Cardentos and Earl of Alice in Ocala under Richard Vogel

The World Cup tournament in Ocala started with a 1.35 meter two-phase jumping competition in the CSI2* tour. Richard Vogel won here on the Holstein stallion Cardentos and was also third with Earl of Alice, who was once ridden by Katrin Eckermann to world championships in show jumping.

Cardentos

The nine-year-old Cardento-son Cardentos (dam by Quo Vados, line 776), bred and owned by the Witt family, was already highly successful at a young age, winning bronze at the State Championships as a four-year-old with Marten Witt in the saddle and competing at the Bundeschampionat in Warendorf as a six-year-old with Alexandra Witt.

Richard Vogel presented him for the first time at shows in Florida, first in Wellington, where he was once third and once first in national 1.40 and 1.45 meter classes, and today in Ocala, where they again led the lap of honor.

Earl of Alice

Vogel took third place with an eight-year-old stallion called Ballycotton. Not exactly a name you would expect from a representative of the DSP, and in fact Ballycotton was previously known as Earl of Alice with Katrin Eckermann. Together they won bronze at the 2024 World Championships for young show jumpers.

At that time, the stallion still belonged to Deborah Mayer and her Pegase Equestrian BV. Paul Schockemöhle Pferdehaltung GmbH acquired him in August and four weeks later he moved to Coolmore Showjumping as a young horse for Tom Wachmann. Earl of Alice became Ballycotton and in the young horse tour of Vejer de la Frontera he and Wachman gained their first experience of show jumping, some of which went clear but without any placings. Now Richard Vogel was in the saddle and rode the bay to third place without any faults.

The original name Earl of Alice did not come about by chance. The dam of the Eldorado van de Zeshoek son is a half-sister to Simone Blum’s world champion Alice, who, like her half-nephew, was born at Ralf Mewes.

André Thieme’s Chakaria is back

Nothing had been heard from André Thieme’s now 16-year-old European Champion, Aachen winner, WEG and Olympic mare Chakaria for a year. The DSP mare, who like Earl of Alice is listed with the Brandenburg-Anhalt Breeding Association, had to take a break due to injury and Thieme took his time to train her up again. He led her back into the sport via elementary and medium level show jumping competitions. This weekend she will be jumping a five-star tour again for the first time in Ocala. She heralded the coming days today with a clear round in the 1.45 meter jumping competition.

The winner here was Canada’s Erynn Ballard on Her Game Ball ahead of Hunter Holloway (USA) with Pepita Con Spita, once ridden by Toni Haßmann and currently the best female rider in the world, Nina Mallevaey (FRA) on My Clementine and Ballycotton’s owner Tom Wachman in the saddle on Obora’s Laura. Thieme and Chakaria finished in 13th place.

All the results from Ocala can be found here.