Austria fifth best nation in the Young Riders, double gold for Germany
Felicitra Simoncic, trainer Caro Kottas-Heldenberg and head of the team Dr. Ursula Barth © private
Paul Jöbstl also contests his first European Championships as a young rider in Hartpury. Last year, the Styrian, who lives in Switzerland, rode sensationally with his bodyguard to double bronze at the Junior European Championships in Hungary. Also this year there is not much missing for an absolute placement, in the top team task Jöbstl and the third placed Loucie Anouk Baumgurt (GER) separate about one and a half percent from each other. The successful Austrian couple still has room for improvement, even if they consistently scored between seven and eight points in every phase of the test and presented themselves expressively and with a lot of matter-of-factness in all three gaits. The only mistakes worth mentioning were a short lifting of the Hanoverian stallion in the right spin and a hesitant jumping change at the end of the diagonal in a strong canter. The discrepancy in the judges’ assessment is once again incomprehensible. For Jöbstl, the grading scale ranges from an incomprehensible 69.265% and 23rd place (Jane Weatherwax, judge at H) to 74.412% and 2nd place (Maarten Van Der Heijden, judge at B). The bottom line was 72,059%, which ultimately meant tenth place for Jöbstl and Bodyguard.
Together with the rides of Lilli Ochsenhofer on Roi du Soleil MT (68.118%, 32nd place) and Fiona Spranz on Liberte (67.235%, 36th place – discarded result), the local young riders scored 212,971 points – fifth place.
German offspring dominates
The German U21 riders (223,294) achieved a victory that was never in jeopardy, with three riders among the top 3. The Danes took silver (217,382), bronze went to Sweden (216,764), who just barely thwarted the drawn team (215,971) from winning a medal.
Gold for Germany (222,243) was also among the juniors. The teams from the Netherlands (218,576) and Great Britain (216,879) also landed on the podium. For the red-white-red team, which was still in third place after the first day of team rides, today was pitch black. First, Oskar Ochsenhofer’s Siesta Key was withdrawn from the start due to lameness, then Fanny Jöbstl’s Simsalabim OLD dropped out shortly before entering the trial arena.
On Thursday, the juniors and young riders from the dressage camp will continue in Hartpury with the first part of the individual competitions. The eventing riders of both age groups then start with the first part of the dressage competitions.
Results, schedules, start lists there is for both disciplines here.