Deußer wins in Gothenburg

Peter Schumacher is responsible for setting up the course in Gothenburg this weekend and had set up a course with twelve obstacles and 14 jumps for the 30 pairs in the 1.55 meter time trial.

On paper, Daniel Deußer and his twelve-year-old Belgian stallion Otello de Guldenboom, who is a son of his great Tobago Z, did not have the best prospects of winning tonight in Gothenburg. They were already the third starting pair. But Deußer left nothing to chance and Otello put in a round in 56.84 seconds that didn’t give the competition the slightest chance. Even with knockdowns, the competition did not even come close to this time. That meant victory and 15,000 euros for the Haferkasse.

Incidentally, this was Deußer’s 30th victory in his career in a five-star competition over 1.55 meters. And it was the first victory for a German show jumper in one of the 5* competitions in Gothenburg since 2020, when Deußer himself won here for the last time, back then with Calisto Blue.

Commenting on his ride today, he said: “I don’t have the fastest horse, so I looked for ways to ride inside or around it. I hesitated briefly, but then took a chance and it worked. Otello was really with me today.” He will also ride the stallion in the World Cup show jumping competition on Sunday.

Sweden twice

A quartet of Swedish ladies were left behind. Deußer’s stable mate at Stephen Stables, Petronella Andersson, was the closest to the winner on the twelve-year-old Zazu daughter Odina van Klapscheut in 58.26 seconds. In third place (61.29) was team Olympic champion Malin Baryard-Johnsson on her successful mare Indiana, who is now 18 years old but still in top form.

Andersson said: “Of course it’s always great to win, but the course wasn’t ideal for my horse today and I didn’t want to risk too much. (…) I didn’t expect to win today – especially not after seeing Daniel’s round. But my horse is naturally fast, so my goal was to finish in the top ten.”

Malin Baryard-Johnsson also buried her dreams of first place after watching Daniel Deußer: “It’s a great feeling to deliver a clear round in front of a Swedish audience – the spectators are absolutely super. Indiana felt great today. When I saw Daniel ride so fast and so well, I thought I would probably have to let the win slip away today. But the ride felt really good!”

Further German results

There were four more pairs from Germany at the start, but they all came out of the course with faults today. Patrick Stühlmeyer and HH Chaccothargo had four faults, Philipp Schulze Topphoff and Vivantas eight. Both riders can still justifiably hope for a starting place in the World Cup Final. Schulze Topphoff is currently number 18 on the list and is therefore in the hot seat, as 18 riders from the Western European League are allowed to go to Fort Worth. Stühlmeyer is number 21, so is still within sight of a ticket.

Johanna Beckmann and her 15-year-old Westphalian Alphabet by Arpeggio also left the arena with eight faults. Sandra Auffarth and the Holsteiner Crunch son C’est A la Vie had 16 faults today.

You can find all the results here.