Watched on by 6,500 thrilled spectators – 2,400 equestrian enthusiasts saw the action in the day’s earlier session –, his time of 35.82 seconds relegated the previous leader Andy Witzemann into second. Riding Cassadero, a 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding, the 2017 and 2018 BW-Bank champion also went clear but was slower when clocking 36.77. Third place went to Tina Deuerer on her grey stallion DSP Emrado D. Though they left all the fences standing, their time of 39.06 seconds was significantly slower than the top two.
“If you enter the arena as the last to ride, then you have to have a go. I went for broke, and it came off,” said the delighted winner Markus Kölz. Andreas Krieg, the horse show director responsible for jumping, added: “The course was difficult. You couldn’t have ridden any quicker. I’m proud of the Baden-Wurttemberg show jumpers.”
Verena Laich, the head of the Sponsoring and Events Department at the LBBW was still captivated by the thrilling competition saying: “The goose bumps were, like every year, there. We are more than happy to give Baden-Württemberg’s riders the chance to compete here.”
Only the top 25 riders in the four qualifying events in summer at the horse shows in Waldachtal-Salzstetten, Donaueschingen, Bietigheim-Bissingen and in Bisingen-Hohenzollern earned the right to compete in the final in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle. It has been the big goal for the region’s show jumpers ever since 1987.
