The public were treated to a number of good dressage tests early on Friday morning as there were just as many tests driven under 50 penalty points before the coffee break than there was the entire day before
German team member Lars Schwitte inched in front of countryman Sebastian Warneck with 42,85 penalty points and Sandro Koalick
25 helping the Germans to a silver position in the team rankings after dressage
Australian Tor van den Berge was the first driver to crack 40 penalty points and with his KWPN horses Flavian and Heineken as he put down a score of 37,46 penalty points
But this score was blown out o f the water by Hungarian Martin Hölle who racked up a number of perfect 10’s on his score sheets which ultimately rewarded him with 32,39 penalty points
The rest of the Hungarian team also drove solid tests with Kristof Osztertag scoring 48,58 penalty points just 0,07 points behind teammate Jozsef Dobrovitz jr
and earning Hungary the lead in the provisional standings
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he made his World Driving Championship debut for Team USA in Drebkau
It was precisely the goal he wasn’t aiming for
Married to World Equestrian Games team gold medalist Misdee Wrigley-Miller (USA)
James has had a ringside view of the combined driving world for nearly a decade
It’s what made him not want to dip his boot in the discipline
is a sport conceptualized by HRH Prince Philip and modeled after the mounted equestrian discipline of three day eventing; three phases over three days
including the high adrenaline second-day phase of “marathon.”)
“I always knew [combined driving] was tough,” said Miller
who has been pleasure driving in the four-in-hand sport of Coaching since 2010
“The amount of time necessary for training
travel and competition that Misdee was putting into the sport deterred me from adding another equestrian discipline to an already demanding polo and Saddlebred competition schedule.”
Then Miller turned 50 and decided to try his hand at a less risky sport
speed and precision it takes to helm a team of horses through a precise dressage test
maze of obstacles and narrow cones courses
watching driving and doing it are different [things]
I have a tremendous appreciation for what everybody is doing in the sport firsthand now,” continued the Sarasota
Steering Miller’s burgeoning driving career is world #1 and four-time horse team world champion Boyd Exell (AUS)
I’ve been able to fast track a bit,” understated Miller
crediting the team behind him with his rapid ascent to championship competition
last week’s World Driving Championship was the exact challenge he was aiming to avoid when he took up the sport less than two years ago
“Boyd and I have made a commitment to each other that we wouldn’t force my training because Misdee
she rushed to make a Pairs Championship for the US [Team] when she first started the sport and it was quite stressful
I was there with her for the whole journey and I just asked everyone who encouraged me to start driving
‘I want to do this a little more slowly and make sure we’re still having fun,’” said Miller
The US Equestrian Selection Committee had other ideas
white and blue alongside Jacob Arnold and Steve Wilson at the bi-annual World Driving Championship for Pairs in Drebkau last week
Some 82 Pair teams from 24 countries made the trip to Germany
Sixteen flags contested the team competition
There was just one hitch in his plan… Miller doesn’t have a regular pair of horses
“We’ve been mixing and matching horses for the past two years
trying to figure out what’s the right pair of horses for me
Then I’ve had some typical injuries with a few of the horses,” he explained
The three horses Miller took to Drebkau comprise two pair combinations he’d never competed with previously
graciously offered his student two of his world champion team horses
came from Misdee’s summer season lineup and is one Exell thought might better fit James style of driving
“I’m lucky to have access to really nice horses where I can put different combinations together and see what I can come up with
is to borrow someone else’s ingredients and somehow bake the same blue ribbon cake.”
has its perks and its drawbacks for a developing driver
You find out all the different nuances of horses
so you might be able to use something you learned with one horse when you’re training another horse,” said Miller
“You certainly learn to handle the unexpected because you’re adding in uncertainty just by the sheer fact that you’re using horses that you don’t know well
when you slip the clutch or oversteer on a Ferrari tuned for someone else
“There’s no question that every time I drive I always wish that I had two horses that I knew pretty much what they were going to do and I could be ahead of them
I could predict some of their idiosyncrasies and try to head them off before they do something they aren’t supposed to do
It’s also a nerve-wracking one and Miller set his expectations for Drebkau accordingly
“Boyd has stressed going and getting the experience [at the championship level] so maybe in two years
if I’m able to continue and improve and I’m the right fit for the US Team at the next World Pairs
then I have that experience under my belt,” he explained
and finished top 25 in cones (25th) with the top USA result (6.53 penalties)
He ultimately finished just outside the top 30 individually (32nd)
a mere five points off a prize money finish
Team USA took eighth place among the 16 countries
with all three of Miller’s results counting toward the team score
with driving heavyweights the Netherlands and Germany claiming silver and bronze
“Being able to compete alongside Steve and Jacob certainly made it a worthy experience
I think it’s great to be able to compete for the United States
and I think our sport is wide-open for new competitors,” he said
“I would encourage anyone who has any aspirations in horse sport that they look at American driving as an opportunity not only to develop in a new equestrian sport
but also as a chance to possibly represent their country on the international stage.”
took another big win Sunday at the Internationale Cottbuser Junioren-Etappenfahrt
winning the three-day stage race ahead of teammate Enzo Hincapie
took two stage wins and a third-place finish across the four-stage event
Barry won Stage 1, a 77.2-km race in Drebkau, finishing in front of another Enzo (stay with me) — Edmonds. Edmonds is also Barry’s madison partner; the pair won both the junior and elite national titles this year.
George Hincapie: ‘To win Paris-Roubaix, you can’t have friends’
Stage 2 was a 9.5-km individual time trial in Papproth
averaging 53.023 km/h and putting 32 seconds into Polish rider Marcin Włodarski (GS Aspiratori Otelli ASD)
Hincapie won the 120-km final stage in Dissen
It’s another big result for Barry, who lives in Toronto but races with an American licence due to dual citizenship. He finished second at the 2025 E3 Saxo Classic for juniors on March 28.
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Next up for the 17-year-old is the junior Paris-Roubaix — which
The 110.3-km route runs from Lecelles to Roubaix
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Martin Hölle drove the 11-year-old KWPN gelding Cheron along with his all-rounder Gabber and drove top times in the eight obstacles
Cheered on by the many spectators in Drebkau
Dennis Schneiders and Sandro Koalick also put down excellent performances
resulting in very small differences in the final results
Martin Hölle has increased his lead to an advantage of over 14 points to Sandro Koalick and Marco Freund
Schneiders has climbed up to seventh place in the standings
It was a very enjoyable day for the spectators in Drebkau
where this weeks impressive competition is used to finalise the details for the World Championships for horse pairs from 11th to 15th September 2019 in the castle park Raakow in Drebkau
The competition starts on Sunday morning with the cones for the national single and pair classes
The international pair drivers will enter the main arena from 13.00 onwards
The differences between the drivers at the top are very little
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