Maastricht 2022: Boyd Exell dominates

Benjamin Aillaud was the first to start today. He incurred 16 penalty points due to some minor communication errors, which were converted into seconds and added to the time driven. Too many balls fell for Michael Brauchle and Glenn Geerts as well. They had to add 20 and 24 seconds extra. “The right leader is a new horse. He has competed in outdoor competitions and I’ve already taken him to some indoor competitions, but that’s really different from how it is here. It went well in the obstacles. We mainly hit cones because he was very impressed with the crowd on the side,” says Glenn Geerts. “It is therefore very nice that I could drive with the Wild Card this weekend. We have gained a lot of information.”

“The course was good. Difficult, but doable,” says Michael Brauchle. “In the middle of an obstacle my reins got caught up in the whip. Then everything went wrong for a while, but after that I was able to drive again. We will continue to practice at home, because next weekend we will be driving in Stuttgart,” said Brauchle.

After entering the ring, Koos de Ronde had to wait for the start signal, because a repair at obstacle 9 was being carried out. De Ronde started quickly, dropping only one ball and made a fast time. With that he qualified for the ‘Drive-off’, where he again took on IJsbrand Chardon and Boyd Exell. Also for IJsbrand a ball fell in the first round. He was just over three seconds slower than De Ronde.

Boyd Exell was already better in the first round. Despite nearly making a mistake in obstacle 5 because his leading horses saw another gate, he managed to leave all the balls up and recorded a time that was 0.25 seconds slower than De Ronde.

IJsbrand was the first to start in the ‘Drive-off’. All balls remained up and he had a time of 141.83 seconds. “I am very satisfied, but next time I should be better. We are going for gold!” says Chardon. Koos de Ronde got off to a good start but had problems with his focus. “In the first obstacle I wanted to go from D to F. Luckily my groom said I missed E. As a result, I had to go around the obstacle to pick up E. That takes time and then you know you can’t win anymore,” said De Ronde.

Boyd Exell, on the other hand, again remained clear in the super fast time of 134.98 seconds. He was with out a doubt the best driver in Maastricht this weekend. “I have a great team. They are super fast and can turn small and tight to the left and right. My groom Emma was also great today. She was extremely sharp and told me loud and clear when I was looking too much at the cones on the ground instead of forward. I think she may have been even more fanatical than I am today,” Exell said.