| Successful show on home ground
Last weekend, our riders once again competed at the home showgrounds of Riesenbeck International. With a total of 16 horses, Ludger, Ciaran, James and Max made the short journey to the neighboring show venue. In the first class of the Youngster Tour, all four horses ridden by Ciaran and James secured a placing. Ciaran rode the 6-year-old Impress de Jolie Z (I’m Special de Muze x Nabab de Rêve) to second place and the also 6-year-old Zados R (Zinedream x Congress) to fourth place in this class. James also produced two clear rounds with the 6-year-old Chase and the 7-year-old Conrad. Friday also brought another placing in the Youngster Tour, as Conrad once again delivered a fast and clear round with James, finishing third in this class. In Saturday’s final, the young horses continued their strong performances. Zados R, who had already jumped clear the day before but narrowly missed out on a placing, finished second as the best 6-year-old horse. Impress de Jolie Z also once again showed great promise and concluded the weekend with a third-place finish in the final.
Ogana Sitte SR, who dominated the Youngster Tour last year as a 7-year-old and won almost every class in Riesenbeck, continued her success just as impressively this year at the age of eight. In the Small Tour on Thursday, she claimed a convincing victory with Ciaran over 1.30 m, winning by a margin of more than four seconds. The pair repeated their success on the second day, once again underlining their dominance with a three-second lead over the runner-up.
In the final of the Medium Tour, the 9-year-old Trouble Lady EQ Z secured a placing in the demanding course. In the Light Tour, the 7-year-old Wilma SEM produced two lovely rounds in her starts on Friday and Saturday and finished eighth and fifth under Ludger.
In the challenging course of the Grand Prix of Riesenbeck, Ciaran competed with Casalla Blue PS and James with Dia Chapila PS. Both combinations delivered confident rounds, but each had to accept one rail and thus four penalty points. While Casalla Blue had a rail at the middle vertical of the triple combination, James and Dia Chapila PS remained clear until the final fence. They narrowly missed out on the jump-off with a rail at the last vertical before the finish line. Nevertheless, both Riesenbeck combinations were rewarded with placings, as only seven pairs managed to complete the course clear. Their fast times were sufficient for ninth place for Ciaran and eleventh place for James.
Following a successful weekend at home in Riesenbeck, another show week now awaits Philipp and his horses in Doha.
