Mannheim: Piaff-Förderpreis started into the new season
At the Mannheim Maimarkt tournament, the starting signal was given for this year's Piaff Sponsorship Prize for U25 Grand Prix riders. The first of four legs was won by Helen Erbe (Krefeld). She achieved an extremely good result of almost 77 percent in the saddle of the Rhineland gelding Carlos FRH.
Carlos is the "professor". The 15-year-old gelding bred in the Rhineland, son of Carabas out of a Weltmeyer dam, had accompanied Hannah Erbe for many years all the way to European Championship medals and last year won silver with her at the German Championships (U25) in Balve. Now another "Erbe daughter" sits in the saddle: Helen, almost two years younger and just as talented as her sister. The 21-year-old and Carlos presented themselves to the public together for the first time at the Maimarkt tournament. Already in the qualifier of the Piaff-Förderpreis, which is advertised as Intermediaire II, the two secured the victory with a clear lead (74.706 percent). In the classification test they really surpassed themselves and showed a flawless Grand Prix, which the judges rated with 76.846 percent. One jury member even awarded more than 79 percent.
Another young participant also benefited from a professor, in that case it is a female professor. Selina Söder has been riding Zaire-E for a few months. The mare, now 18 years old, was successful in international sport for many years with Jessica von Bredow-Werndl. Although the Dutch Son de Niro daughter remains in the possession of the Werndl family, they are making the mare available as a training horse to the 22-year-old daughter of the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder. Horse and rider harmonised right away, as was confirmed in Mannheim: third place in the preliminary competition, second place in the Grand Prix with 74.487 percent.
Alexa Westendarp from Wallenhorst achieved the third-best Grand Prix result (71.615). The 23-year-old took a different path, she had trained the Hanoverian mare Four Seasons (by Fürstenball-Fidertanz) herself with the support of her father Johannes Westendarp and was already part of the gold team with her twice (2018 and 2019) at the European Young Rider Championships. Now the elegant mare is eleven years old and has grown into Grand Prix sport together with Alexa Westendarp. Incidentally, Johannes Westendarp has every reason not only to be proud of his daughter, because he is also the breeder of Four Seasons.
After the opening leg of the Piaff-Förderpreis in Mannheim, three more legs will follow: The German Championships for the U25 age group will take place in Balve from 9 to 12 June, after which the participants can still recommend themselves for the final in Elmlohe (28 to 31 July) and Ludwigsburg (22 to 25 September). The finals will again be held in Stuttgart's Schleyerhalle (9 to 13 November).
