The dark chestnut Back for Good comes from the Neustadt/Dosse State Stud. His sire, Ben Benicio, is one of the most popular sires at the Brandenburg State Stud. Back for Good is also licensed and placed at the DSP Championships when he was young. The stallion has competed in two S-level dressage competitions. In Pinneberg near Hamburg, he made his debut at the three-star level with extremely small-sized canter pirouettes, a talent for passage, and good Piaffe transitions. While the two-tempi changes went well, there was a mistake two-thirds of the way through the flying canter changes from jump to jump. At times, one would have liked to see the canter flow more naturally over his back.

With a score of 75.526 percent—and Judge Harry Lorenz even gave them over 77 percent for C—this secured the victory for the pair. Due to torrential rain, the test was ridden under the protective roof of the indoor arena.

Veuve Cliquot

The only rider who came close to matching Isabell Werth’s score was her teammate on the squad that won the team gold medal in Aachen, Frederic Wandres. He rode the Hanoverian Veuve Cliquot FRH, who already seemed remarkably mature. Four points separated the pair from Isabell Werth. Four points that the pair lost in the left pirouette, during which the chestnut horse lost the clear canter stride in his hind leg. But that was also the only slip-up the pair experienced.

The piaffes and passages posed no problems at all for the Hanoverian; the flying changes were also among the highlights of the performance. The collected walk was executed with remarkable precision.

Veuve Cliquot was trained by Frederic Wandre’s future husband, Lars Ligus. Ligus had qualified the chestnut horse for the Bundeschampionat finals twice. At age six, she placed second in Warendorf.

At the age of seven, the son of Vitalis-Fürst Heirich was ridden by Ligus and Wandres. That year, Wandres had ridden Veuve Cliquot at the three-star level for the first time in Ankum in March. The pair were victorious in the Intermédiaire II at Horses & Dreams. Veuve Cliquot is a horse “without a single flaw.” Despite being only eight years old, he masterfully performs all the movements required at the Grand Prix level.

Baumgürtel

Takes

Third

Place in the “

” Competition: Lucie Anouk Baumgürtel took third place with First Vienna, a ten-year-old horse who is already immensely experienced. This daughter of Vitalis has also been a finalist at the National Championships, but above all, she is the reigning German U25 Champion and a silver medalist at the 2026 European Championships. The highlight of this bay mare’s performance is her passage—graceful and rhythmic, executed with confident timing. The judges unanimously awarded her 72.588 percent. The individual scores differed by just 1.5 points.

The same was true for Vaderland OLD, who placed fourth. Riding him, Bernadette Brune scored 72.544 percent, placing her ahead of Anna Schölermann and Vitally PCH (71.974), who inherited his piaffe talent from his dam, Weihegold. Like the horses that placed second and third, both are descended from Vitalis.

Results