Daniel Deußer
—Germany had already been crowned world champion by the time Richie Vogel, riding fourth, had even taken the course. Thanks to Daniel Deußer and Otello. There was one knock at the DHL steep jump. But in the end, they’d cleared 14 obstacles without a single knockdown. It wasn’t just Daniel Deußer who burst with pure joy. Otello took a powerful gallop jump and kicked out energetically once. You could almost have thought he, too, wanted to punch the air in triumph. World Champion! The stallion had already surprised everyone at the World Cup Final, when he was beaten only by Kent Farrington’s Greya.
With this round, Daniel Deußer has also moved into the lead in the individual standings. But he didn’t want to think about that last night. “I don’t want to say too much about that yet. That’s two days away; the horses have jumped a lot so far, and we’ll have to see how things go tomorrow—how the horses feel—and then we’ll see what happens. Those will be two more tough rounds, and Otello has already given his all here over the last few days. But we still have a chance for Sunday.”
Speaking about the team spirit within the German team, he said: “This year in Germany, we’re in a situation where we could have had more than four championship riders, and certainly not everyone was entirely happy with the selection. We’re all colleagues every week, and also a bit like family, because we’re together every week. So it wasn’t easy—even for Otto—to leave one or two of us at home. Still, I have to say that our reserve rider, Christian Kukuk, was a huge help to us. But in the end, only four of us rode. I can understand that it wasn’t exactly easy for him, especially given the form he’s been showing in recent weeks. Still, I have to say that all five of us—even at the opening ceremony and on the first day here—stuck together really well. And the four who ended up riding here also stuck together throughout the entire competition, kept their cool, and that’s why we were able to achieve this result.”
You can find a detailed profile of Otello here.
Richard Vogel
No jumps—just two time faults—appeared on the scoreboard when Richard Vogel and United Touch S crossed the finish line as the last pair in the competition. This made the pair the team’s discard result—“I don’t think there’s ever been a happier discard result than I was today,” Vogel beamed into every microphone.
By the way, we’ve also covered the story of United Touch. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here for the article.
