Is Michael Jung the greatest rider ever?

Of course, while some might think so, any such question is almost impossible to answer: too subjective, too broad and too undefined. How can riders in different disciplines be compared, for example, or riders from different eras? How much luck is involved in the serendipitous pairing of the right horse and right rider at the right time?

And in any case Jung is not the first equestrian athlete to have competed at the highest level in more than one discipline. One very notable example, Sir Mark Todd of New Zealand – himself named the Rider of the 20th Century by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) – competed in both eventing and jumping in two Olympics, Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. Others who have crossed disciplines include France’s Michel Robert, Colombia’s Juan Carlos Garcia and Sweden’s Peder Fredricson. Jung’s own compatriot and fellow eventer Ingrid Klimke is also capable of riding in dressage at the Grand Prix level. 

But if the 36-year-old native of the spa town Bad Soden am Taunus near Frankfurt can not be definitively called the ‘greatest ever’, he has certainly put himself in contention. And that fact was only underlined in Bordeaux, France last weekend, where he not only came out on top of Friday’s Devoucoux CIX Indoor Derby on Corazon, but also won that same day’s CSI5*-W Prix Congres et Expositions de Bordeaux class on Fischer Daily Impressed. In that latter class, Jung beat some of the best show jumpers on the planet, including Ireland’s Bertram Allen, Austria’s Max Kühner, France’s Kevin Staut, Germany’s Daniel Deusser, Great Britain’s Scott Brash, Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann, the Netherlands’ Maikel van der Vleuten and Switzerland’s World No.1 Steve Guerdat.

Of course, Jung’s eventing career has been affected in recent times by the retirement of or injury to lead horses La Biosthetique-Sam, Fischer Takinou and Fischer Rocana, which may have contributed to a relatively increased focus on jumping. At the same time, the arrival (announced last week) of the talented mount Chipmunk FRH from fellow rider Julia Krajewski is a muscular reinforcement to his string of eventing horses as he looks forward to the 2019 season.

And Jung himself seemed to be keeping things in healthy perspective after his show jumping victory in France, using the expression “#easyround” to describe the 1.40 m obstacles. “I really enjoyed the round,” he said, “but I also know it was the easiest class to win of this weekend.” Still, reminded of the world-class rivals who he managed to outpace on the course, he added, “It’s true and I find it quite funny.”

But while Jung was selected to Germany’s Nations Cup jumping team last year in Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, it is unlikely that he will be featuring regularly in the A-squad (or even B-squad) in the sport for the powerhouse equestrian country any time soon (assuming he wanted to) – even with the absence of top-ranked riders Daniel Deusser and Christian Ahlmann due to conflicts with the German national federation. And in any case, as Michael Jung made clear last year, “I’ve got no plans to stop eventing yet!”