August 11, 2022 
Julien Epaillard (FRA) and 10-year-old mare Caracole de la Roque jumped Wednesday’s course faster than you can say Agria FEI World Team & Individual Jumping Championship – First Competition – Speed.
The pair tested the 1.55m Louis Konickx (NED) and Quintin Maertens (NED) designed course in Herning, Denmark, clocking the shortest time of 79.08 seconds. Epaillard came five tenths of a second ahead of Scott Brash (GBR) and 13-year-old gelding Hello Jefferson who finished with 79.54 seconds on the clock.
Not one to miss out on a podium was current world number two rider Martin Fuchs (SUI), who secured the third position aboard 10-year-old gelding Leone Jei.
Epaillard and Caracole de la Roque were part of the winning FEI Nations Cup team at the CSIO5* in Knokke, Belgium. The World Championships marks Epaillard’s first 5* individual win with the mare.
Epaillard hopes that the bold ride will play well for Caracole de la Roque over the course of the week.
“It’s a good way to start and I had a good feeling with my her, she was very focused. I hope I didn’t ask her for too much speed but she jumped really good until the end,” said Epaillard.
“I had a little bit of luck on the triple-bar where I took a little risk. I trusted her scope and it worked. I think I did my job today and I hope it will be the same tomorrow and on Friday for Team France.”
While there were no Swedes on the individual podium, consistency proved to be the strong strategy overall.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions are perhaps favored to win, and they head into the second day of competition as the leading team.
Malin Baryard-Johnsson (SWE) and H&M Indiana fell to the bottom of the standings after catching a common fault at the triple bar and then landing a foot in the water. But teammates Peder Fredricson with H&M All In, and Henrik von Eckermann aboard King Edward brought their team back to the top by jumping clear and placing fourth and fifth respectively.
King Edward notably went faultless at the Olympics, sporting a remarkably high 63% clear round rate at 1.60m. So, statistical likelihood suggest there will be more clear rounds for von Eckermann in Herning yet.
“He’s the whole package, he’s so clever, he’s careful and so brave and such a sweet horse. I’m more used to the feisty mares but he’s a once-in-a-lifetime horse,” said von Eckermann
For Fuchs it’s (maybe) personal.
The former world number one was booted to the number two slot by von Eckermann. No doubt he doesn’t plan to let the World Championship title fall into Swedish gloves so easily.
Leone Jei is well into the swing of things, having sported a full schedule since CHIO Aachen. The pair was part of the winning Swiss squad for the CSIO5* Nations Cup in St. Gallen in June, going on to take first in the prestigious CSI5* Rolex Grand Prix Ville de Dinard in July.
“Sometimes he gets a bit over-motivated, which is why I’ve been showing him so much in the last few weeks. I felt every Grand Prix this year when I had a rail down he was always a bit too fresh, so I had to do something different,” explained Fuchs.
“I used to save him for this or that Grand Prix but now I said OK I must get going and we jumped Aachen (GER), Knokke (BEL) and Dinard (FRA) and he feels really good now.”
