For Lee Siegel and the Fighting Line, jumping became an expensive affair after their sensational cross-country ride. The pair had to endure twelve penalties and 0.4 penalty points from time to finish a respectable 25th with a total of 46.2 minus points. After 15th place at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo (JPN) and 16th place at the European Championships in Avenges (SUI) the same year, another great result for the lone 24-year-old Army athlete from Upper Austria.

Lee Siegel would have expected a little more, but today’s preparation wasn’t great. “Jumping with a water sheet in the warm-up area was scary for Fighty. It threw us both off course. “We tried to do our best on the course, but it wasn’t as easy as he usually jumps, which resulted in knees on very difficult jumps,” sums up Leah Siegel in the Pferderevue interview.

“25. A very respectable result that gives us hope for the future in the World Championship,” says Federal Advisor Thomas Tesch, looking at riders like Michael Jung and Oliver Townend: “Of course, the drops are disappointing, but at the end of the day we went like everyone else. With all the technical improvements we went to the maximum length. The course was built so our horses basically performed well.