Vayron NRW

If Braxxi was able to make up for what he lacked in centimetres with his lion’s courage and fighting heart, Ingrid Klimke has the counterpart in her new star in the arena, the Westphalian stallion Vayron. The Vitalis son is a good 1.90 meters tall. But you could see at the European Championships in Crozet at the latest that even an unfamiliar tractor track outside the arena can really throw him off his stride. Vayron is as sensitive as he is talented. A task for Klimke? Certainly, but above all: “What a gift to be able to ride this special horse every day!”

And it came like this…

Let them grow up first

Vayron was born at Heinrich Sterthoff in Hamm. Rudolf Spiekermann discovered this Vitalis son out of the Hanoverian mare Gloria by Gloster-Ramiro Z-Perser xx as a foal. The lineage of this colt has also produced several advanced (S) level show jumpers and eventing horses. But anyone who has seen Vayron trot knows that this horse belongs in the arena. At first, however, he only wanted to grow. Stefanie Serowy only presented him once as a five-year-old in the fall in an advanced (A) level dressage horse test – coming third with a score of 7.8.

After intermediate stops with Uwe Schwanz in Bavaria and at Hof Kasselmann, Helen Langehanenberg took over the further training of the giant. They skipped the young horse tour. Vayron did not compete at all at the age of six. At seven, Langehanenberg presented him in a single medium dressage test for young horses – which he won straight away with a score of 8.7.

And so it continued at the age of eight. First start in medium (M) class: first place, first start in advanced (S) class: first place, first start in Prix St. Georges: first place, first start in Intermédiaire I. Only his first appearance in Aachen was not an immediate victory. He made his S*** debut in 2020 and also placed, but Corona had the show scene firmly under control. In 2021, the pair made several appearances in tests for young Grand Prix horses, but were unable to qualify for the Louisdor Prize Final.

Danish intermezzo

In 2022, Vayron got a new rider: the Dane Daniel Bachmann Andersen, who was a perfect match for Vayron in terms of height. The two quickly found each other. They were already nominated for the European Championship team in Riesenbeck in 2023, which won bronze. In 2024, they made it onto the Danish Olympic team. This time, they won silver with the team and finished a fantastic seventh in the individual competition. But the Spiekermann family wanted to have their star closer to them again. Ingrid Klimke lives just around the corner, so to speak, and Sandra Spiekermann told Kim Kreling at the time that she had always liked the riding master’s style – a huge opportunity (in the truest sense of the word) for Klimke after Franziskus’ retirement!

Huge opportunity for Klimke

An opportunity, but also a challenge, as Klimke reported after her victory in the Grand Prix of the CDI5* in Hamburg: “I’ve never had such a big, rectangular horse!” Which is also blessed with seven-league boots to match its size. That’s why she “first put the stirrups on and practiced sitting out”. Since she took over Vayron in October 2024, national coach Monica Theodorescu has been in her stable every week to help her. They made rapid progress and were nominated for the European Championships in Crozet.

However, after Vayron’s aforementioned tractor track completely upset Vayron in the Grand Prix, they were the team’s scratch result. They showed that they were nevertheless rightly nominated in the Grand Prix Special, where they managed a good round that would have put them in the top 18 to qualify for the freestyle. However, as only three riders per nation are allowed to compete here, the European Championships ended a day early for them. But if they continue to make such progress, new opportunities will come their way.