Isabell Werth with three horses in the dressage’s Top 10
The world’s most successful rider, Isabell Werth (Germany), is listed three times in dressage’s Top 10 – she is ranked No. 1 and 2 with Bella Rose and Weihegold OLD and ninth with Emili. She will be joined by compatriots Dorothee Schneider (No. 3), Jessica von Bredow-Werndl (No. 4) and Helen Langehanenberg (No. 6) – German riders dominate the dressage arena. At the European Championships in Rotterdam, Werth, Schneider, von Bredow-Werndl and the sole man Sönke Rothenberger took team gold for the 24th time. In the individual classes, the Germans came 1st (Werth), 2nd (Schneider), 4th (Bredow-Werndl) and 6th (Rothenberger) in the Grand Prix Special. Isabell Werth was also unbeatable in the freestyle where Dorothee Schneider (silver) and Jessica von Bredow-Werndl (bronze) completed the all-German podium.
Double eventing European champion Ingrid Klimke has not only entered the Indoor Derby, her specialist discipline, on Wednesday but also the dressage classes. Also in the line-up is a protegee of Isabell Werth, namely Lisa Müller, the wife of the German international footballer Thomas Müller. The Austrian Victoria Max-Theurer is a very welcome guest in Stuttgart. A four-time Olympian, she came fifth in the 2009 European Championships. Her mother Elisabeth “Sissy” Max-Theurer won Olympic gold in Moscow in 1980. The Australian Kristy Oatley has competed at four Olympic Games and was sixth in the team event in Sydney in 2006. She came 10th in the dressage World Cup final. Yvonne Losos de Muniz from the Dominican Republic, the Greek Theodora Livanos, India’s Shruti Vora, Young-Shik Hwang (Korea) and the Palestinian Diana Al Shaer will all be celebrating their debuts in the rectangular arena in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle.
Mareike Harm to become the first woman to compete in the driving events
There is also a top-class field for the driving classes. Boyd Exell (Australia), the four-time and reigning world champion, has already won on six occasions in Stuttgart. His closest rival, Ijsbrand Chardon (Netherlands), the six-time world champion, has come out on top three times. Not to be underestimated are the world championship runner-up Chester Weber (USA) and the current European Championship team runner-up and individual bronze medallist in Donaueschingen, Glenn Geerts (Belgium). The 2008 Stuttgart victor Josef Dobrovitz (Hungary), European Championship silver medallist Benjamin Aillaud (France) and Mareike Harm (Germany) complement the exclusive starting line-up of artistes on the carriages. The 32-year old German was the one-in-hand team world champion in 2010 and claimed team four-in-hand silver at both the 2013 and 2017 European Championships. She is the first woman to compete in the four-in-hands at the STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS.
Eventing: Ingrid Klimke for a third time or Michael Jung for a ninth?
Last year’s winner Ingrid Klimke, who bagged two golds at the European Championships in Rotterdam, will be the rider to beat in eventing’s Indoor-Derby for the Prize of WALTER solar (Wednesday, 13 November, 21:40 hrs – all times are local). In 2012 and 2018, she was victorious on the courses designed by Rüdiger Rau. Her biggest rival has to be the horse show’s ambassador, Michael Jung. The crowd favourite and local hero has won the closing highlight on the show’s first day on eight occasions – a record. The three-time Olympic champion from the nearby Black Forest will also have to keep the two-time team Olympic champion Peter Thomsen (2008 and 2012) and the World Championships runner-up Padraig McCarthy (Ireland) at bay.
The highlights of the five days of the STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS are the three World Cup classes: the Grand Prix of Stuttgart with Mercedes-Benz, WALTER solar and BW-Bank, a qualifying event for the Longines FEI Jumping World CupTM 2019/2020 (Sunday, 17 November, 15:00 hrs), the FEI Dressage World Cup™ 2019/2020 Grand Prix Freestyle (Saturday, 16. November, 16:30 hrs) plus the FEI Driving World Cup™ for the DB SCHENKER GERMAN MASTER (Saturday, 16 November, 12:45 hrs).
The second most important jumping class will take place on Friday evening at 22:15 hrs when 12 top stars from the two qualifying classes on Thursday (Prize of XXL-Sicherheit/17:45 hrs) and Friday (Prize of ARAGON Robotics/17:15 hrs) will compete for the MERCEDES GERMAN MASTER. At stake will be a Mercedes GLC 220 d 4 MATIC worth about 65,000 euro. The winner of the Grand Prix on Sunday will drive out of the arena in a Mercedes GLE 300 d 4 MATIC worth more than 82,000 euro.
In the dressage arena there is also the highly important Grand Prix Special for the STUTTGART DRESSAGE MASTER Prize of tisoware (Sunday, 17 November, 9:30 hrs).
BW-Bank Indoor Championship finale enticing fans on Thursday evening
Top class equestrianism is not only on view in the international competitions, the national ones will also present horsemanship of the highest class – like on Thursday for the “Baden-Württemberg Day” which attracts the fans year in, year out. In the final classes of the BW-Bank Indoor Championship (Thursday, 14 November, 20.15 hrs) and the iWEST-Cup (Thursday, 14 November, 15.15 hrs), the region’s best riders will compete for the unofficial title as the state champion. The focus in the “Piaff-Förderpreis der Liselott Schindling Stiftung”, whose main intention is to promote dressage, (Friday, 15 November, 8:00 hrs) will be on young riders as it will in the final class of the NÜRNBERGER Burg Cup for Baden-Württemberg’s juniors (Wednesday, 13 November, 15.15 hrs). For the third time, the programme will include two classes for the FEI Jumping Ponies Trophy for the Prize of Ensinger Mineral-Heilquellen GmbH.
“The Stuttgart horse show’s tried and trusted recipe for success is the unique mixture of world class equestrianism and attractive entertainment,” stressed Kroll. This year’s highlights at the show evening on Wednesday at 19:00 hrs, where the motto will be “Black and White”, are a freedom dressage, an Iceland horse quadrille, a cross section of artistic gymnastics, dancing and acrobatics, dancing mythical creatures and the shepherd Anne Krüger’s herd of goats. The horse show also includes any number of stalls selling a wide range of products of interest to all the equestrian fans.
Tickets for the 35th International STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS Horse Show cost between ten and 53 euro, tickets for the whole day cost between 38 and 71 euro. Five-day tickets are available for 151, 183 and 216 euro. All the prices include advance sales fees, plus five euro packing and postage. Tickets purchased on the day cost 2.50 euro more than when bought in advance via the EASY TICKET SERVICE, telephone +49 711 25555-55, Fax + 49 711 25555-66, at all the regular booking offices and via internet at www.easyticket.de.
