Gothenburg, Sweden—March 28
Most riders don’t agonize over photos and videos taken of an event they won. But even though Steve Guerdat topped last year’s Longines FEI World Cup Show Jumping Final, the way he won it left him wanting more. During that final, Guerdat and Albfuehren’s Paille crashed through the final fence.
“Yes, I did win last year, but that was the only reason to be happy that day,” said the Swiss rider. “I didn’t ride very well, and that stays in your head all year. Every time I’d see the videos and images from that day…”
Guerdat trailed off and glanced down briefly before looking up with a small smile.
“That was my goal, to ride better than last year,” he said.
Goal: completed. Today Guerdat earned his second consecutive title without crashing through a single fence, this time aboard the relatively green 10-year-old Corbinian.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “It’s really special. I was ready to give it a go and to give everything I can, but I wasn’t really thinking I would stand here in front of you as the final winner.”
(Steve Guerdat and Corbinian. Photo by Kat Netzler.)
Guerdat came into today’s two rounds sitting first on 0 faults. His only demerit during this week’s four rounds, all of which he completed on Corbinian, came in Saturday’s jump-off, when Corbinian had one down.
As for Harrie Smolders and Daniel Deusser, who both started today on 3 faults, they could only watch and see if Guerdat made a mistake. He didn’t, but they didn’t either. In the end, the Netherlands’ Smolders finished second with Emerald N.O.P., thanks to his faster second round, and Germany’s Deusser was third on Cornet d’Amour.
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“I had a good feeling over the rounds, and I had a stupid mistake the second day, which was the only reason I am third now,” said Deusser. “But I can’t say ‘only third’ because I’m really happy about it. Before the second round, I was quite impressed with the course. I saw Steve in the warm-up, and we were laughing about it, and I said, ‘If we’re still on the podium after the second round, I’m happy with that.’ ”
Though Cornet d’Amour won the 2014 World Cup Final in Lyon, France, and jumped in the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (France), this was the first competition of its kind for both Corbinian and the 12-year-old Emerald. They faced the massive tracks set by Santiago Varela Ullastres and the raucous Scandinavium crowd, who were on their feet and screaming by the time Guerdat’s horse’s hooves touched down from the final fence.
And though Corbinian, a Westphalian (Cornet Obolensky—Primavera, Pilot), produced a few awkward jumps on his way to clear rounds, it didn’t bother his rider.
“I really felt he was fighting with me,” said Guerdat. “Even if it didn’t look that smooth, I felt the horse was with me and fighting with me. You don’t really know how they’ll be until you do it. You have questions but not answers. I’ve know he’s a very talented horse and a championship horse, but if you haven’t been there you don’t know. Today for the second round he felt as good, if not better, than the first round.”
(Harrie Smolders and Emerald N.O.P. Photo by Kat Netzler.)
“For my horse, it’s a little bit the same,” added Smolders. “I didn’t know the answers, and my horse always uses a lot of energy over every jump. Even over small fences, he tries really hard. He convinced me really well today.”
“Aside From That, How Was The Play?”
It was the first fence of the first round today, and Callan Solem’s VDL Wizard just ticked it. It fell, adding 4 faults to her starting score of 5.
But they stayed on those 9 faults for the rest of round 1, and for round 2 as well, finishing seventh.
“Did you see that horse? What can you say? He’s amazing,” said Solem of the 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Gentleman—Pretty, Ahorn). “He should have been double-clear today. I’m a jerk, and I was just a little too slow to the first jump in the first round. Hello? What am I doing?”
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(Callan Solem and VDL Wizard. Photo by Kat Netzler.)
Being within the top 10 also awards Solem an automatic spot on the short list for the U.S. team at the Rio Olympics. (Read more about Solem’s background with Wizard.)
“My expectations were about doing the very best job I could do,” she said. “Aside from having the first jump down today, what do they say? ‘Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?’ But aside from that I was really happy with the whole thing. I think this was a good test of some of the skills you need to do that kind of level of competition, whether I will go to Rio or not, just to be in that group—some of the things I did here made me feel a little comfortable with that.”
Peter Lutz was the only other U.S. rider to make it into the top 20 who jumped today’s second round. Rich Fellers and Flexible ticked a single rail in the first round, placing them 22nd and just leaving them out of the second round.
Lutz had three down on Robin de Ponthual in today’s first round—including a miscommunication at fence 2, a painted wall, that led to the horse crashing over the top—and then three in the second round as well. They finished up in 19th place overall.
(Peter Lutz and Robin de Ponthual. Photo by Kat Netzler.)
“My horse has been so great all week, and he was totally surprised at the wall,” said Lutz of the 11-year-old Selle Français owned by Katherine Gallagher and Michael Meller. “It really just showed he’s a little inexperienced, and it wasn’t the best start to that round. Then he recovered quite well and jumped the rest of the course pretty well, and then he went in and jumped fine again. So I thought he finished really well. It was a little bit inexperience showing up.”
This was also the first World Cup for Lutz, who’s based in New York, and he admitted the courses today were the biggest of his career.
“In addition to being quite big, the courses are all really complicated lines and every test, from liverpool to wall to skinny to wave, you pretty much have every possible element in there,” he said. “It was most definitely the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. So for that, I’m thrilled.”
