Stuttgart – The Hanns Martin Schleyer Halle appears to be made for him: Falk Stankus from nearby Dondorf won the final of the iWEST Dressage Cup in front of 2,700 spectators at the 25th International STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS Horse Show late on Thursday afternoon. The class is the unofficial state indoor championship. “Things were much harder for me today,” commented the 25-year-old who, on Wednesday, won the Prize of the iWest GmbH Intermediaire I riding his own bred 9-year-old stallion Birkhof’s Haakon.
In the final, which was contested by the top 10 in the four qualifying classes in Mannheim, Kirchzarten, Marbach and Isny-Rohrdorf, Stankus was the last but one rider to go and had to better the leading score posted by Jenny Lang (73.150 per cent). “In the end I was happy to achieve what I set out to,” said the professional rider from Baden Württemberg. His score of 73.350 per cent was just enough to outstrip Lang on the nine-year-old gelding Loverboy. “The noise level was much higher today and it wasn’t at all easy seeing as my horse is very sensitive.”
Dorothe Meyer, the CEO of the sponsor iWEST, “saw a fantastic horse today” and congratulated the winner on his performance. The Bavaria-based company will continue their sponsorship activities in Baden Württemberg next year. A highly pleased horse show director Gotthilf Riexinger then immediately announced the qualifying venues, “The road to the 2010 final in Stuttgart will go via Ludwigsburg, Böblingen, Kandern and Isny-Rohrdorf.”
