After winning the prestigious Turkish Airlines Prize of Europe last Wednesday, Canada’s Eric Lamaze and Fine Lady took a second major victory this week at CHIO Aachen by winning the 1.55m Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia. In a competition over two tough rounds, Eric Lamaze’s managed to fly to the victory with his extremely fast mare Fine Lady who he will bring to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games as well.

“Fine Lady is done for this week, she is ready for Rio,” Lamaze smiled after his winning round in 58.13 seconds. “For any rider it is a great honor to win any competition here in Aachen, but to win these two major competitions is really fantastic. I am so proud of my mare, she comes from Germany and was bred here too, so it is great to have her perform so well in front of the German crowd. I quickly spoke to her breeder before entering the arena and he was obviously very excited too!”

Eric Lamaze stated that CHIO Aachen has been the perfect preparation for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games next month. “This show really stretched some more scope out of her! I will not participate with her in Sunday’s Grand Prix, because I think the Grand Prix of Aachen is almost the Olympics itself and one Olympic Games a year will be enough for her,” Eric smiled. Fine Lady has truly climbed up the ranks from a competitive speed horse to Lamaze’s first choice for Rio. “Artisan Farms purchased her for me as a second horse to do the 1.50m speed competitions. But every time I ask her to jump a big competition, she rises to the occasion and grows in her scope. I don’t know if I would like to call it scope, or lightness and bravery. She is so light and so brave that with the right ground speed, she can do anything!”

Germany’s Maurice Tebbel could not be happier after finishing as runner-up in 61.70 seconds. On his debut at CHIO Aachen the young talented rider showed off two amazing rounds aboard his impressive stallion Chacco’s Son (Chacco Blue x Lancer III). “We bought Chacco’s Son as a foal and I have been riding him from the beginning when he was only four years old, so I know him very well. For the second round I made a plan along with my father [Rene Tebbel], but when I heard Eric’s time I knew it would not be easy to get that. The most important was to go clear and try to do our best, so I can only say I am really happy with the final result.”

Meanwhile, Ludger Beerbaum and Marcus Ehning did not make Germany’s Chef d’Equipe Otto Becker’s decision of choosing the horses for Rio any easier. Beerbaum finished third after delivering two nice clear rounds with Chiara (Contender x Coronado), who slipped a little in the rollback towards the Rolex-oxer and finished on 63.55 seconds. Marcus Ehning ended up fourth by jumping two flawless clear rounds aboard Cornado NRW (Cornet Obolensky x Acobat I), stopping the clock at 64.10 seconds. USA’s Kent Farrington took the fifth position with his highly successful mount Gazelle (Kashmir van Schuttershof x Indoctro).

Text © World of Showjumping by Peter van der Waaij // Picture © Jenny Abrahamsson