The successful mixture of top class sport in jumping, dressage, four-in-hand driving and eventing plus the attractive Show Evening have made the STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS one of the world’s best and most popular indoor horse shows for more than three decades. “Apart from crème de la crème in equestrian sport, Stuttgart always provides a platform for elite riders from Baden Württemberg and up-and-coming young riders,” said Andreas Kroll. Not only the three World Cup classes but also the finals for the federal state’s riders in the BW-Bank Indoor Championship and in the iWEST Dressage Cup will entice fans “en masse” to the NeckarPark venue. The finals of the NÜRNBERGER Burg Cup and the “Piaff-Förderpreis” for the region’s young show jumpers and dressage riders respectively are also eagerly awaited.
In jumping, there have been valuable qualifying points for the World Cup final at stake in the Longines FEI World CupTM Jumping ever since 2005. The points are to be won in the closing highlight of the equestrian spectacle on Sunday, 20 November in the Grand Prix of Stuttgart – presented by Mercedes-Benz, WALTER solar and BW-Bank (15.25 hrs – all times are CET). The special prize for the winner of the renowned class is a Mercedes-Benz GLE. There is also a car up for grabs - a Mercedes Benz GLC - in the MERCEDES GERMAN MASTER on Friday, 18 November at 22.15 hrs.
Last year Christian Ahlmann (Germany) secured the horse show’s two most important competitions. The bronze medal winner with the German team at the Rio Olympics in August and the Nations Cup winner in Barcelona – both times on his 16-year old stallion Taloubet Z – really hit the limelight for the first time in 2003 when winning the individual and team titles at the European Championships on home soil in Donaueschingen. The 42-year old is currently heading the jumping world rankings.
He will be up against strong opposition from his Rio teammates as the 2014 World Cup winner Daniel Deußer, the four-time Olympic Champion Ludger Beerbaum and the 2010 team World Champion in Lexington and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum will all be competing in Stuttgart. Also in the starting line-up is the Swedish individual silver medal winner, Peder Fredricson, the 2012 London Olympic Champion, Steve Guerdat (Switzerland), and the double European Champion in Aachen in 2015, Jeroen Dubbeldam. The Dutchman claimed gold at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney both with the team and in the individual and he repeated the feat at the World Equestrian Games in Caen (France) in 2014.
“France is coming with a really strong team,” said the Technical Director Hauke Schmidt licking his lips. Three team Olympic Champions from Rio will be appearing in Stuttgart – Penelope Leprevost, the highly experienced Roger Yves Bost (51), gold medallist at the 1990 World Championships and at the 2013 European Championships and the winner of the 1991 and 1992 MERCEDES GERMAN MASTER in the state capital of Baden Württemberg plus Kevin Staut, the 2009 individual European Champion. Great Britain will be represented by Scott Brash and John Whitaker. Brash took Olympic team gold in 2012 and the European team title in 2013. A “living legend” is John Whitaker (61), the World Cup winner in 1990 and 1991 and two-time winner of the European Championship on his legendary grey Milton. He has secured the MERCEDES GERMAN MASTER on three occasions and the Grand Prix of Stuttgart on one.
Marcus Ehning is one of the most successful German jumpers and has won a total of five gold medals at Olympic Games and World and European Championships. In Rio this year he was unlucky as his grey stallion Cornado NRW got injured shortly before competition started and was replaced in the team by Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum.
Four Baden Württemberg riders are in possession of a permit to ride on the international tour: Hans-Dieter Dreher, Michael Jung, Niclas Krieg and Marcel Marschall. “Hansi“ Dreher was the first rider from the state to win the Grand Prix of Stuttgart on Embassy in 2013 and will be competing in the World Cup jumping class this year too. Eventing Olympic Champion “Michi“ Jung will be in the saddle for the Indoor Derby, the final of the BW-Bank Indoor Championship and the international classes, but not in the World Cup. The two youngsters Krieg and Marschall will also not be competing on Sunday. Horsemanship runs in the family as their fathers Andreas Krieg (1997) and Manfred Marschall (1993 and 1994) both won the BW Cup.
“Dressage Queen” Isabell Werth saddles her Olympic horse Weihegold OLD
The top three in the dressage world rankings also head the entry list of the menage acrobats: Isabell Werth, Kristina Bröring-Sprehe and Dorothee Schneider (all Germany). All three won team gold in Rio together with Sönke Rothenberger, who will not be appearing in Stuttgart. They will be joined instead by fellow German Hubertus Schmidt, the Olympic reserve whose Imperio will be awarded the “Master Stallion” title on Wednesday. Schmidt was the team gold medallist at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and a member of the German team that secured the 2006 World Championship title on home soil in Aachen. In 2005, he won an individual silver medal in addition to team gold at the European Championships in Hagen, Germany.
Isabell Werth recently took over from Kristina Bröring-Sprehe as the new world No. 1 and will be saddling her Olympics horse Weihegold OLD. Dorothee Schneider will be atop her Showtime FRH and Kristina Bröring-Sprehe will bring her Desperados FRH, the horse she rode in Rio. In winning team gold and individual silver, Isabell Werth became the most successful rider of all time. The “Dressage Queen” now has six gold and four silver medals to her credit at Olympic Games in addition to seven titles at World Championships and 14 at European Championships, two World Cup successes and 12 national wins. Her record is truly impressive. Competing in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, she has amassed 12 victories in the Grand Prix Special for the GERMAN DRESSAGE MASTER and six in the freestyle.
The German cracks will be up against stiff opposition as Briton Spencer Wilton, the team silver medallist in Rio, is also in the line-up. The focus of the dressage classes will be on the qualifying competition for the FEI World CupTM Dressage 2016/2017 on Saturday afternoon (15.30 hrs) and the Grand Prix Special for the Prize of tisoware – the GERMAN DRESSAGE MASTER – on Sunday morning (10.30 hrs).
Year in, year out, Thursday is the day of the final of the iWEST Dressage Cup. Only the top ten after the qualifying events in nearby Ludwigsburg, Aulendorf, Heroldsberg and Göppingen saddle up on the traditional “Day of the Baden Württemberg Riders” and compete in the unofficial state indoor championship. Later in the evening, the jumping fraternity will be battling for the win and fame in the final of the BW Indoor Championship.
Top drivers to take up the reins in Stuttgart
Stuttgart has been a stopover on the FEI World CupTM Driving four-in-hand tour ever since 2002. With the outstanding four-in-hand driver and last year’s winner Boyd Exell (Australia), the multi World and European Champion Ijsbrand Chardon (Netherlands) and Georg von Stein (Germany) all in the line-up, it means the top three in the world rankings will be taking up the reins in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle. The field will be completed by team European Champion Theo Timmerman (Netherlands), Rainer Duen (Germany) and the Swiss Jérôme Voutaz, “a new face on the scene who I can’t wait to see.” (Gotthilf Riexinger).
Crowd favourite Michael Jung aiming for his eighth indoor win
He won his third Olympic eventing gold medal in Rio plus silver with the team – and in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, Michael Jung is without question the crowd favourite. He has walked off with the Indoor Derby win on seven occasions and the “rider of the century” from nearby Horb is one of the reasons why the STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS organisers have been able to attract a sell-out opening day crowd in recent years. Andreas Kroll warmly congratulated “Michi“ Jung after his “coup de main” in Brazil and added: “We’re very proud of him. And we’re proud that he acts as an ambassador for our horse show.”
That he is, so to say, at home on every saddle is something that the “local hero” was also proved in 2010 when he won the final of the iWEST Dressage Cup – the unofficial state championship – in Stuttgart. In the same year, he left World Champion Philippe Le Jeune (Belgium) and all the other top jumping specialists trailing in his wake in an against the clock class. “He is the most complete and best rider in the world,” said Gotthilf Riexinger when praising him just afterwards. Ingrid Klimke (Germany), who in Rio also won team silver and the two Frenchmen Karim Florent Laghouag – team Olympic Champion – and last year’s winner Sidney Dufresne will be looking to make life difficult for Michael Jung in his attempt to win an eighth Indoor Derby.
The big Show Evening on Wednesday is the first major highlight
Once again the big Show Evening – presented by the Baden-Württemberg Bank – will be the highlight of the opening day of the horse show on Wednesday, 16 November starting at 19.00 hrs. Attractive displays, which will also be repeated on the following days, guarantee fabulous entertainment. A dog display, the Baden-Württemberg mounted police display, a joint performance involving the South German State Stud and four para riders with an integrative quadrille are on the programme as are the “Silver Herd” from the local Marbach stud and a thrilling four-in-hand number performed by brothers Michael and Steffen Brauchle. Michael Brauchle is the four-in-hand European Champion and his brother a three-time World Champion in two and four-in-hand. At 21.45 hrs the bell will ring to mark the start of the eventing Indoor Derby for the Prize of WALTER solar.
