last updated on May 22, 2006 01:00

Britain finished sixth in the Nations Cup at Aachen CDIO in Germany, the dress rehearsal for the World Equestrian Games, which take place at the same venue on 22-26 August.

The team comprised Emma Hindle (Lancet), Laura Bechtolsheimer (Douglas Dorsey), Sandy Phillips (Lara) and Richard Davison (Hiscox Karachi). Britain’s number one ranked rider Emma Hindle and the 13-year-old 17hh Hanovarian stallion Lancet had the best British team score with nearly 70% to finish 13th in the Nations Cup grand prix.

As expected, Germany had a comfortable win as the best Dutch riders were absent to compete at their own national championship. Denmark was second, Sweden third, Switzerland fourth and Holland fifth. 

Sandy Phillips, who stood down earlier this year as senior selector to concentrate on competing, was the only Brit to go through to the grand prix kür with her 12-year-old 17hh German-bred mare Lara 106. Unsurprisingly, they did not achieve a great freestyle score as Sandy borrowed music from Emma and had never ridden the test before.

Sandy, who finished equal 10th with Lara on 69.36% in the grand prix special, the qualifier for the freestyle, said: “She was a good girl and coped well with the crowd and the atmosphere. It was a shame we didn’t get 70% in the special from all the judges, but we will get there — we made a mistake in the changes, which cost us dearly.”

Germany’s Nadine Capellmann rode her exciting new grand prix ride, the 10-year-old Elvis, to win all three CDIO tests, followed closely each time by British-based Finnish rider Kyra Kyrklund and the 11-year-old Swedish-bred gelding Max.

Laura Bechtolsheimer also competed in the CDI part of the show with Mistral Hojris and finished second in the grand prix special with 70.88%, behind Denmark’s Andreas Helgstrand and Matine.

For the full results, click www.chioaachen.de