Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum had just one goal for the Pentecost Horse Show at Wiesbaden, Germany, May 13-16–to win the $75,199 Grand Prix of Wiesbaden. With her victory on Whitsun Monday, Michaels-Beerbaum took the first female victory there since Helena Weinberg’s success in 1987.

With a clear initial round aboard Checkmate, she laid the groundwork for a win. In the jump-off, for which 12 of the 44 riders qualified, Luciana Diniz of Brazil seemed to have set an unbeatable time aboard Dover, with a clear round in 48.35 seconds.

But just two horses later, Michaels-Beerbaum, the 2005 Budweiser FEI World Cup champion, showed it was possible to go much faster with a furious ride aboard the 10-year-old Contender offspring in 45.83 seconds.

“For a long time I had problems keeping Checkmate under control on the course,” she said. “Most of the time I just let him go like he wants in the jump-off. In general he makes it to the fences himself.”

The 2003 World Cup Champion Marcus Ehning proved that it was possible to go even faster aboard the 19-year-old, two-time Olympic team champion For Pleasure, in 44.28 seconds. But his sobering up came at the last fence. With one pole down, they placed seventh.

The 22-year-old Swiss rider Steve Guerdat, who had opened the jump-off aboard Tijl van het Pallieterland with a clear round in 49.50 seconds, placed third. Ludger Beerbaum did not even try to best Meredith’s time with his new ride L’Espoir, who had quite a bit of skepticism about jumping the water in the initial round. A clear round in the jump-off in 55.23 seconds left him fourth.

For many riders, the Wiesbaden courses provided a taste for the upcoming European Championships at San Patrignano in Italy this July, since Wiesbaden’s course designer Marco Cortinovis is not very well-known outside Italy. His courses all began in a very inviting manner, helping the horse to find a good rhythm, but became very demanding toward the end, such as the triple combination on the second half of the grand prix course, followed on tight distances by two verticals. The riders considered his courses to be difficult but fair.

The victory in the $25,068 Schloß°ark-Prize at Whitsun, the second of eight legs in the Riders Tour 2005, was taken from Michaels-Beerbaum by her former compatriot, Peter Wylde of the United States. As the second competitor in the 12-horse jump-off, the 2002 World Equestrian Games individual bronze medalist set the mark with his 2002 WEG mount Fein Cera in the unbeatable time of 44.65 seconds.

With Checkmate, Michaels-Beerbaum exceeded Wylde’s time by .06 seconds. Otto Becker took third aboard Dobel’s Cento, with whom he had helped the German team to the Olympic gold medals at Athens and Sydney, and who showed great form.

Wylde was supposed to pass on Fein Cera, whom he rode on the U.S. silver-medal team at Athens, to her owner Sarah Willeman this May. But Willeman decided to accept a post-graduate position at Stanford University (Calif.) and to concentrate on her professional career, so Wylde will continue with the 14-year-old mare.

“I am very happy about this decision, of course. It is a great honor for me to ride a horse like Fein Cera,” said Wylde. “Not many riders are given this opportunity. I suppose I will be able to ride her now until the end of her career. She had a break from the sport until December, because I wanted to hand over a fresh horse. I started to work her more again in April, and the first show was Hamburg. There she was still a bit too fresh, but now at Wiesbaden she was just perfect.”

This year the great stylist, who lives in the Netherlands and has his horses stabled in Germany, is going to concentrate on the Riders Tour. Next year he will give priority to the World Equestrian Games at Aachen (Germany).

Wylde had a double success in the Riders Tour. He won the Riders Tour Team competition with his Aegon team, which produced three clear rounds. The Aegon team had also won at Hamburg a week earlier. Wylde now leads in the individual ranking of the Riders Tour together with Toni Hass-mann, the winner of the German Derby at Hamburg. Both have 20 points after the second of eight legs.

The $18,799 Prize of Hessen (Wiesbaden is the capital of the German state Hessen) was won by local hero Sebastian Haas and the 8-year-old, Hessen gelding Lindgold. For both the 25-year-old rider and the horse he trained himself, it was the first ride in this prestigious show.

With their winning round they left behind riders such as runners-up Hermann-Heinrich Engemann aboard Apoyeur, third-placed Otto Becker aboard the Sydney Olympics individual silver-medal mount Lando and Franke Sloothaak and Rene Tebbel with their future stars.

With his victory in the Prize of Hessen, Haas and Lindgold (sired by Lone Star) were automatically qualified for the grand prix, but the rider was smart enough to decline this challenge. “This was the biggest victory I have achieved so far aboard Lindgold. He is just 8 years old and still pretty inexperienced. The grand prix would have been too soon for him.”