Looking back to CHI AL SHAQAB – Doha 2014

17 Feb 2015

The riders call him “The Grey Wolf” – and at CHI AL SHAQAB 2014 he had bitten them again. Ludger Beerbaum, now 51 and rather grey haired – hence the name – left Doha with a big purse last year. Riding Chiara the multiple Olympic medalist won the Grand Prix AL SHAQAB, taking 214,000 Euro out of the pool of 650,000 Euro in total. Showing all his class and riding brilliantly, Beerbaum managed to stay clear in both rounds plus the jump-off, finishing with his time of 37.02 seconds and besting Belgian Gregory Wathelet who needed 40.73 seconds in the jump-off. Almost four seconds difference – that is close to eternity in jumping when the riders take every risk to cut corners. Third-placed Belgian Nicola Philipaerts could have won, finishing with 36.2 seconds, but one pole down made him drop back in the ranking.

With the third CHI AL SHAQAB on the horizon – 2 to 7 March 2015 – it is time to look back to last year when spectators watched top class riders battling it out in the large arena of Al Shaqab, the host, organizer and soul behind the success of this top class event, always with ExxonMobil on their side as the proud main sponsor of the event. Thirty years in top sport by now, Beerbaum was the best in a field of world class riders. His Swedish student Henrik von Eckermann completed the results for Beerbaum’s Riesenbeck stables by winning another competition of the 5*series, riding Toulouse and piloting Gotha into Grand Prix money. Only a year earlier von Eckermann had taken over Gotha from his coach for the World Cup and European championships. From Doha he continued with Gotha at the World Equestrian Games. The current Olympic champion, Steve Guerdat, shone at Doha too. The Swiss celebrated two wins, deciding the big and small tour of the 5*series with two horses, Sidney and Nasa.

Highlight of the 3*series with altogether eight competitions was the Grand Prix of Qatar Foundation. Qatari riders shone in this competition worth 40,000 Euro. Hamad Nasser AL QADI won, riding Westphalian Limoncello extra carefully in the jump-off. He took the risk of taking one time penalty but bested Bassem Hassan MOHAMMED riding Anyway and Awad ALQAHTANI with Sjoeke. Both their horses had taken one rail down, making them finish on four faults. The Grand Prix of Qatar Foundation was a huge success for Qatar: The top nine riders carried the host’s flag showing positive results of the ongoing training campaign, at home in Qatar as well as abroad.

Top class riders presented their skills in the dressage arena as well with a field of 15 still in for the Freestyle. Royalty won two out of three competitions. The Danish princess Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and her home bred Digby took the Grand Prix class as well as the Freestyle. In both classes the pair bested Lone Bang Larsen from Denmark, riding Fitou L and Swedish veteran Patrick Kittel with Toy Story. By now the Doha winner Digby is retired and enjoying life in the stable where he was born and the princess has given birth to her second child. Rider and horse had their last public appearance together at the World Equestrian Games several months after CHI AL SHAQAB, in September 2014 at Caen, France. The CHI 2014’s Grand Prix Special went to Swiss Melanie Hofmann. Dutch professional Joyce Heutink came second, riding the impressive black stallion whose name paints his picture: He is called Wup! The opening competition of the Grand Prix was a good opportunity to watch top class riding. Right behind Patrick Kittel, in fourth place sat Germany’s Isabell Werth. The multiple Olympic medalist showed her young Der Stern (“the star”) horse placing him in front of Dorothee Schneider, riding Silvano. Schneider represented Germany at the Olympic Games in London 2012, winning silver with the team and coming 7^th individually.

If jumping and dressage had been first class the vaulting was in a special league again. For the first time the “gymnasts on horse back” appeared in the Gulf region and they brought the house down with their artistic performances. Wow, that was acrobatics at its finest, especially watching the teams perform. Germany had two teams of six and in the end Cologne bested the mega-champions from Neuss, followed by team Harlekin from Switzerland. Three vaulters on top of each other on a cantering horse, doing its rounds on a lunge line. Not only do you need to be brave to try this but you have to be absolutely free of any fear of heights as well. The top “flyer” is at least five metres in the air – and nobody wants to suddenly fall down from up there. Austria celebrated a double win in the Pas de Deux. Jasmin Lindner and Lukas Wacha bested Stefan Csandl and Theresa Thiel. Both pairs vaulted on the same horse, Bram. Two German pairs ranked in front of the US-combination Cassidy and Kimberly Palmer. Artistic interpretation of music and movement could be seen in the individual classes too. They had lured the top vaulters from Europe out to Doha. Swiss world champion Patrick Looser and his horse Fabiola won the men’s competition, followed by two top Germans, Erik Oese and Thomas Brüsewitz. Oese vaulted on Don de la Mar and Brüsewitz took the aptly named Airbus. The ladies vaulting went to Simone Jäiser from Switzerland. She achieved a score of 8.123, overtaking the second placed Kristina Boe from Germany by 0.3 points. Simone Jäiser as well as Erik Oese have again accepted the invitation. Both will come to CHI AL SHAQAB 2015 to show their newest routines, updated for the World Equestrian Games.

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