Sidney Dufresne may have had a fall at Stuttgart but hopefully he'll be defending his crown in Geneva
While there is still plenty of eventing happening in the great outdoors in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s Indoor Arena Eventing season in the Northern Hemisphere
Germany’s Michael Jung won the Indoor Derby for the Prize of WALTER Solar for the eighth time at the 33rd International Stuttgart German Masters Horse Show two weeks ago in front of an excited sell-out 8,000 crowd late on Wednesday evening
Riding the only seven-year old Hanoverian mare Corazon, local rider Michael provided the first major highlight of the show and took away a purse of 15,000 Euro
This year the Indoor Derby was organised as a three-phase jumping class; the course designed by Gerd Haiber wound its way through the owl hole, water complex, the fixed natural obstacles and fences that could be knocked down. After going round in 40.03, Michael Jung was only three-hundredth of a second slower than the pre-determined ideal time of 40 seconds.
“The horses, including Corazon, were able to quickly get used to the indoor arena. We appear to be on the right track with the new format”
Back down the field were, amongst others, the European Champion Ingrid Klimke (Germany) in fifth, last year’s winner Nicolas Wettstein (ECU), who placed sixth, and the team Olympic champion in Rio Karim Florent Laghouag (FRA) further back in ninth.
Another French eventing rider Sidney Dufresne, the winner in 2015, fell off his horse during the class and was taken to Stuttgart’s Karl-Olga Hospital for further treatment but was given the all-clear the next day.
Sidney won the 2016 Devoucoux Derby Cross Indoor at the Salon du Cheval de Paris but it was team mate Karim Florent Laghouag who took the honours on Saturday night. Britain’s Laura Collett took second place on Cooley Again at his first Indoor Derby and Cedric Lyard was third
There is more to come with the Sweden International Horse Show Indoor cross country this Thursday and the Indoor Cross at the CHI Geneva on Saturday 9th December. Hopefully last year’s winner, Sidney Dufresne is feeling ready for another crack
