Sometimes, though sadly very rarely, life is fair.

About on Whit Monday to the show jumper David Will.

Everyone just felt sorry for him because his championship horse named C Vier Knall auf Fall had been sold to Ireland.

Now he rocked the Biebricher Schlosspark, 16,000 spectators cheered him on in the riding stadium as the winner of the Grand Prix of the state capital Wiesbaden.

Evi Simeoni

sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

Beaming and at a full gallop, he did his lap of honor, under the hooves of his gray mare Concordia, shreds of grass flew into the air, the rider waved his cap.

The 34-year-old Bavarian worked in Pfungstadt for ten years, meanwhile he is at home in Dagobertshausen near Marburg, he has competed in Wiesbaden many times, but he won the Grand Prix for the first time – plus 25,000 euros in prize money.

"C Vier's footsteps are huge"

He set the fastest lap in the jump-off in 38.14 seconds.

And this despite the fact that his horse slipped slightly before the double combination.

But she quickly recovered and continued to fight.

If one door closes, the next one opens - Will had already expressed this conviction before his victory in Wiesbaden.

A week ago he had already won the Munich Grand Prix with Primus.

The life of the rider goes on.

However, ten-year-old Concordia is a strong fighter, but not a horse for the World Championships this summer in Herning.

"C Four's footprints are huge," Will said.

“Enjoyed every moment”

The gelding lost to the German team was also there.

His new rider, Irishman Cian O'Connor, won a frame class on Saturday with a C 4.

However, he did not reach the jump-off of the Grand Prix because of a drop in the normal course.

Instead, O'Connor's 18-year-old Irish student, Max Wachman, finished second with a safe jump-off on the Berlux.

The young man is the grandson of the new owners of C Vier.

Third place went to Gilles Dunon from Belgium with 17-year-old Fou De Toi, who was very impressed by the Whitsun tournament and its enthusiastic audience: "I enjoyed every moment," he said.

Everyone praises the lively, even lively atmosphere of the tournament.

But probably only because inexperienced dressage horses cannot speak.

The tournament is an endurance test for their nerves.

It is always to be expected that they will not succeed in everything that has worked in quieter places.

If a horse is still a "slob", as Dorothee Schneider calls her twelve-year-old First Romance, one or the other mistake can happen.

"Sometimes he has a mind of his own," said the championship rider from Framersheim, which regularly manifests itself in mistakes in the one-gallop changes.

"Sometimes I ask myself whether I can no longer ride single changes," she said on Whit Monday in playful desperation because it had happened again.

Her consolation: The performance was enough for victory at the sporting highlight of the dressage competitions, the Grand Prix Special.

The judges gave the two 74.936 percentage points.

"It's just a long way," said Dorothee Schneider.

But she notices that First Romance is gathering and mentally strengthening more and more.

After all, she still has big plans for him, she sees him as a future horse for international title fights.

"The mare is awesome"

Schneider's experiences this year with the hustle and bustle of Wiesbaden were only a mild breeze compared to the endurance test that her Olympic gold colleague Isabell Werth had to endure with her ten-year-old mare Superb.

"The mare is brilliant," she said in Wiesbaden after her ride, which cannot exactly be described as successful.

"With all her self-confidence, she's also a bit shy." That's why the proud dark bay remained far below her potential in Wiesbaden.

Superb, who Werth calls "Super-Bee" in English, has to gain tournament experience in order to achieve "that she dares to let herself go".

The problems began on Monday with a wrong canter, which continued in botched one-up changes and a failed final line.

Perhaps a consolation for the specialist audience: that even the most successful dressage rider in the world can occasionally get into trouble in a test.

Despite the difficulties, she ended up in second place with 74.256 percentage points.

Third place went to Nicole Wego-Engelmeyer from Hagen with the 13-year-old mare Saphira Royal (73.809).

Krajewski's lights-to-flag victory

The first highlight of the tournament was the eventing test, which led to the cross-country on Saturday.

10,000 spectators made the pilgrimage to the park, and another 7,000 followed the rides in the stadium.

Julia Krajewski from Warendorf, the gold medalist from Tokyo 2021, achieved a start-to-finish victory with her Olympic mare Amande de B'Neville.

On Friday she took the lead with the best dressage and a flawless jumping and brought the lead to the finish despite a small time delay in cross country.

It was Krajewski's second victory in the Biebricher Schlosspark in her ninth start.

According to the motto: What's good comes back.