The winning German team at Strzegom (POL), fourth leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ 2014 (mounted, left to right): Michael Jung, Sandra Auffarth and Dirk Schrade with their chef d’equipe Hans Melzer. (Photo: Leszek Wojcik/FEI).

A powerful German team cruised to an easy victory in the fourth leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ 2014 held at Strzegom, the Polish venue which is still in celebratory mode after being awarded the 2017 FEI European Eventing Championships earlier this month.  The winning team included three of the world’s best combinations, notably Michael Jung (GER) who had his Olympic, World and European (2011) champion La Biosthetique Sam back at his very best to lead from the outset. Sandra Auffarth’s Opgun Louvo, European team gold and individual silver medallist in 2011 and Olympic team gold medallist in 2012, is also back from a spell on the sidelines and finished second, and Dirk Schrade was third on his 2013 European team gold medallist, the delightful chestnut Hop And Skip. The Germans, who won the inaugural FEI Nations Cup™ in 2012 and were second last year, missed the first two legs of this season but are now back in winning mode and are third on the leaderboard.  “We certainly had the ‘A team’ out and it’s great that they went so well,” team manager Christopher Bartle said. “It’s lovely to have Sam and Louvo back and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that they all stay in good form.” Great Britain, the only nation to have fielded a team at each leg so far this season, made the long journey to Strzegom, where they finished second of six teams, a result good enough to take them to the top of the leaderboard, nine points ahead of France. Britain’s chef d’equipe Philip Surl has a deliberate policy of drawing from a pool of young riders who have not been on senior championship squads. Sarah Bullimore on Valentino V, Ros Canter (Zenshera) and newcomer Katy Hurst (Weston lV) put up solid performances to finish fourth, fifth and eighth respectively. The Netherlands’ in-form Elaine Pen was sixth on Under Cover and led her team to third place, despite the loss of Tim Lips who withdrew Concrete Oncarlos when in 10th place after Dressage. Denmark and Italy swapped places after Cross Country, with the Danes moving ahead into fourth. The home side, Poland, had the misfortune to have two horse falls, both at the third fence.   Twenty-five of the 31 Cross Country starters completed German designer Rudiger Schwarz’s track, with 14 clear rounds, only three of which were within the optimum time of six minutes 44 seconds: Dirk Schrade plus two Dutch team members, Elaine Pen and Theo Van de Vendel on Zendane. Germany’s Julia Krajewski, who was second after Dressage on London-Return OLD, became her team’s discard score after two refusals at fence 21.   All the top five riders, plus Katy Hurst, went clear in the final Jumping test. The next leg of the FEI Nations Cup™, at Aachen (GER), marks the halfway stage of the series and it’s expected that the competition will hot up as teams gear up for August’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2014 in Normandy. The Germans, for whom Aachen is a final team trial, will be going all out for a strong showing in front of their home crowd. Results1 Germany, 122.8Michael Jung/La Biosthetique Sam, 35.4; Dirk Schrade/Hop And Skip, 43.2; Sandra Auffarth/Opgun Louvo, 44.2; (Julia Krajewski/London-Return OLD, WD Jumping)2 Great Britain, 159.2Sarah Bullimore/Valentino V, 47.4; Ros Canter/Zenshera, 48.2; Katy Hurst/Weston lV, 63.6; (Nicky Roncoroni/Watts Burn, 108.6)3 Netherlands, 253.4Elaine Pen/Under Cover, 56.6; Theo Van de Vendel/Zendane, 68.8; Althea Bleekman/Anmarsch, 128.0 (Tim Lips/Concrex Oncarlos, WD Cross Country)4 Denmark, 323.0Merete Thøgersen/Salza, 76.0; Irene Mia Hastrup/Constantin M, 91.8; Louise Niesen/Hooker Skorgaard, 155.2; (Vicky Mathieson/Dejo, RET Cross Country)5 Italy, 367.8Sara Breschi/Midolino, 86.0; Eleonora Boschi/Hotchkiss McManus, 115.6; Tosca Brambilla/French Boy, 166.2; (Andrea Cincinnati/NZB Cascade, WD Jumping)6 Poland, 2,093.8Wieslaw Nowak/Pau Grand Ewita, 69.8; (Jerzy Krukowski/Apokalipsa, EL Cross Country; Arthur Spolowicz/Baryt, EL Cross Country) Full results on www.strzegomhorsetrials.pl FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing Leaderboard (after 4 of 9 events)1 Great Britain 36 points2 France 273 Germany 204 Netherlands 175 Italy 136 New Zealand 117 Ireland 88 Denmark 79 Spain 610 Poland 5 FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2014 calendar1 Fontainebleau (FRA) 19-23 March2 Ballindenisk (IRE) 11-14 April3 Houghton Hall (GBR) 22-25 May4 Strzegom (POL) 26-29 June5 Aachen (GER) 15-20 July6 Malmö (SWE) 1-3 August7 Montelibretti (ITA) 19-21 September8 Waregem (BEL) 25-28 September9 Boekelo (NED) 9-12 October