Text © World of Showjumping

Thursday night at the 2025-edition of The Dutch Masters in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (NED) saw four champions – the Dutch Champion Willem Greve (NED) on Hadewyn van’T Ravennest (Comme Il Faut x Carrico), the 2023 European Vice-Champion Philipp Weishaupt (GER) on Cupido 130 (Calmando 3 x Stakkato), the double World Champion and current world number one Henrik von Eckermann (SWE) on Calizi (Cellestial x Stakkatol) and the 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) on Lalique (Berlin x Palm S) – bring back the traditional horse rotation in the HeadFirst Group Prize – Best of Champions.

Similar to the format formerly seen between the final four at the World Championships, the four riders jumped a round on each other’s horses, taking three minutes and two jumps to get to know the horses before jumping a course of eight fences. After four rounds, Greve, von Eckermann and Weishaupt had all gathered a score of four penalties, and the win was decided in a jump-off on their own horses. While Greve and Hadewyn van’T Ravennest emerged as the winners and took the title Best of Champions, Cupido 130 and Lalique both finished the evening without touching a pole.

“We were for sure curious about what was going to happen, because this class was not existing in our sport anymore – although lot of riders regret that,” Jeroen Dubbeldam, the Sport Director at The Dutch Masters, told World of Showjumping afterwards. “We talked a little bit tonight if this should come back to the World Championship formula again. I am not sure we should consider that, but I do think it is still an interesting class to have. This way you can also explain a lot to the crowd. I think we saw a lot of horsemanship and horses almost improving in their rounds. That was very interesting to see. We hoped that people would come, and they did – so we are happy.”

“I think it was amazingly nice to watch,” the happy winner said. “I think we all gave our best effort, with a lot of horsemanship. We are colleagues with each other, trying to learn from each other – it was great sport. I really enjoyed it, and enjoyed riding the other’s horses and figure them out in a few minutes.”