phase leader Laura Collett and new ride Count Onyx – a horse who has historically found this phase difficult. When the knocked fence six, they handed the Boekelo victory to Lara, but Laura’s face as she jumped the final fence was that of a woman who’s won the whole thing – “and honestly,” she laughed in the collecting ring while congratulating Lara, “having just one rail down is as good as winning!”

There are trailblazers, and then there’s Lara. She’s now Boekelo’s first-ever Belgian winner, and accolade she can add to being Belgium’s first-ever five-star winner. Today’s victory is her 20^th international win of the season, which beats the record by five wins, and once again, as when she won the CCI5* at Luhmühlen with Hooney d’Arville last year, it comes with a horse she’s bred herself and produced every step of the way. Both Kiarado and Hooney, and the eight-year-old La La Land d’Arville, with whom Lara finished 21^st today, are out of Nooney Blue, the late, great mare with whom Lara stepped up from Young Rider teams to her first World Championship back in 2010. Though they’re all very different horses, all of them are well and truly knitted into the fabric of Lara’s family.

“This horse has meant the world to me for a long, long time,” she says, welling up. “His dam gave me my first five-star winner; now, she’s given me a Boekelo win. It’s totally unexpected, but I always knew this horse was phenomenal.”

But, she continues, “it’s funny, because La La comes here and everyone says, ‘oh La La is so cool!’ And no one ever says that about Kiarado. And then you wonder if maybe you’re really naïve, and you think, ‘maybe because I love him so much I can’t see if he’s not as good.’ So you question things – I have doubts like I always have done across my whole life!”

Those doubts – an emblematic part of Lara’s psyche for those who know and love her – are rarely about the horses themselves, but always about herself, and the decisions she makes.

“I didn’t sleep from Friday to Saturday this week, because I was riding the [cross-country] course a hundred times in my head, thinking about where I’d fuck it up,” she laughs. “I was sure I would let the horse down, because I knew that Aachen was also my fault. I rode him there like he was twelve years old, like he would read those angled hedges and it would come naturally to him. And I wondered if today I would make the same kind of mistake. But apparently I also grew up from that experience!”

Today, though, instead of doubting herself, Lara had a new plan.

“I tried to just focus on being the best version of myself, and if it’s not enough, then, you know, that’s fine,” she says. “But today was apparently enough to beat the others, so that’s great, but that’s not the first goal. It’s to let my horse be the best version of himself, because we train well, and we just have to try to do the same here. But this feels so great, and he looks really happy and healthy, and we go home with a wonderful horse.”

That trip home will be a very short one: the busiest woman in eventing will be straight back on the road again to compete at this week’s World Championships for six and seven-year-olds at Le Lion d’Angers. She and her support system might not have many days off, but together, they make a formidable and happy family on the international eventing circuit.

“This victory isn’t just for me, but for all my team, like my grooms, my owners, my parents, my husband, my vets, trainers. And this horse, too: I think he, also, has a big future ahead of him.”

Second place by that whisper of time is France’s Alexis Goury and one of the most exciting horses of the week, the nine-year-old Coloree de Poteau Z, who looked every inch the LA Olympics prospect he could well be for Alexis.

“It’s really good to share this moment, and to live it with my horses,” says 30-year-old Alexis, who recently finished sixth, and part of the bronze medal-winning French team, at the European Championships. “I’ve been doing [this sport] since I was ten years old, and now, it’s really professional. I can say that I have horses for the high level, and that it’s my job to do that, and I’m really happy about that. I hope it can continue for a lot of years.”

Though he came so close to the win today, Alexis doesn’t regret a moment of his round.

“I think today we couldn’t have done better,” he says. “You need to prepare the horse to jump the fences, and he’s a little bit tired today, so he needed a bit of extra set-up. He jumped not so good over fence one, and so I kept the contact and moved the back, and after that he jumped well, so I’m really happy, and very excited for his future.”

Third place went to Great Britain’s Izzy Taylor and her former Six-Year-Old World Champion Barrington Alice, who completed a weeklong climb from 12^th place when finishing on their dressage score of 29.7.

“She’s only eight, and she’s come here and finished on her dressage score in her first CCI4*-L – I’m very lucky,” beams Izzy from aboard the rangy grey mare. “I’ve had her since she was four, and she was actually bred by Susie Holroyd, who bred Allercombe Ellie, who I was meant to go to Rio on – so that’s why I got first dibs on this one. I literally fell in love with her as a four-year-old; she’s a big horse, but the first time I cantered her, I was like ‘wow.’ She has a beautiful brain, too – like, she wouldn’t be here if she didn’t. She just tries her heart out, and she’s obviously green, but she looks to me and if I say ‘it’s okay,’ she’s like, ‘oh, okay, I believe you, let’s go!’”

Though Barrington Alice is a particularly large horse, and often, those larger horses take longer to grow into themselves and build the strength required to carry themselves, one of the mare’s star qualities is her natural balance, which is more reminiscent of a much more compact animal.

“Her balance is phenomenal,” says Izzy. “I have to do very little. I sit up and she comes back to me, and for an eight-year-old that’s such a big horse, that’s very unusual.”

Izzy, who rides Barrington Alice for Johnny Hornby, hopes there’ll be plenty more to come for the mare.

“This isn’t her Olympics,” she says with a grin.

Compatriot Caroline Harris came to Boekelo feeling pretty battered and bruised: both mentally, after a shock fall from her Pau winner D. Day at the European Championships, and physically, after a tumble at Little Downham left her with a black eye and an injury to her collarbone.

“The week sort of started out a disaster,” she says. “I had quite a nasty fall at Little Downham, and I was worried I might not even get here. I’ve got a rather strapped-up collarbone.”

But, she says of her ride Cooley Mosstown, “he’s an out-and-out three-day horse – he’s absolutely phenomenal, and I’d say I’m very lucky, because he’s actually a polite ride. It’s made my job very easy.”

Their clear round with 0.4 time today helped the pair accomplish a few key things: it moved them up to a final fourth place from 16^th after dressage; it helped the British team secure the win in the Nations Cup finale; and it put the Blenheim demons to bed ready for a positive and productive off-season.

“Blenheim was tough for me,” admits Caroline. “It’s been sort of hard to bounce back from it. This was the result that I think me and my team really needed. Now, we’ll head back home and compete a couple of five-year-olds next weekend, and then I think, actually, that my body needs a little break, so we’ll stop after that for the year.”

Now, though, bolstered by another four-star placing with the nine-year-old, who finished second at Bramham’s tough CCI4*-L earlier this year, Caroline can look ahead to some major goals next season.

“Hopefully I can step him up, and maybe we might think about going to my first ever Badminton,” she smiles.

The top five was rounded out by Germany’s Arne Bergendahl, who helped his country take victory in the 2025 FEI Nations Cup series with the leggy Bronco NRW. The pair impressed throughout the week, scoring a 29.9 in the first phase after trending around 24 throughout the trot work, and then climbing up from fifteenth place with just 0.8 time penalties yesterday. Today, they added nothing to their score card to take one of Arne’s best results yet.

“He’s such a cool horse, just like his mother,” says Arne, whose spicy homebred Luthien NRW, who he currently competes up to five-star, is the dam of Bronco. “In the younger ages he was very calm, but now, with every competition he gets a bit more like her. He’s a better mover, and much more easy, though, and he’s a phenomenal horse in my eyes. When he becomes as fast as Luthien is on cross-country, I think he’ll be even better and more competitive in the big classes.”

Sixth place went to two-phase leaders Laura Collett and Count Onyx after that solitary pivotal rail, while seventh was clinched by Ireland’s Sarah Ennis and the fourteen-year-old championship mount Grantstown Jackson, an elder statesman in this field, who finished on his dressage score of 31.3 to move up from 34^thplace. Ireland’s Padraig McCarthy and his 2024 Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old winner MGH Zabaione dropped from third to eighth place after taking the first fence.

Ninth place was rewarded to US individual competitor Hallie Coon, who made an extraordinary climb from first-phase 44^th with nine-year-old Lucky Fortuna, a horse she’d originally intended to produce as a young rider prospect, but who has stayed put and continued to exceed expectations. He climbed up to 21^st place yesterday after adding just 0.8 time penalties, and his clear round inside the time as fourth in the ring this morning meant he and Hallie held the lead for a significant chunk of the day.

Achieving a top ten finish with the gelding was an enormously emotional moment for Hallie, who tells us, “he’s about 14.2 hands and he’s the most unassuming, nicest guy you’ve ever met. Like, most top-level horses have something quirky and weird about them, and he’s just like my dog. He’s the one I go to when I’m upset, when anything else in my life lets me down, and he just always has his smiling face on.”

We’ll be bringing you lots more from Hallie, who also finished sixteenth with Kapriccio, in our US debrief tomorrow, so keep it locked on EN for that, because it’s going to be very cute. We’ll also be bringing you insights from Chris Talley, who finished in 47^th place after a successful and educational week for the exciting FE Marco Polo.

The top ten at the end of the day today was rounded out by Ireland’s Susie Berry and comeback king John The Bull, who climbed from nineteenth and finished in the top batch despite one rail.

Team EN and team Australia representative Ema Klugman closed out her week with Chiraz with a one-rail round, finishing 63^rd, while 44^th-placed Sterre van Houte clinched the Dutch national title with Crossborder Radar Love after a clear showjumping round with 2.8 time penalties today.

For now, that’s all from us here at Boekelo – we’ll be back with lots more for you to dive into tomorrow, and then, we’ll be heading onward in different directions to both the MARS Maryland CCI5* and the Young Horse World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers, where we’ll be picking out some of the stars of the future from around the world. Until next time, Go Eventing!

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