Great Britain’s Team Audevard jumped into sixth place in the CSIO5* Agria Falsterbo Nations Cup against tough opposition
Monday 13 July 2026
It was an unlucky day, there were some outstanding performances and a little bit of luck it could have gone the other way,” said Chef d’Equipe Di Lampard.
Ten teams of four faced a technical 12-fence, 15-effort track set by renowned course-designer Frank Rothenberger (GER) with tight related distances amongst huge oxers, the open water and the combination asking of scope and rideability.
“The course walked well, the nicest we’ve seen this year, but I thought there would be some hidden subtle test, although the time wasn’t as influential as first thought. The short distances from the water, in the double and combination were the big questions, and scope was in demand,” said Di, who noted the second round was even more demanding. “The course-builder was caught out in round one, there were 18 clears [from 40 riders], so the fences not only went up 5cm, the oxers also went wider by 10cm in round two – that was tough.”
Ben Maher was first out for Team Audevard with relatively new ride, Charlotte Rossetter and Pamela Wright’s 14-year-old Catelly (Catalido x Ephebe For Ever. However, a slight hesitation taking off at the open water and dropping a front leg back into the water, and the back rail of the oxer on short distance of four strides two fences later put them on eight.
Adrian Whiteway on Deborah Cox’s 13-year-old Chacco Volo (Chacco-Blue x Carthago) showed every fence some considerable air to come home clear just inside the time allowed. Jack Whitaker followed on Candice Reilly’s scopey, big-striding 12-year-old Jack JL (Quasimodo Z x Astrello) and fell foul of the final element of the difficult vertical-vertical-oxer combination to finish on four faults.
Anchor William Whitaker looked to be putting in a flawless round but a slight angle to the wavy plank in effort to save some time momentarily confused Millfield’s Stud’s 11-year-old Millfield Quickstep (Quiwi Dream x San Patrignano Cassini) and, popping in an extra stride, faulted. Nonetheless, they quickly recovered to finish with no further penalty for four faults.
Britain sat in seventh place after round one. However, Switzerland, Belgium and the home country of Sweden were at the top on a zero score, followed by The USA, France and Ireland on four faults; it was all to play for. Surprisingly, Germany failed to make the cut alongside Mexico, with eight teams contending round two.
It didn’t go according to plan for Ben. He rode Catelly a little stronger to the open water to clear it this time, but they ran out of room on the tight dog-leg distance to the following vertical, brought it down and had to circle before jumping the next fence. This also incurred time faults that quickly added up to a 20 total.
“There was miscommunication in round two, but Ben is still getting to know this new ride,” said Di.
Chacco Volo hadn’t lost any energy and was still jumping exuberantly over each fence to deliver a double clear for Adrian. Jack and Jack JL were perfect through the combination this time but the double in the final line caught them as the back rail out fell for four faults.
“Adrian has the horse in fantastic condition and he jumped brilliantly; all credit to him. He’s produced the horse and they work so well together. They’ve built up a fantastic partnership through the season and their record in Nations Cups this year is second to none,” enthused Di.
Jack and Jack JL were foot-perfect through the combination this time but the penultimate double claimed them, catching the back rail of the triple bar going in for four faults in an otherwise flawless round.
“Jack was so unlucky; the two fences he touched came down, the combination was difficult with vertical, vertical, oxer on short distances. Jack JL is a big horse and in round two he tried to be steady coming into the double as it was on a short two strides and just lost a little power. Big horses find it hard to get within the time with very short distances,” said Di.
It was down to William to hand Team Audevard another clear, but a cheap rail at the second vertical put paid to their chances, although they came home without touching another rail to finish on four.
“It was the horse’s first five-star Nations Cup and we are always conscious of the future. They were two good rounds; the horse was caught out at the narrow wavy planks, showing a little bit of greenness. In round two, the horse has to get used to travelling at 400mpm (metres per minute), but there was great horsemanship from William,” assessed Di.
Team Audevard moved up one place to sixth on a total of 16 faults, but the European teams and The USA streaked ahead. Switzerland and Belgium posted perfect zero scores to go head-to-head in a jump-off situation. The USA slipped into third on an eight-fault total ahead of France and Ireland in fourth and fifth, both on 12 faults, France taking the advantage with a faster time. Round two produced 12 clear rounds and seven double clears, including Britain’s Adrian Whiteway and Chacco Volo.
Switzerland nominated Martin Fuchs on Lorde and he opted for accuracy all the way to leave every fence intact but pick up three time faults. Pieter Devos also incurred time faults, but two fences down gave him a total of 13 and placed Belgium second.
“Overall, a lot of positives came out of it. There are a couple more Nations Cups before Aachen, and Aachen is the goal,” concluded Di.
CSIO5* Agria Falsterbo Nations Cup – 10 July 2026
1st Switzerland – 0/0/3
2nd Belgium – 0/0/13
3rd USA – 4/4
4th France – 4/8
5th Ireland – 4/8
6th Great Britain – 8/8
