Mannheim you just like...

This year we were at the Mannheim Maimarkt tournament for the first time - and we'd definitely like to come again - that's for sure!

---

Great conditions and a very friendly atmosphere. We can only congratulate the tournament director Peter Hoffmann and his team on this great event. Only the weather god didn't mean us to be so good with the temperatures - but that might keep it fresh ;-)

But now to the main thing: our horses. And they really put their foot down! And that in consistently very strongly occupied competitions! Above all Benaglio alias Benni. The eleven-year-old Oldenburg son of Breitling W went the very first freestyle in his life - and how! He did his thing really, really well in front of the impressive backdrop of the really well-filled Mannheim main stadium. This was actually already a championship event! And we didn't even have time to practice. The decision to ride freestyle in Mannheim was made at very short notice and so his freestyle music was only ready on Thursday - the day of arrival in Mannheim. But just like at his first Grand Prix appearances shortly before in Ebreichsdorf, Benny "threw himself" into it full of courage and trusted me, without really knowing what was coming up to him one after the other. It was very, very, very much fun! The music (melodies of Billy Joel) fits him perfectly and also for the line management there was a lot of praise from chief judge Katrina Wüst. The level of difficulty was already really high, with many difficult combinations, especially in gallop. And he mastered everything. Before the strong gallop the music really grabbed him and he almost wanted to accelerate a little bit. We are now working on being able to put a shovel on it soon. But that was a mega debut in any case - which was rewarded with 75.47 percent and even over 80 percent in the B grade. We finished third behind Isabell Werth's old master Don Johnson FRH (82.00 percent). Benny: I'm just incredibly proud of you!!!

Also Vali, whose real name is Valparaiso, did a great job in the incredibly strong qualification for the Burg Cup. The just eight-year-old son of Vitalis-Fuerst Piccolo, whom my mother discovered at the Westphalian licensing and whom she kindly made available to me, competed for the first time in a St. Georges Special and impressed with his go, his steady leaning and overall his sovereignty in the technically very demanding lessons, which Dr. Dietrich Plewa also emphasized in his commentary. Little things tipped the scales, whereby the slight lift in the first pirouette and the mini wobble in the traversal were clearly on my cap. Unfortunately, this cost us valuable points. With a score of 72.26 percent, we finished fourth behind the winners Matthias Bouton and Meggle's Grimani (74.36 percent), the runners-up Dorothee Schneider and Lord Fittipaldi M (74.02) and the third Thomas Wagner and Soul Men (72.63), after finishing third in the warm-up test.

So, now we come to another four-legged hope for the future, the only nine-year-old DSP Quantaz, who inspired us for the first time about a year ago in Hagen, where Ronald Lüders rode him in the Louisdor Prize. Now Isabell introduced him, as she did in Ankum at the end of February. And with a brilliant result: Second place in the Grand Prix with 74.60 percent just behind Isabell's Don Johnson FRH (74.87) and in front of Patty (Pathétique). who is owned by my mother, under Dorothee Schneider (73.69)! And victory in the Special with 74.31 percent, not to mention his second ever and his first international! "Patty" came second (73.20) under Doro and Lisa Müller, who also trains with Isabell, came third (72.68) with her Gut Wettkam's Stand by me OLD. I am very happy that Isabell is now giving him the opportunity to build up trust and security in the dressage arena. Without overtaxing him with his enormous potential and positive ambition, he can develop gently step by step and I can grow together with him. An amazing horse - I am really looking forward to it!

“Navi” or Di Navarone, who previously celebrated his international premiere in Ebreichsdorf, again showed a beautiful Grand Prix under Stefan with great highlights in piaffes and passages. The two of them really harmonize very well and Navi trusted Stefan completely in this big stadium, which is still unknown to him. Unfortunately, the two had a big mistake in the double counting zig-zag traversals, which clearly depressed the result. But they are on the absolutely right track, Navi just has to get more test routine now. Because in training Stefan can already call up everything perfectly. That makes us so confident about the further way.

In Mannheim Stefan had Silky Moves with him for the first time, a now nine-year-old, large-framed Oldenburg chestnut gelding by Starnberg, whom we discovered at the World Championships for young dressage horses when he was seven years old, and who has developed very nicely. In the qualifier for the Burg-Pokal-Quali, he scored big points with his wonderful basic movement, his elasticity and his almost unlimited freedom of shoulder movement - even if there were still a few expensive mistakes to be made ... In the qualification test itself he was missing at the end, probably also because of his enormous translation and the many, many impressions on a tournament place like Mannheim (which he is also interested in from time to time ;-) ), but unfortunately he still lacked the strength. But he goes on - new game, new luck!

We really had a lot of work to do at our first open-air tournament this season in Mannheim and are very grateful to our team for their great support. Verena, you have done a great job! Thanks, this way it's fun! :-) Next up for us is the national tournament in Steyr, which we're really looking forward to - hopefully with more pleasant temperatures ...

---