Press release from EQWO Media

The highlight of the second day of Horses & Stars at the Glock Horse Performance Center Austria was the traditional Gaston Glock’s Championat. This class, the second of a total of five world ranking competitions this weekend, was staged as an international standard competition in two rounds over 1.55m, with 94,000 euros of prize money. “On this course you have to make lots of decisions with regard to distances. The triple combination, which is always a criterion, is resplendent in rainbow colours for the first time this year,” commented GLOCK Rider Gerco Schröder on the key features of the course, before riding. “The rider and horses really have to maintain great concentration right to the last canter stride, whilst any of the turns can make the difference in the end.”

The best nine riders from the first round could ride into the splendidly decorated course arena for a second time in the Gaston Glock’s Championat. They brought their penalty points from the first round with them, albeit with five of the nine duos starting the second round penalty-free. Four duos already had penalty points on their accounts and had to judge that perfect measure of risk that might move them one or more places higher. 

Ultimately it was the winner of the CSI5* opening competition on Friday, Margie Goldstein-Engle (USA), who was to become Gaston Glock’s championess. In the saddle on her Rhinelander gelding Dicas (Diarado x Cassini I), the number 24 in the world beat the leader till that point, Marc Houtzager (NED), by 26 hundredths and earned victory in a time of 49.47 seconds. “The atmosphere here is so wonderfully relaxed, so the horses can recover brilliantly between jumps and are jumping superbly. In the Grand Prix tomorrow I’ll ride Royce,” said Margie Goldstein-Engle, clearly delighted with her first visit to the Glock Horse Performance Center Austria.

Apart from the victorious US horsewoman, the only other rider managing to remain penalty-free through both rounds was the Dutch championship rider Marc Houtzager, taking an outstanding second place on Sterrehof’s Dante (Canturano x Phin Phin) with a time of 49.73. With just one time penalty point from the first round, the Italian Luca Maria Moneta and his experienced Westphalian gelding Connery (Cordobes II x Polydor) achieved third place in this Gaston Glock’s Championat.

Earlier in the day, 2015 Aachen European Championship silver medallist and current no. 22 in the world, Gregory Wathelet (BEL) won the CSI5* GLOCK’s Perfection Tour over 1.45m riding Iphigeneia de Muze (Erco Van T Roosakker x For Pleasure).