Edited press release from BEMER Riders Tour

Returning with a bang following her maternity leave, Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann (GER) won Sunday's CSI4* 1.60m DKB Grand Prix, the first leg of the BEMER Riders Tour 2022, at Horses & Dreams in Hagen, Germany. 

With the 10-year-old Belgian-bred gelding Messi van't Ruytershof (Plot Blue x For Pleasure), the German rider shaved off a second on Oliver Lazarus' leading time in the first BEMER Riders Tour-leg of the year, and won the start of the series at Hof Kasselmann in Hagen aTW. In September 2021, at the same venue, Meyer-Zimmermann jumped her last class before her maternity leave. "I stopped here seven months ago as second in the tour and I wanted to start here again," Meyer-Zimmermann smiled, "but I didn't expect that I'd become faster during the pregnancy.”

Only eleven weeks after the birth of her son Friedrich, Meyer-Zimmermann is back in top form and has had a great show in Hagen with Messi van't Ruytershof – that also finished third in Friday's 1.60 class, which counted as the final of the BEMER Riders Tour 2021. Messi van't Ruytershof has been a part of Meyer-Zimmermann's sports stable for five years, and according to his rider he is "an intelligent horse and one for the future."

This first stage of seven to follow in the BEMER Riders Tour 2022-season put the 50 horse-and-rider combinations that had qualified at test and only five pairs managed a first round without penalty points. However, thirteen were invited back for round two where all of them started on a clean sheet. Meyer-Zimmermann repeated her clear from the first round, and with a time of 45.13 seconds, she left Oliver Lazarus (RSA) behind her by almost a second. "I only have one good horse and have to see where and how I can continue riding the BEMER Riders Tour,” Lazarus said after his runner-up performance with Butterfly Ennemmel (Quaprice du Bois Margot x Lux Z). 

Third place went to Mario Stevens (GER) and Starissa (Stakkato Gold x Quidam's Rubin), that like Lazarus had a pole down in round one but returned clear in round two – stopping the clock at 47.13 seconds. Maximillian Weishaupt, clear in both rounds with DSP Omerta Incipit (Levisonn x Candillo), finished fourth, and Gerrit Nieberg (GER) fifth with Blues D'Aveline CH (Baloussini x Coriall) after ending round two on a clean sheet. 

"A great first leg and great sport," said Paul Schockemöhle, who gave the idea for the BEMER Riders Tour to the organisers Francois and Ullrich Kasselmann. "Together with BEMER, we have made it our mission to internationalize the tour." 

Bernhard Bock, Head of Marketing at BEMER Int. AG, ​​is also looking forward to this reorientation: "That also means more stages and more competition –- I'm looking forward to it."

The next stop of the BEMER Riders Tour is the Pferd International in Munich from May 26th to 29th. This is followed by the first non-German stage in Ommen, the Netherlands.