Thumbs up for Theo Timmerman in Riesenbeck

Runner-up in the Dutch Championships of last weekend in Beekbergen, Theo Timmerman has won the ninth FEI World Cup™ Qualifier at the international driving event in Riesenbeck, Germany. Timmerman won the German ‘Fahrderby’ and beat his strongest opponent Christoph Sandmann in the final obstacle driving competition. Australia’s Boyd Exell came second, Sandmann took the third place. Exell has taken over the lead again from Chardon in the standings after 9 competitions.

Competition statistics

-       25 four-in-hand drivers from 10 nations competed

-       the field included 2 (former) World Champions: Tomas Eriksson (SWE) and Werner Ulrich (SUI)

-       eldest competitor Eddy van Dyck (BEL), age 57

-       youngest competitor Michael Brauchle (GER), age 19

German Championship

While last week in Beekbergen the Dutch battled in the Dutch four-in-hand Championship, this weekend in Riesenbeck the German four-in-hand drivers competed against each other in the German Championship. Christoph Sandmann took the gold medal for the fourth time in his career, competing with his young team of Dutch Warm blood horses and a French trotter. His 36-year-old colleague Georg von Stein, winner of the CAI-B in Neewiller in April, caused a surprise by coming second in the Championships, ahead of the experienced Max Dangel.

Fahrderby

Riesenbeck is known for its traditional ‘Fahrderby’ in which the four-in-hand drivers have to drive two dressage tests with a pair the day before the official dressage test with the four-in-hand turnout. Every competition counts several times for the overall result. The marathon result for example counts four times and the obstacle driving competition is counted three times. The Top Five of the Fahrderby turned to be equal to the Top Five of the international combined competition, in which the competition results are counted according to the FEI regulations. Werner Ulrich from Switzerland is performing very well with his mixed team of Lusitano horses owned by his sponsor and two Swiss bred horses of his former team. Ulrich came fourth in Riesenbeck, ahead of Georg von Stein from Germany and Sweden’s Tomas Eriksson, who had to compete with four horses as one was taken out at the horse inspection.

Young team

Theo Timmerman has two new young horses in his team since the start of this year. Together with the experienced horses that were also in his team at the World Championship in Beesd in 2008, Timmerman’s performance is improving with big steps at every competition. His team consists of Holsteiner, Hannoverian and Oldenburger geldings of which the eldest is 13 years old. In Aachen, he had some miscommunication with his horses, in Beekbergen the confidence came back slowly and in Riesenbeck it worked as never before between driver and horses.

Knockdowns

German international course designer Dr. Hartmut Kaufmann went straight from Beekbergen to Riesenbeck where he was responsible for the courses as well. To ensure the Welfare of the Horse, the course designer and the judges had placed an average of 16 knockdowns in the seven very challenging marathon obstacles. The knockdowns are used in large number at every international driving competition lately, not always to the like of the drivers, but always to protect the horses.

World Championship 2012

The Organising Committee of the CAI-A in Riesenbeck has put in a bid for the organisation of the World Four-in-Hand Driving Championship in 2012. The other candidate is Vecsés in Hungary at the home soil of the successful four-in-hand driver József Dobrovitz. Riesenbeck successfully organized several World Pair and Four-in-Hand Championships in the past years. The last time Riesenbeck hosted the World Fours was in 1992.