Is Michael Jung the best ever?

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Having seen he has just won the latest ERM leg on a relatively inexperienced horse, I was wondering if there is anyone to match him as a all-round horseman? Personally I love watching him, and I love the way he is with his horses - could he be better than Mark Todd? My view is that he is....
 
I agree wholeheartedly with you. Having watched his badminton dressage warm up I think his whole approach is something special for others to emulate and his success says it all.
 
Couldnt help overhearing a conversation between two top event riders on this very subject. They were pretty convinced .(Oh and when I say top event riders you would all know these men ,No names as it was their private conversation)
 
Was it last year he took that young mare round a four star with a snaffle and no martingale. He is an amazing rider and good luck to him for the future.
 
I think the very fact that he is successful on pretty much all his rides says it all! I love watching him ride, aspirations to live up to :)
 
Not only is he successful on a range of horses but in a range of disciplines, whilst he is the King of eventing he also does pure SJ to 1.50 and GP dressage, plus the other day he won some tetrathlon type, riding and shooting competition - not sure there's anything he can't do!
One of the thing that it does highlight to me though is too many of our event riders neglect the "pure disciplines to their detriment.
 
I think that he's an amazing rider, but threads like this reminds me of commentators in show jumping saying "Oh, this round is going so well", or "He/She's done so well in the earlier competitions here this year", and plonk, down goes the next pole.
So, there is a little part of me, which is now sitting here prepared to hear that Michael Jung can't compete in the FEI European Championships in August, for whatever reason.
 
Didn't he win Burghley and European gold with a broken ankle a couple of years ago? That is a pretty high standard!
 
He's amazing and obviously has a great rapport with his horses. Would love to know if he does anything dramatically different with his youngsters or when he's schooling at home, compared to all the other top pros. He does seem to have an edge over everyone else, he's ultra consistent, never seems to have an off day( he must do!) and as we all know at the top level of any sport the margins are pretty small between the competitors.
 
He is excellent, but he does have off days. The broken ankle was the result of a fall!

I guess that he has always taken riding very seriously and learned to everything correctly from the start.

Many Brits like the cross country best, have learned to do dressage but don't really like the show jumping.
 
Yes he definitely is one of the best -if not the best , but, it would be interesting to know how many youngsters he goes through and discards in the process of finding such amazing, talented top class horses. You know the old saying of having to kiss an awful lot of frogs before you kiss Prince Charming. I should imagine his yard must be a bit like a production line in many respects but him, his dad and the entire team certainly know how to pick winners and keep them sound and sweet!
 
I think he is amazing. I don't think he is "better" than Mark Todd, I think he is different. MJ has a system that works over and over again, he produces horse after horse impeccably. Horses which lesser riders may find lacked scope (Fisher Rocana being the most obvious example) have such trust in him that they find wings. A horse which looks relatively "ordinary" in amongst flashier types has managed to be double Olympic, World and European champion under his system - Sam rarely leads from the outset at the very top events, but he rarely makes a mistake.

Mark Todd has the best "feel" that I've ever seen so clearly displayed. We are in a different age now to the one of the 1980s /1990s catch rides. I don't know if MJ would have conjured a Badminton winning performance from a horse that had never before gone inside the time at a 4* event, without having had it at home for a few days to get used to each other. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. We'll never find out.

They are both absolute masters and if I could find one thousandth of the skill that either of them has I would feel very grateful!
 
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