Sunday Final - 7 yr olds: Freese stands in the way of Morsink’s second gold
Gerben Morsink almost did it again. Bastian Freese, one of the riders in Paul Schockemöhle’s barn, prevented the Dutch young rider from winning his second gold medal Sunday at Zangersheide in Lanaken. The new World Champion of the 7 year old show jumpers is called Caballero (Champion du Lys x Acord II), Carthino Z and Morsink settled for silver, Yves Vanderhasselt from Belgium rode Muscaris d’Ariel to bronze.
With the French state owned stallion Mylord Carthago HN in fourth place, the 7 year old class of the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championship for Young Horses was dominated by stallions. World champion Caballero, by Ludger Beerbaum’s former top horse Champion du Lys out of a full sister to the Westphalian stallion Pontifex, is approved in Westphalia. Silver medal winner Carthino Z, a full brother to the dam of golden six year old Zekina Z, is approved with Zangersheide and KWPN. Third placed Muscaris d’Ariel (Diamant de Semilly x Laudanum xx) was bred in France, came to Belgium at an early age, was approved with the BWP and is constantly in the money at Belgian championships and cycles classiques.
Bastian Freese (25) was a clear winner aboard Caballero. “It’s a careful horse with great mentality”, said Freese. “He always looks for the next obstacle to jump.”
Freese rides the new world champion only since the daughter of Taiwanese owner Chen decided to go to the United States for studies. “His own rider normally trains with us in Mühlen, she will ride him again once she’s back from America.” The Chen family bought Caballero last year at the PSI auction of Paul Schockemöhle and Ulrich Kasselmann.
Gerben Morsink didn’t push Carthino Z to its limits and neither did Yves Vanderhasselt with Muscaris d’Ariel. “It was only a jump off with seven combinations”, the Belgian amateur commented. “So I figured that not all riders would stay clear. I’m more than happy to win a medal.”
Vanderhasselt and Morsink both are amateurs. The Belgian is employed in his father’s transportation company (120 lorries), Morsink just finished his first year technical physics cum laude. “Stupid, it means that I could have spent more time with my horses!”
The battle of the studbooks had a varied result in the 7 year old class, but Selle Français did very well with horses in places 3 (Muscaris), 4 (Mylord Carthago, ridden by Pénélope Leprevost) and 5 (Mélodie Ardente, ridden by Simon Delestre).
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Sunday Final - Six year old show jumpers: all Dutch podium
The riders all come from Holland, their medal winning horses are registered with three different studbooks. The best 6 year old show jumper of the world in 2007 is Zekina Z (Zandor Z x Carthago Z), bred with Studbook Zangersheide by the owners Louis and Jos Morsink from Holland. Sunday amateur rider Gerben Morsink, son of Jos, rode Zekina Z to victory in the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championship for Young Horses. The Morsink family received a 5000 Euro cheque from Judy-Ann Melchior, president of Studbook Zangersheide.
A lot of similarity between the gold and the silver winning horses. Also second placed Uranus W is bred in Holland and is still owned by his breeder Philip Wagelaar, who received a 3000 Euro check from mrs. Melchior. But the son of Hornet Rose out of a dam by Mr Blue has a KWPN paper and was ridden by professional rider Hester Klompmaker, a top specialist in young horses.
Third placed horse Ukato (Stakkato x Literat) was first to go in the jump off. Marco Brinkman didn’t take all the risk with the Hanoverian bred, KWPN approved stallion, bred by Gestüt Lewitz (Paul Schockemöhle). “After the double combination, I hesitated for a moment”, said Marco, son of stallion owner Willy Brinkman. “After that I didn’t expect to be in the medals anymore.”
This jump off of 17 combinations was made for fast horses. The fastest took the medals. “Last year we had a small mistake in the jump off of the final for 5 year olds”, said winner Gerben Morsink, a student in technical physics. “Zekina learned from that”, Morsink joked. “I think I won the title racing towards the last fence. It was on a bended line, we needed a bit of luck there, finding the right distance, but we did. I couldn’t have gone any faster.”
The Morsink family (brothers Jos and Louis, their wives and children) bred Zekina Z out of Calina Z (Carthago Z x Dakina by Amor), the mare that brought Gerben team gold and individual silver at the European Championships for junior riders in 2005.
Second placed Uranus W and Hester Klompmaker also had the ambition to improve last year’s result. “We had a rail down, but won the consolation round last year”, said Hester. “Uranus is the kind of horse that gains power and scope over the years. Last year he won the Dutch national title, everybody said he lacked the scope, but he has grown stronger, especially behind, and jumps these big courses here in Lanaken with ease.”
Eugene Mathy built big but very fair courses for the qualifying rounds. The final was not extremely big, but very technical with a short five stride distance after the triple combination to a vertical, a distance between five and six strides to a vertical and a difficult bended line after the water to an oxer, away from the entrance. Thanks to course building the competitive, careful and agile horses won the medals.
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Sunday Final - 5 yr olds: Columbian makes debut winning gold
The final of the 5 year old class of the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championship for Young Horses strongly resembled a pony cross. No less than 27 horses qualified for the jump off. Going down the start list of the decisive round, riders tried to come up with extreme attempts in order to crack the time of Opera de Rizzi Z (Ogano Sitte x Laeken). But all was in vein, the Columbian rider Dayro Arroyave stayed on top of the ranking.
Two Dutch girls stood alongside the small Columbian on the podium. Mareille Schröder (not related to Gerco, Wim and Ben) raced Virginia (Orame x Dutchboy, KWPN) to silver, Anne van Vulpen was very happy to win bronze aboard Society’s Voila (Cantos x Lux, KWPN).
“I couldn’t go any faster”, Anne van Vulpen commented. “In retrospect I’m very happy to have ridden in the beginning of the jump off. I rode according to my own plan. Straight after me the Columbian was more than two seconds faster. I thought: my goodness, this is impossible, I’ll end up 18th or so. But Dayro just was extremely fast and all the later riders really went crazy trying to be faster beyond what’s possible.”
Columbian rider Dayro Arroyave confirmed that his ride was on the edge of possibility. “From the start, jumping the first fence, twisting and turning in the middle and racing towards the last line, my mare and I gave everything. We took every risk.”
Arroyave is a natural fast rider, one of the constant prize winners in the Belgian classical cycle. He came to Europe six years ago. “I wanted to become a better rider. The level of riding is much higher in Europe, so I went to Spain.”
Four years ago Arroyave settled in Belgium, since four months he’s an employee of Belgian horse dealer Christoph Ameeuw (Ecurie d’Ecossines). At Zangersheide he sat on Opera de Rizzi for the first time. The mare competed successfully in Fontainebleau with Italian rider Paolo Monari, also employed at Ecurie d’Ecossines. But Monari got injured and Arroyave had to step in. With gold as result.
Mares showed their fighting spirit in the 5 year old class. With time being crucial in such a large jump off field, the mentality of the horse was of the essence. Mares took the six highest places, showing what they were really made of. “I couldn’t go any faster either”, said silver winner Mareille Schröder. “The only difference between me and Anne van Vulpen was that my horse is bigger, I could leave a stride out in the last line.”
“That was impossible for me”, agreed Anne. “My mare is smaller than 1.60 m, I had to put in the sixth stride.”
After inspection the two lady riders thought the course was not too small. “But if 27 riders stay clear it ís. It’s just that the horses were so good. What can you build for a 5 year old?”
Opera de Rizzi Z is the second Zangersheide registered horse to win a gold medal today. Earlier Zekina Z was the best in the 6 year old class. A remarkable success for Leon Melchior’s studbook.
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