The Holsteiner horse days were held over the past weekend. As already reported, Charaktervoll by Comme il Faut and Crack by Cornet Obolensky secured the title in their age group, respectively. But also their stable mates Dubliner by Dinken, Cardentos by Cardento, Cahil by Conet Obolensky, Keaton by Kannan, Corfu de la Vie by Cumano, United Way by Uriko and Castle Creek by Casall performed well and very well throughout in the show jumping arena.
Besides the two gold medals for Crack and Charaktervoll, another stallion secured a medal as well, as four-year-old Cardentos, shown by his breeder’s son Marten Witt, took home a bronze medal (8.4) in the four-year-old class. Dubliner just missed out on a medal and was ranked fourth (8.3) in the state championship. Under the saddle of Massimo Bonomi, who rode Charaktervoll to victory in the same class, Dubliner had also won a division of the qualifier scoring 8.8. Cahil, shown in the same age group by Maximilian Gräfe, also performed impressively and finished second (8.5) and sixth (8.2).
Corfu de la Vie and Keaton competed in the five-year-old class. Scoring 7.9, Corfu and Maximilian Gräfe qualified for the final. Keaton and Massimo Bonomi improved considerably on their good round in the qualifier (8.1) with the judges awarding them 8.3 and 8.6 for their two rounds in the final – they finished on fifth place.
Two Verband stallions had been entered in the six-year-old class. One of them of course Crack, who left nothing to be desired with Maximilian Gräfe – after winning the second division of the qualifier (8.8), the Cornet son demonstrated his ability to go really fast in the jump off to state championship and was celebrated as the new state champion by the spectators. His stable mate United Way also performed well in the qualifier, scoring 8.0.
Seven-year-old Castle Creek also demonstrated top form under the saddle of Maximilian Gräfe as the Casall son attracted attention by placing second in the qualifier. While each of the Verband stallions easily qualified for their particular finals, the decision which stallion should actually compete in the final was made for each horse individually. In the case of Corfu de la Vie, United Way and Castle Creek trainer, rider and executive director decided against showing them in the final in view of the stallions’ individual shape and physical condition. All in all, the stallions stood by the Holsteiner Verband stallion keeping GmbH performed impressively at the state championships, with three medals – two of them gold, five wins in individual classes and ten clear rounds adding up to a highly satisfactory result.
Photo: Crack and Maximilian Gräfe (c) Janne Bugtrup
