Intermédiaire II debut of Vitally PCH

The Intermédiaire II in Freckenhorst was well attended in terms of quantity with 15 pairs, but above all in terms of quality with Bundeschampions, Burg Cup finalists, state stud stallions and Vitally PCH.

The victory went to Helen Langehanenberg, who presented her home-bred ten-year-old Dimaggio son Dreikäsehoch, the fifth of six offspring of her Louis Le Bon daughter Louisiana. The elegant bay presented himself beautifully uphill and with outstanding traversal movements. The judges awarded him 73.421 percent.

They were followed by Anna Schölermann and Vitally PCH.

Vitally PCH – the model student

The Oldenburg dark chestnut stallion is actually still seven years old. He won’t actually celebrate his eighth birthday for another four weeks. In 2023, U25 European Champion Anna Schölermann got him under the saddle.

Schölermann is known to be a rider at Hubertus Schmidt’s stables. The PCH behind Vitally’s name stands for Nancy Gooding’s Plum Creek Hollow Farm in Colorado, which not only owns Vitally, but also Katharina Hemmer’s European Champion Denoix, for example.

Until he came to Borchen-Etteln, the Vitalis son, bred by Weihegold owner Christine Arns-Krogmann, had never competed. Anna Schölermann showed him once in a novice class test for young dressage horses. He then went on to win three elementary class dressage tests for young horses, qualifying for the Bundeschampionat and finishing fourth. As a six-year-old, he only competed twice at medium (M) level for young dressage horses and was victorious both times. His first advanced (S) level season brought him numerous good placings in Burg Cup qualifications, but not a ticket to the final. But a horse with as much talent for piaffe and passage as this stallion is likely to come to Frankfurt in a different way.

First Intermédiaire II

Vitally competed in his first Intermédiaire II in Freckenhorst and was able to secure second place straight away with 72.807 percent. A picture-perfect salute line-up, beautiful traversal shifts, good trot reinforcement and already very active and tactfully stable piaffe-passage-reprises – which worked even better in the preparation – give reason to expect a lot for the future. Only the occasional open mouth marred the overall harmonious picture somewhat, although otherwise the stallion did not give the impression of being stressed at all. On the contrary, he was remarkably calm and his rider’s aids were very discreet.

All in all, a debut in the preliminary stage of the highest class that could hardly have been better.

Third place for the Burg Cup runners-up

Third place was secured with 71.711 percent by the runner-up of the 2025 Nürnberger Burg-Pokal Final, the Oldenburg mare Vaida-Girl OLD, also a Vitalis daughter, who made her Inter II debut with Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock.

The U25 European Team Champion Elisabeth von Wulffen, a student of Bianca Nowag, followed just one point behind with 71.623 percent on the twelve-year-old Grey Flanell daughter Odette. Freckenhorst was their first competition together. In 2025, Katrin Burger had presented her up to Grand Prix Special level. In 2024 she went under Theresa Stefan. Yesterday was their best S*** result to date.

Fifth place also went to the Nowag training stable, this time to the former riding horse Bundeschampion Escorial Q under Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock. The former Piaff-Förderpreis winner and World Cup finalist has had the now ten-year-old Westphalian under the saddle since he was three years old. They achieved their first S*** placing last fall. Yesterday was their third appearance at this level and they have been able to improve by a few points each time, now scoring 71.535 percent.