It is a premiere at the Bundeschampionats in Warendorf, a class reunion, so to speak: For the first time, eight-year-olds and older are taking part, all of whom have to fulfil one prerequisite: they have already been successful participants in the Bundeschampionate at a young age. And this illustrious group competed among themselves in the Grand Prix of Warendorf on Friday evening, an advanced (S**) level. The winner was the ten-year-old Westphalian stallion United Touch S (by Untouched), who had come second in the five-year-old final in 2017 under Hendrik Dowe, this time under Richard Vogel.
It was also the highlight of the day, endowed with 25,000 Euros. 41 horses were on the starting list, twelve finished the course without penalty points and thus reached the jump-off. The course designer, Peter Schumacher, had once again shown a fine hand in setting up the course.
Richard Vogel (Dagobertshausen) and United Touch S galloped over the finish line after 39.28 seconds, eleven hundredths faster than Catch (0/39.39) under Rolf-Göran Bengtsson. The Swedish world-class rider, who lives in Holstein, had been leading the field for a long time with the Holstein grey stallion, and the pair finally finished second. Third place went to Stephan Naber (Werne) and Cyber Zirkeline, the ten-year-old Westphalian daughter of Comme il faut (0/41.11 sec.).
Show director Markus Scharmann is very satisfied with the response of the riders to the competitions for eight-year-old and older show jumpers, which were offered for the first time this year as part of the Bundeschampionat. Each rider was allowed to bring up to three horses to the start. "The new jumping competition is intended to offer riders and owners a new incentive to come to Warendorf, in addition to the significantly increased prize money in all the finals. Those who have only qualified one horse for the Bundeschampionat from the far north or the deep south are more likely to travel if they can still bring a former Championship participant to the start," said Scharmann, explaining the motives behind the expansion of the show-jumping programme.
Patrick Stühlmeyer, rider at the Paul Schockemöhle Stables, is in favour of the introduction of the additional jumping, as are many of his fellow riders: "I could have imagined a jumping competition for stallions only, but this is also good. It works out that one or two riders would like to bring along another horse. And with the prize money, it is also quite attractive.
