July 20, 2025 
They’ve done it—Richard Vogel and the freak-of-all-freaks United Touch S have taken the gold in the European Championships with a history-making winning score of 0.01!
That translates to five clear rounds over five days, in an exhibition of speed, power, accuracy, and endurance hardly matched anywhere.
I’m barely breathing. Oh, do the freaks come out at championships—both horses and riders.
We begin the day with twenty-five and end with a podium of three.
The first round brings us down to 12 horse-and-rider combinations. That first round was technical. The course designer delighted in throwing awkward distances at the riders. He placed a double of two delicate verticals right after the water. He built a triple combination with the first element as a triple bar and made the last fence of the course a flimsy plank-topped vertical.
Even so, 13 out of 25 went clear, with two additional riders leaving the fences up but scoring a time fault.
Because today, the only way you have a chance of moving up to contest the second round of the individual competition is to pray for a higher-ranked rider’s error—and they are few and far between.
We did get a couple of rails from Italy’s Riccardo Pisani. Kevin Staut of France took out the second of the double to put himself out of the top 12. Janika Sprunger of Switzerland and her great mare Orelie shocked everyone with a stop at the double. Another Swiss rider, Nadja Peter Steiner, got the back of the triplebar with her nearly-perfect horse Mila. Nicola Philappaerts and Katanga vh Dingehof went from fifth down to 15th when they touched one measly rail.
Most shockingly, Steve Guerdat went from third to 12th, barely qualifying for the second round, when he hit the last fence on his way to an almost-clear round.
Hungry riders and their mounts, with near-perfect performances over the last week, waited breathlessly in the wings to take their place. Moving up into the top 12 after the first round were Donald Whitaker and Jessica Mendoza of Great Britain, Thibeau Spits of Belgium, Kim Emmen of the Netherlands, and Darragh Kenny of Ireland.
In this competition, there is nothing—no round—that doesn’t count towards your final score. The first class on the first day was a speed class, and those penalties, scored off the top time won by Daniel Coyle and Legacy, followed horse-and-rider around all week. Who would have thought that a 1.50m class that seemed like a bit of a lark at the beginning of the week would end up mattering so much?
Into the second round. The course designer has given ten obstacles and a generous time allowed, so it’s all about big jumps, keeping your rhythm, steeling your nerves, and having the stamina to once again go clear.
We begin with Guerdat and Albfuehren’s Iashin Sitte. They are already demoralized by the last-fence takeout in the first round. This time they go for the first fence, and then the last of the triple for good measure and end where they begin, in 12th.
Donald Whitaker of Great Britain and his horse Millfield Colette who, with his three other British teammates, make up one-third of the top 12, deliver a perfect round. Only one fence during the team competition kept them from being at the top.
Thibeau Spits and the stallion-I’m-absolutely-in-love-with Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z come in on 4.56 penalties and leave the same way. Clear round.
We will, in fact, see ten out of 12 clear rounds. No one is giving an inch. Unfortunately, our next rider to go is not one of them. After two spectacular performances in the team rounds that had everyone wondering why she was riding as an individual, Jessica Mendoza and In the Air knock the first of the triple and slide down to 11th place.
And that was it for the mistakes. We get another clear from Kim Emmen aboard Imagine NOP. Only their relatively slow performance on the first day keeps them down in eighth place, for they haven’t touched a rail all week.
Darragh Kenny and Eddy Blue go clear. Sophie Hinners and Iron Dames My Prins—clear. A wonderful clear from the youngest rider in the competition, 22-year-old Seamus Hughes Kennedy and his mount ESI Rocky. Ben Maher and Dallas Vegas Batilly pull off another clear, ending the competition in fourth, just off the podium.
Yes, at this point in the competition there are riders on the sidelines praying for a fault. But also at this point in the competition, everyone watching knows the work and freakishly spectacular rounds that have built the horse-and-rider scores up to this point, so at the same time, everyone is rooting for everyone, even to their own disadvantage.
Who isn’t head-over-heels for that stallion-of-perfection Ermitage Kalone? Who isn’t calling all their breeding connections to secure a foal? Who doesn’t have an infatuation with Hello Folie and her rein-dropping phenom of a rider, Scott Brash? Who isn’t calling all their connections to get her full brother’s babes into their stable? (That would be Candy de Nantuel.)
And do I even need to talk about United Touch S? Some say he’s a freak not just in jumping, but in breeding, a little too linebred and maybe a bit strange in his way of going with those long spider-legs reaching out in a stride twice as big as any other’s and his belly-down way of jumping. But that’s the thing—a freak is a freak!
So here we go with Ermitage Kalone. His rider, Gilles Thomas, is only 27 years old. Perhaps the pressure will get to him. Well, Thomas might as well be 103 the way his nerves barely flinch as he and Ermitage clock in a clear. They’re staying on penalties of 1.37 and are guaranteed a medal.
Hello Folie. God, I love you. But you’re little and young and so feisty, can you really deliver another clear after all these days of competition? Can you really stretch that body over that last wide oxer of the triple? Sometimes you go so careful and pop up so high I’m certain you’re going to take out a back rail. And there’s always the chance your rider will throw off some piece of essential equipment as you make your way around the course!
Well, I needn’t have worried—she was clear, in her inimitable fashion, staying on a score of 1.08.
So that leaves Richard Vogel and United Touch S. There is no doubt Vogel is determined and there is no doubt that he has the horse flesh beneath him if he can keep his cool and slide around this course without error. We are clear, we are clear—Oh! Did you really give that penultimate fence a hard rub? Don’t scare us like that! Whew, the thing stayed up and so did the last and—there you are! A gold medalist with the littlest score in all of European Championship history—0.01!
Vogel is elated, and, it seems, as in love with his horse as I am with half the participants. He is shown leaving the ring bent over United’s neck in an adoring embrace. He is interviewed, where he expresses thanks to all his teammates, trainers, relations, and friends, giving the biggest thanks to his equine partner.
And after the podium, he is seen slipping the gold medal from around his neck and placing it on his groom, Felicia Wallin.
Probably snatched it right back greedily shortly thereafter, or at least that’s what I would’ve done, but that’s probably why I’m writing up this competition instead of contesting it!
And now the sun sets on this 2025 edition of the European Championships. Let us all vow to get on a plane to wherever in 2027!
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