Hans-Thorben Rüder and his athletic 16-year-old Captain Fire daughter Courage were the second pair in the jump-off for the Grand Prix of Münster and put in a strong 34.42 second round without faults.

Rüder looked as if he couldn’t believe what he had just done, shook his head and patted his mare’s neck gratefully again and again. “Thorbi, are you all right?” asked hall announcer Carsten Sostmeier over the loudspeaker. “More or less,” signaled the hand gesture from Rüder, who had already won the Grand Prix in the Münsterland arena in 2011 but, according to his own statement, had almost stopped believing that he would be able to do so again.

Paula de Boer-Schwarz was up next with her My Miss Marple, but had a knockdown and the time would not have been enough either.

A huge scare

Then Katrin Eckermann made her entrance with the eleven-year-old Casallco daughter Casa Blue PS, who was one of the favorites. Indeed, the mare flew effortlessly over the 1.55 meter course. But after obstacle 5, a steep jump in the turn to the exit, she landed so awkwardly that she could no longer step on her right front leg. Katrin Eckermann reacted immediately and jumped out of the saddle before Casa Blue had even come to a halt. A shock. For a moment, the Halle Münsterland held its breath.

The veterinary team reacted as quickly as Eckermann had jumped out of the saddle. The helpers were on the spot immediately. The mare was led out of the arena into the anteroom, stabilized, given medication and prepared for transport to the clinic.

Meanwhile, Johannes Ehning, who had already been in the arena, was able to tackle his jump-off with Classic Donna and was only three hundredths of a second slower than Rüder. However, he had to ride at a walk for a while after his performance, as the partition wall of the emergency trailer had been removed in the anteroom to make it easier for Casa Blue PS to get on, and before the mare could be transported away towards the clinic, the partition wall had to be locked again to give the horse the necessary support during the journey. As a result, it took some time before Ehning could leave the arena and the jump-off could continue.

Take two more deep breaths

The next pair to tackle the course were Kathrin Müller and her Beauty Queen Z. With a stylistically fine round, the pair made the scare fade into the background somewhat, remained clear and finished third. However, you could see on Müller’s face that this was also a bad situation for the riders.

Whether it was the awareness that such an accident can happen at any time or whether the longer break between the round and the jump-off was the reason, the two following pairs had the worst of it. Both Gerrit Nieberg with IB Queen and Philipp Schulze Topphoff with Corny M were so unlucky at one distance that they took a full jump. Fortunately, nothing happened again.

Oliver Schulze Brüning, the chairman of the Münster Equestrian Association, should have said something about the 100th anniversary of the host association and the 100th birthday of the Münsterland arena, where the first horse show was held in April 1926, during the last placing of the weekend. But it was clear to everyone that this was not the right moment for this. Everything that was said related to the disaster that had just happened. Schulze Brüning was visibly upset when he explained: “I can’t say anything about a diagnosis at this point. The mare was very calm and we did everything we could for her. But a situation like this leaves no one cold …”

When there is an update, we will let you know. Until then, keep your fingers crossed.