German star, Michael Jung, scooped the 6-year-old title with Star Connection while Frenchman, Thomas Carlile, steered last year’s 6-year-old winner Tanareze to victory in the 7-year-old category at the FEI World Breeding Eventing Championships for Young Horses 2014 at Le Lion d’Angers, France yesterday.

Carlile made history when winning both divisions last autumn, and he perfectly demonstrated the essence of these Championships when topping the line-up at Boekolo in The Netherlands a week ago with the horse with which he won the 7-year-old division 12 months ago, Sirocco du Gers. This important annual fixture, which this year celebrated its 29th edition, is all about highlighting and developing the talent of the future, and once again this year drew record crowds of breeders, spectators and Eventing fans from around the globe to the lovely venue at l’Isle de Briand where they were bathed in brilliant sunshine during four days of fabulous competition.

Course designer, Pierre Michelet, presented another extraordinary set of cross-country fences that included the Violin at fence 5 which was beautifully created by acques Bouguier, the carpenter of the National Stud of Le Lion d’Angers, an inter-twined pair of Dragons at fence 15 and an eye-catching Owl Hole at 18. There were relatively few problems on cross-country day, but the phase still played a significant role in deciding the result in both categories.

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