Pessoa Wins – Pursued by the Whitakers

They made themselves scarce in Europe during the past few years, now in Hanover they are back at the start with double power: the Pessoas.

At the international opening jumping competition, the Price of Lutz Gössing, Alexa Pessoa starting for the USA with the 14 year old Hanoverian horse HH Let’s Fly v. Lordanos, was victorious. The 29 year old wife of the thrice World Cup Winner Rodrigo Pessoa speeded faultlessly within 52.28 seconds over the course. Her husband could only be astonished. He finished the course with Citizenguard Cadjanine Z with eleven faults. The winner was closely pursued by Withaker senior and junior. The 58 year old father John made second place with the nine year old Lord of Arabia, while the third place was made by his son Robert (30) on the nine year old grey mare Synique. All three were less than half a second apart. The first German rider achieved fourth place: Florian Meyer zu Hartum, who works in the stables of Paul Schockemöhle who is organizing the show, on Baloubet du Rouet-Sohn Billy King. Nearly two seconds separated him from the winner: „Two seconds – that is worlds apart“, he admitted. „I had my stallion canter strongly and he is very fit. But the others took a shorter turn at the oxer – that made the line more rectangular, which costed me two seconds.“

Do what you love – and win!

A solemn hymn, which was never heard at the German Classics in Hanover before, announced the victory of the second qualifier for the Poresta Youngster-Cup: a Lituanian duo through and through dominated the competition for the seven and eight year old horses. Andrius Petrovas als ? well as his seven year old gelding Amaretas by Aromat come from Lituania. Petrovas and his wife Daiva Petrovien lead a jumping stable in Vilnius and he belongs to the Lituanian jumping equipe. His motto: „Love what you do and do what you love!“ The perfect motto of a winner!

But being faultless was not sufficient to win in the high-class field of the Youngsters today. Amaretas was extraordinarily fast, too. With 51,75 seconds the son of Aromat was two seconds faster than his eight year old pursuer the Dutch mare Aminka ridden by Willem Greve (53,66 seconds). The third place was made by the seven year old Hanoveran gelding Argelith Squid v. Salito under Eva Bitter within 54,48 seconds. The winning duo of today had already convinced in the first qualifier by making third place, although they know each other only for half a year. The competition was hosted in memory of Dietrich Schulze the deceased husband of Madeleine Winter-Schulze. The name Schulze has been standing for many years for great patronage of equestrian sports. „There were many very good and from a breeders perspective highly interesting horses at the start“, said a pleased Madeleine Winter-Schulze, who also presented the honorary prize. „The first ten or twelve horses were all equally good. Every one of them could have won today.“

Today the best 25 of the two qualifiers will fight for points in the finals of this Poresta Youngster Cup-station. The Poresta Youngster-Cup consists altogether of a jumping series for seven to eight year old horses with eight international stations in Germany, the finals of the series will take place at the first November weekend at the Munich Indoors.

The winners of the SML Tour this morning were Ann-Kathrin Bartram with Notting Hill (Small Tour), Jessica Siemers on California in the Medium Tour and Stefan Unterlandstättner with Alposchino in the Large Tour. Siemers and Unterlandstättner could thereby repeat their successes of the previous day and will start as favorites on Saturday.

Results of Friday:

11 Int. SML-Tour: Accumulator Jumping Competition „Small“ (1.35m), Prize by Saaten Union:

1. Ann-Kathrin Bartram (Adelebsen), Notting Hill 16, 65.00/50.30 Fault/Time;
2. Jonas Heinrich Pedersen (Winkelsett), Cartaro, 65.00/53.15;
3. Katrin Fränzer (Ascheberg), Du' A Bell, 62.00/54.81;
4. Rebecca Pohl (Porta Westfalica), Claudio 23, 57.00/52.97;
5. Saskia Kunz (Dornburg-Frickhofen), Larohnja, 56.00/47.48;
6. Felix Knudsen-Mallon (Hamburg), Caspar 192, 55.00/50.87

14 Int. SML-Tour: Accumulator Jumping Competition „Medium“ (1.25m), presented by LAVAZZA A MODO MIO:

1. Jessica Siemers (Kasseburg), California 92, 65.00/50.38 Fault/Time;
2. Valentina Teich (Herzberg), Calista-Ninette, 65.00/54.36;
3. Pascal von Garrel (Molbergen), Sarkozy 4, 65.00/55.17;
4. Thorsten Krause (Nachrodt-Wiblingwerde), Zanetti, 65.00/55.56;
5. Rebecca Pohl (Porta Westfalica), Contador 11, 65.00/56.70;
6. Carl-Philipp Ritter (Kaiserslautern), Calida 61, 63.00/56.67

17 Int. SML-Tour: Accumulator Jumping Competition „Large“ (1.40m), Prize by Schockemöhle Sports:

1. Stefan Unterlandstättner (Berlin), Alposchino, 65.00/47.34 Fault/Time;
2. Justine Tebbel (Emsbüren), Grundig Baltimore, 65.00/51.28;
3. Carl-Philipp Ritter (Kaiserslautern), Coolman 49, 65.00/53.66;
4. Kira Gammersbach (Essen), Woman 11, 65.00/54.38;
5. Stefan Unterlandstättner (Berlin), Conwell L, 65.00/56.08;
6. Joachim Betz (Malsch), Lucor, 65.00/57.72

2 International Opening Jumping Competition Fault/Time (1.45m) Medium Tour, Prize by Lutz Goessing:

1. Alexa Pessoa (USA), HH Let's Fly, 0.00/52.28 Fault/Time;
2. John Whitaker (Großbritannien), Lord of Arabia, 0.00/52.43;
3. Robert Whitaker (Großbritannien), Synique, 0.00/52.75;
4. Florian Meyer zu Hartum (Herford), Billy King, 0.00/54.04;
5. David Will (Pfungstadt), Highrise, 0.00/55.20;
6. Jörg Kreutzmann (Kasseburg), Abukan 3, 0.00/55.56

8 Int. Jumping Competition Fault/Time for 7-8 year old horses (1.40m), In Memoriam Dietrich Schulze – 2. Qualifier for the Poresta Youngster-Cup:

1. Andrius Petrovas (Litauen), Amaretas, 0.00/51.75 Fault/Time;
2. Willem Greve (Niederlande), Aminka A, 0.00/53.66;
3. Eva Bitter (Bad Essen), Argelith Squid, 0.00/54.48;
4. Karl Brocks (Füchtorf), Fonzie, 0.00/54.52;
5. Marcus Ehning (Borken), Comme il faut 5, 0.00/54.82;
6. Florian Meyer zu Hartum (Herford), Chacciana, 0.00/54.83