As the European Show Jumping Championships celebrate 50 years of thrilling competition at Mannheim in Germany this summer it seems difficult to believe that, when the inaugural event was staged in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1957, women were not permitted to compete. It was Germany's Hans Gunther Winkler who made history on that occasion when claiming the brand new individual title ahead of Frenchman Bernard de Fombelle, and it would take another 18 years before female riders were allowed to take part. At Munich in 1975 the ladies got the green light and the team competition was also introduced for the first time. True to form, Germany dominated once again.
The German record in these championships is second to none. Of the 28 individual titles up for grabs Germany has won 13 of them, with Great Britain next best with six and France lying third with three. Of the 16 team titles Germany has claimed six, but the British record is again impressive with a total of four while Switzerland has won three times, The Netherlands twice and Ireland once.
Winkler was the only one of the top riders of his time to turn up for the 1957 Championships. He started jumping in 1948 but only first competed internationally in 1953 and the following year won the FEI World Championship in Madrid. His riding was less German in style than most of his fellow-countrymen and he preferred blood horses to the more cumbersome Puissance-type favoured by most of his peers. A change-horse formula was used in the Championships at the time and because he didn't want his great brown mare Halla - who started life as a race-horse, then went eventing before eventually settling down to a career in the jumping arena - to be ridden by the other finalists he entered Sonnenglanz who clinched it for him.
That year just eight riders competed but in Donaueschingen, Germany in 2003 there were 71 riders from 24 nations while at the last championships in San Patrignano, Italy in 2005, a total of 66 riders from 21 nations participated. And guess what? Yes, both times Germany took individual and team gold......
The list of winners reads like a list of legends - Italy's Piero d'Inzeo and Graziano Mancinelli, Brazil's Nelson Pessoa who took advantage of the "Open" formula adopted in 1965 and 1966 to claim the honours at the latter, Germany's Hartwig Steenken who pipped Britain's Harvey Smith in Aachen in 1971 and Paddy McMahon who steered the unlikely-looking Pennwood Forge Mill to victory for Britain ahead of Alwin Schockemohle for Germany in 1973.
Schockemohle was given a rough time by his national press because he kept knocking on the door for so many years without taking the ultimate accolade. He took silver in Rome in 1963, bronze in Aachen in 1965 and Rotterdam in 1967, and silver again at Hickstead in 1969 and 1973 but at last he silenced his detractors in 1975 when heading up a German whitewash of gold silver and bronze and, of course, the first team title.
Two riders had exceptional records at European Championship level - Alwin Schockemohle's younger brother Paul, and British star David Broome. The consummate horseman, Broome recorded his first win with Sunsalve at Aachen in 1961 but is probably best remembered for his partnership with Mr Softee who did a back-to-back double in 1967 and 1969. Paul Schockemohle however went one better when taking three-in-a-row with the brilliant Deister between 1981 and 1985 - a feat never bettered. Paul also claimed silver with Deister in 1979 and when you include all the team medals he collected during his highly-successful career his medal-tally rises to nine in total.
Individual gold has evaded Michael Whitaker in his career to date but he twice claimed silver - in 1989 and 1995 - and once took individual bronze, and when you add in his six team medals - two gold, three silver and one bronze - his tally also rounds up to nine. It is his older brother John who has the largest medal collection however, with 11 in all. Just one is for individual gold secured in Rotterdam in 1989 with the magical Milton while he has two silver and one individual bronze and another seven team medals - John claimed his first in Hickstead in 1983, and 24 years later there is no sign of him slowing down anytime soon....
The ladies took a while to make an impression. Switzerland's Heidi Robbiani was the first to get into the individual line-up when taking silver in Dinard, France in 1985 but at Hickstead in 1999 the girls arrived in earnest - Alexandra Ledermann taking gold for France with the brilliant little Rochet M and Lesley McNaught taking bronze for Switzerland with Dulf. Between 1957 and 1973 the ladies had a championship of their own but while it was a low-key affair in comparison to the men's version, it highlighted the great female stars of the era. Britain's Pat Smythe took four gold medals, three consecutively between 1961 and 1963 and each time riding the legendary Flanagan, America's Kathy Kusner and the aptly-named Untouchable emerged victorious in Fontainbleau in 1967 when an "Open" championships was staged and those who were fortunate enough to see it will always remember the sight of Britain's Marion Coakes and the little pony Stroller who shared bronze with Janou Lefebvre in Rome in 1968 when Anneli Drummond-Hay and Merely-a-Monarch reigned supreme for Britain ahead of Italy's Giulia Serventi. Drummond-Hay had to settle for silver behind Ireland's Iris Kellett at the final Ladies' Championship in Dublin in 1969.
In many ways it seems a shame that a lack of equal rights prevented women from taking on the top men of their time during the early years, but such was the way of the day. In modern show jumping the girls hold their own with considerable ease. At the last Championships in Italy, Switzerland's individual silver medallist Christina Liebherr only missed out on gold by just over one point and at Mannheim this summer the ladies will be a serious force to be reckoned with. Another chapter of European Show Jumping history is about to unfold.....
Campus
