Stuttgart – The sell-out 8,000 crowd in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle were treated to indoor eventing of the highest class on Wednesday evening. Two-time Team Olympic Champion Ingrid Klimke (Germany) overcame a field of 19 riders in the top-class competition for the Prize of WALTER solar after notching up a penalty-free round. Riding Hale Bob, an Oldenburg gelding aged just eight, the 2006 Team World Champion and 2011 Team European Champion recorded the evening’s fastest time of 84.62 seconds to hand herself victory.
Back in second was the 2011 German champion Andreas Ostholt on the 18-year-old veteran Castell, also an Oldenburg gelding. The sergeant major in the German army and the Director of Riding at the Warendorf equestrian centre also cleared every obstacle comfortably but “only” in a time of 86.54 seconds.
Cheered on frenetically, the double Olympic Champion in London and local hero Michael Jung finished third on Fischerroocana FST. Just seven-years old, the horse was the youngest in the competition. Though going round the course in only 84.30 seconds he incurred four penalty seconds for knocking a fence down to leave him on a total of 88.30 seconds. He therefore wasn’t able to add to his record of five wins since 2005.
