Happy Hale Bob Day

Image (c) Event Rider Masters

This weekend the Event Rider Masters heads to Germany and the Biebrich Palace situated on the banks of the River Rhine in the heart of the city of Wiesbaden.
 
With all three of the top ranked FEI Event Riders in the World competing here it is set to be a thrilling, hard fought competition. 
 
An all-female top 7 in Leg 1 kicked off the 2018 Event Rider Masters last weekend. The stats would suggest we could see more of the same this weekend on the final podium at Wiesbaden.
 
Dressage
 
The Dressage morning in Wiesbaden produced the lowest average ERM Dressage scores of all time but with only the top 5 (20%) achieving sub-30 scores the marks weren't flowing freely from the Judges. 

European Gold Medallists Germany's Ingrid Klimke and SAP Hale Bob OLD pipped Oliver Townsend to the top spot by the smallest of margins by posting a score of 22.2.  

Second place after Dressage was the World Number 1 and 2016 ERM Champion Oliver Townend and Cillnabradden Evo. Leading by a large margin on his score of 22.8 for the majority of the morning Oliver said, "I am thrilled for the horse and want to thank Andrew Nicholson for giving me the opportunity to have the ride on him. He just keeps getting better and better." 

Sitting in third place going into the Show Jumping this afternoon was Dutch Olympic Event Rider Tim Lips and his ride Bayro on a score of 27.7
 
Show Jumping 
 
The Show Jumping time proved influential in this afternoon's session with only 44% of the field avoiding time penalties.

There was no change at the top of the leader board with Ingrid, Oliver and Tim all achieving clear rounds inside the time. 

With a climb up the leader board of 13 places, Sweden's Ludwig Svennerstal and his ride EL Kazir SP have upped Ludwig's chances of landing his first ERM podium place this season.
 
The challenge on Saturday will come from the clock. The Wiesbaden clear jumping rate across the country is currently 65% so we are expecting a tough challenge tomorrow and a big shuffle on the final leader board. It is worth noting, however, that nobody has made the time at Wiesbaden in the last two years.

SAP Hale Bob OLD and Ingrid have made the time 6 times at this CIC3 star. Which makes him the favourite to do it again here.