Four of the world’s top showjumpers will go head to head in a unique horse swap class tonight (13 March) at the Dutch Masters in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.
Sweden’s world champion Henrik von Eckermann, Germany’s European individual silver medallist Philipp Weishaupt, the Netherlands’ individual Olympic bronze medallist Maikel van der Vleuten and the Dutch national champion Willem Greve will swap horses and compete over a 1.45/1.50m course, in a class which echoes the previous format of the World Championships.
The horse swap class format was last used in the final of the 2014 World Championships in Caen, France, when Dutch rider Jeroen Dubbeldam triumphed – he was the only rider to go clear on all four horses.
“I had a great feeling with the other three horses – they all wanted to clear these fences,” said Jeroen after the final. “Three minutes [in the warm-up] isn’t long enough to try and change the horse, so all you can do is find its strongest points and bring those forward. It’s great to be world champion but I really enjoyed riding such great horses.”
The other contenders were France’s Patrice Delaveau (who racked up a single time-fault on Rolf-Göran Bengtsson’s Casall ASK for silver), the USA’s Beezie Madden (who had four faults on all three of the other riders’ horses for bronze) and Sweden’s Rolf-Göran Bengtsson (who had four faults on his own Casall ASK and Patrice’s Orient Express HDC and six on Jeroen’s Zenith SFN). Beezie’s ride Cortes C went clear for all four riders.
“It was fun to watch my horse with such fantastic other riders and it was interesting that almost every round looked the same to me,” said Beezie.
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
An extract from Horse & Hound’s report on the 2014 horse swap final. Pictures by Peter Nixon and Storm Johnson
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
After the 2014 final, the horse-swapping format was removed from the World Championships. The HeadFirst Group Prize – Best of Champions class at 8pm local time (7pm British time) tonight in ’s-Hertogenbosch brings back that format in what should be a fascinating contest of horsemanship and skill.
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The riders will start by riding their own horses, with Willem kicking off on Isabel de Rijcker’s 10-year-old mare Hadewyn Van’t Ravennest. Philipp will follow on Madeleine Winter-Schulze’s nine-year-old gelding Cupido, who he hasn’t previously ridden in an international competition. Henrik is next on Dufour Stables AG’s 12-year-old mare Calizi, with Maikel last to go on Gabriela Roger Ibars’s nine-year-old mare Lalique.
The horses then jump the next three rounds in the same order, with the riders swapping mounts between each round.
Other highlights of the Dutch Masters show include the Rolex Grand Prix on Sunday (16 March), in which home side rider Harrie Smolders will try to win a second leg of the valuable Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping, and the final Western European League leg of the World Cup dressage series.
British Paris Olympic medallists will be out in force – Scott Brash (Hello Chadora Lady and Hello Valentino) and Ben Maher (Point Break) compete in the five-star showjumping classes, while Becky Moody (Jagerbomb) and Lottie Fry (Glamourdale) contest the World Cup dressage.
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
