Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock qualifies for the Nuremberg Burg Cup in Balve

Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock has had the eight-year-old Hanoverian stallion Sky at her stables for five days now. And she hadn’t ridden him much more often before. “Before that, we only met two or three times for training,” reported Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock. After all, the colorful chestnut from Gut Schönweide is busy as a stallion and is therefore based in Schleswig-Holstein, while Nowag-Aulenbrock and her horses are at home in Münsterland.

The former Piaff-Förderpreis winner, U25 European Champion and 2024 World Cup finalist got the chance to take over the Sezuan son because Sky’s previous rider Ann-Kathrin Lachemann, who rode the stallion to the Bundeschampionat title for seven-year-olds last year, left the Schönweide estate for Bavaria. So Balve was the first show for Sky and Nowag-Aulenbrock. And then the Burg Cup qualifier. You can confidently say: Who dares, wins.

First shot a hit

In this case, that is to be taken literally. After winning the qualifier for the final of the Nuremberg Burg Cup in Balve yesterday, Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock and Sky went one better today: victory with 74.436 percent and first place from all judges.

The pair’s test was seamless – apart from a moment of shock in the middle canter, where a ray of sunlight irritated Sky and he jumped back and forth briefly. But apart from that, they succeeded in everything, both the exercises in which the stallion can score points with his movement possibilities, such as the reinforcement, flying changes and traversals, as well as the trickier exercises such as pirouettes in walk and canter and the special trick of the Burg-Pokal test, the halt-back-canter-canter sequence on the centerline, where permeability, balance and obedience are required.

Nowag-Aulenbrock presented the stallion in a very wide frame, always making sure to give way and keep him independent of the hand. This was also successful – much to the rider’s delight: “I’m terribly happy and also proud that he was already much more concentrated. He was really great yesterday too, but of course he was still excited by the scenery and called out once or twice in the test. Today he was much more focused. I was able to ride a lot more.”

Which is all the more remarkable given the short time the two have only spent together. “I’m incredibly happy with how quickly he took to me and worked with me,” says Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock. The fact that Sky was still in full stud duty until a few days ago was not a problem. “He is an absolute fun mobile! Sure, when a mare comes along, he says hello and gives the little matcho for a moment. But that’s completely normal and legitimate. But as soon as he’s at work, he’s totally focused and concentrated.”

The Nuremberg Burg Cup was the couple’s goal for the season. Nobody had actually expected it to work out so quickly. All the better, says Nowag: “Now we have time to get to know each other and then we’ll see what happens.”

Change places to two and three

Yesterday, Raphael Netz and his eight-year-old hopeful Glamourdoc came second. Today they were narrowly beaten. Although they delivered a very harmonious and largely fault-free ride, one could have imagined a little more dynamism, a little more go on the part of last year’s Bundeschampionat runner-up. The judges awarded them 71.317 percent.

The pair that left Netz and Glamourdoc behind today were Franziska Haase and her Asgard’s Ibiza son Alissimo. The chestnut showed just that little bit more energy today that one would have wished for Glamourdoc. He was very nice in the contact and always in the right lateral pattern with highlights e.g. in the rhythmic walk work in all tempi, the already centered pirouettes (small loss of balance in the second one) and securely straight series changes. There was only a small miscommunication and brief resistance before the backwards. Otherwise, the score was 71.659 percent.

Other pairs that stood out

An expressive horse is the nine-year-old Firmino VS (for breeder Volker Schmale-Steinkamp) by Fürstenball, who finished fourth under Matthias Bouten, as he did yesterday. It would have been more than 70.707 percent if the bay horse had not cantered briefly when changing over to the double half trot. On the plus side were the already very mature and centered pirouettes, beautiful series changes and the very successful final line.

Another horse with great potential is the eight-year-old Secret daughter Dalma Sia Bellante under Sina Aringer. Up until the canter tour, it still looked like a top three placing. But the pirouettes still need to mature, in the series changes the mare finds it easier to jump over to the left than to the right and the backwards was not completely clear. She also failed to pick up the flying change from a strong canter. But it should only be a question of strength and balance before the Oldenburg mare is also in contention for a place in the final. Today she scored 68.585 percent and came eighth out of the twelve candidates.

You can find all the results here.