German riders filled the top two places in the individual rankings as Olympic Eventing got underway at Greenwich Park in London today (July 28) with the first of two days of dressage.

Ingrid Klimke (GER), team gold medalist in eventing at the 2008 Olympics, steered Butts Abraxxas to a score of 39.30 for a narrow lead over Dirk Schrade (GER) partnering King Artus. The host nation’s Mary King (GBR) and Imperial Cavalier slotted into third, just one penalty point further adrift, but it is Australia that heads the team standings. (See all the day’s eventing results here.)

A total of 37 horse-and-rider combinations lined out, but just seven of the 12 competing nations fielded three riders–the remaining four sending in just two of their five team members, while only one of the three-strong Dutch squad took their turn in accordance with the draw. So while the team leaderboard shows the Aussies on top, with a score of 133.20 for a four-point lead over Germany, and almost 17 points ahead of the third-place team from the United States, there is likely to be some considerable change when the action resumes tomorrow morning.

Boyd Martin (USA) and Otis Barbotiere kept their cool as pathfinders to score 50.70. That was immediately relegated by the 46.20 posted by Chris Burton (AUS) and HP Leilani which gave the Australians a very strong start indeed. And when Sam Griffiths (AUS) on Happy Times put 45.79 on the board and Andrew Hoy (AUS) on Rutherglen was even more impressive with 41.70, then the men from Down Under were sitting pretty