Australia’s Three-Day Eventing team has taken the overnight lead at the World Equestrian Games in Germany.

Halfway through the opening dressage phase, Australia is in front on 98.6 penalties, just ahead of Germany on 99.3 and the US on 101.1.

South Australian Megan Jones contributed to the encouraging result with a score of 44.1 penalties, which has her sitting 2nd with 39 riders still to complete their dressage tests on Friday.

Germany’s Andreas Dibowski is currently lying 1st on 40.9 and New Zealand’s Donna Smith is in 3rd on 45.4.

Eventing coach Wayne Roycroft praised Jones’s dressage test on her home-bred horse, Kirby Park Irish Jester.

“She maybe could have had a fraction more spark but she was wonderful. It was a really good test, she rode great, it was accurate – she did a super, super job,” Roycroft said.

Jones, from Hahndorf, has been one of the standouts on the local scene, placing third at the Melbourne International Three-Day Event in June and winning the Adelaide International Horse Trials in November.

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Phillip Dutton is in 12th spot. He and his Irish thoroughbred gelding Connaught, competing as individuals, produced a personal best test at four-star level, finishing on 51.7 penalties.

Dutton is one of Australia’s most experienced international competitors, having been chosen as part of every Australian Three-Day Eventing WEG and Olympic team since 1994.

He and Connaught were fourth in this year’s prestigious Rolex Kentucky International Three-Day Event. Australia’s other team rider competing on the opening day, Western Australia’s Sonja Johnson, scored 54.5 on her 14-year-old stockhorse gelding, Ringwould Jaguar, to be 17th.

Johnson, who won the 2006 Melbourne International and was second at the 2005 Adelaide International, said it was well-known dressage was not her strongest phase.

“The two bits I’m good at are to come – the two bits they brought me here for [the cross country and showjumping]; they didn’t bring me for my dressage,” she said.

The second half of the field, including NSW’s Shane Rose on All Luck, riding as an individual, and the other two Australian team riders, Clayton Fredericks on Ben Along Time and Andrew Hoy on Master Monarch, will do their dressage test Friday.

The second phase of the Three-Day Event – cross country – will take place on Saturday, followed by the final showjumping round on Sunday.

Course designer Rudiger Schwarz has promised a true world championship cross-country track that will test the best horses and riders as well as provide some slightly less technical but more time-consuming alternatives for the more cautious.

Australia won back-to-back Eventing team gold at the Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney Olympics but is yet to enjoy the same level of success at the World Equestrian Games. Its best WEG performances have been fourth placings at The Hague in 1994 and Jerez, Spain, in 2002.

Equestrian Federation of Australia