Malin Hansen-Hotopp lifted the Blenheim Horse Trials CCI4*-L trophy on a golden day for Germany.
Malin and the powerful grey Carlitos Quidditch K cantered into the ring with a fence in hand over Dirk Schrade and the super talented Casino 80.
The pair produced a copybook showjumping clear, adding 1.2 showjumping time-penalties to their dressage score of 24.6 to head a one-two for Germany.
And while Malin delivered the performance of her career to take the Blenheim Horse Trials title, with Dirk finishing runner-up, some 1,200 miles away their compatriots were stepping onto the World Championship podium to collect team gold and individual silver. Blenheim’s 2021 victors Yasmin Ingham and Banzai Du Loir added a further poetic link between the two events, with their individual world gold for Britain.
Just to be at Blenheim was a “dream” for the semi-professional, who led from the first day with Bodil Ipsen’s 10-year-old gelding.
“This win is for my father. He died when I was 13. He was an event trainer and trained [German Olympic team gold medallist and new German eventing team trainer] Peter Thomsen on our cow fields – Peter jumped his first jump for him. This win is for my father as I am just doing what he loved,” said Malin.
While Malin describes herself as “not a real professional” – she is a farmer with a string of just five horses, who hitched a lift with Dirk across the Channel – there was no denying the professionalism and quality of her performance in all three phases at Blenheim Horse Trials. That is, perhaps, to be expected given both German combinations were named as squad reserves for the eventing World Championships in Pratoni
“This morning at 5am I was feeling really nervous, but I thought, ‘No, I just need to concentrate and focus’, so I went to the stables,” she said.
“I can’t describe the feeling. I think back at home I will have a big party. I’m just so happy – he’s the best horse. I had time to think and enjoy the experience – it was just brilliant.”
Any dreams Malin had of Blenheim glory ahead of the event were kept firmly grounded by her children.
“We live on a farm and my oldest son said, ‘ok Mummy, if you win, we will buy a John Deere gator – we can spend the money on that’,” she said, with a laugh.
“Then my little one asked, ‘is Michi there?’, meaning Michael Jung. I said, ‘no he’s at the World Games’. And he replied, ‘ok, then you have a little chance’. So now I’m not sure if I can keep the money, or if I need to buy a John Deere gator!”
This dapple grey commands such presence. At the final horse inspection on Sunday morning, he eyeballed the crowd with supreme confidence – watching them, watching him, as so they should be.
Their jumping record is class, with 22 cross-country clears from 24 starts, and their dressage has been improving with almost every run this season to end 2022 on that huge new personal best of 24.6.
Watching her coach, Anne-Kathrin Pohlmeier’s style of test riding, was a turning point.
“In the spring, she showed me a video of when she rode a six-year-old at the World Championships for young horses and it was so impressive as she was riding every single [move] for a 10,” she said. “It impressed me so much that I’m riding every test so differently to last year – I’m coming in and saying, ‘ok, let’s go!’”
Dirk Schrade’s shrewd timekeeping on Saturday’s cross-country proved the deciding factor in securing the runner-up spot.
Dirk was on the same score of 29 as Britain’s Bubby Upton and Jefferson 18 after dressage. But proximity to the optimum time across country becomes the deciding factor when two competitors are on an equal mark.
After jumping the last cross-country fence, Dirk steadied Freya Rethmeier’s grey to finish bang on the optimum time, while Bubby was a fraction quicker. Both showjumped clear today, with that half-half on Saturday proving a savvy move.
“He has proved he is a good one,” said Dirk. “That was the most important thing in all three phases. Dressage can always be better, I was a little bit unlucky with one judge – it happens, it is normal and over the year his marks are ok. Though of course today it’s a little bit sad that one judge didn’t see it as good as the other two, but he has been fantastic all week.”
This week has been a fact-finding mission for Bubby with Chedington Estate’s scopey 11-year-old Jaquino gelding stepping up to CCI4*-L for the first time. It was a mission accomplished, as the pair finished third and best of the Brits on their first-phased score.
“I didn’t know what to expect coming into this week as we are a very new partnership and he really is quite inexperienced still for his age,” said Bubby. “He has just been incredible in every phase and I’m so thrilled. He’s a class horse, but when it’s your first time doing a long-format on them, you never know how they are going to come out on the last day – particularly around a hilly track like Blenheim.”
The tightly-packed scores, with fourth to eighth separated by 0.7 of a penalty ahead of the showjumping, meant any faults were expensive. The back rail of the orange oxer at fence seven dropped Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno III from provisional second to seventh. Sarah Bullimore did well to stay on when Corouet appeared to misread the square oxer on the final part of the treble at fence four, picking up four faults in an otherwise typically tidy round, to drop from provisional third to eighth.
Both were philosophical about the faults and Gemma delighted to finish with two horses inside the top 10, also taking fifth with the sprightly grey Flash Cooley.
Felicity Collins and RSH Contend OR made a successful re-route from Burghley to finish fourth, while CCI4*-L and Blenheim Horse Trials first-timers Lizzie Baugh and B Exclusive made a dazzling debut to jump double clear and take sixth.
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