The top names in international show jumping are starting to arrive stateside in advance of the upcoming Longines League of Nations, taking place March 19-23 at World Equestrian Center—Ocala (Florida), and German Olympian Andre Thieme wasted no time making his presence known.

With his 2021 FEI European Championship partner DSP Chakaria, Thieme won the $200,000 Florida Coast Equipment Grand Prix CSI4* on Saturday night at WEC—Ocala, just hours after taking first and third in the $75,000 SummitMax Grand Prix at nearby HITS Ocala. 

The day’s marquee event, the Florida Coast Equipment CSI4*, featured a star-studded line-up of the world’s best horse-and-rider combinations taking on challenging tracks designed by France’ Gregory Bodo, slated as the builder for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, alongside Belgium’s Pieter Viste. Their design, featuring a tight time allowed, proved challenging for even the most elite athletes, and only six pairs of the original 22 successfully navigated the track, earning them a spot in the jump-off. 

Seven-time Brazilian Olympian Rodrigo Pessoa, going second in the jump-off, piloted Artemis Equestrian Farm LLC’s 10-year-old Zangersheide mare Dhalida to a blisteringly fast time of 42.32 seconds, adding pressure to the remaining field.

“It’s hard to just leave it all out there when you’re early to go,” Pessoa said. “I knew when I came out, I had left a little something on the table. Andre [Thieme] and his mare are really experienced, so they saw an opportunity and took it. But I couldn’t be more pleased with my mare.”

Thieme has ridden “Chaka,” a 14-year-old German Sport Horse mare (Chap 47—Askaria 3, Askari 173) owned by Pferdemanagement & Marketing GmbH, for the entirety of her international career and knows her well.

“I knew I didn’t want to be second, and I had a fast and experienced horse,” Thieme said. “I saw Rodrigo go, and I couldn’t really tell how fast he was, but I could at least do the same tracks as he did and rely on my horse’s natural speed.” 

They stopped the clock at an unbeatable 41.93 seconds. Pessoa settled for second, and Canada’s Tiffany Foster captured third aboard Electrique with a jump-off time of 42.65. See complete results here.

Watch Thieme and Chaka’s winning jump-off, courtesy of WEC—Ocala:

Earlier Saturday, Thieme was at HITS Post Time Farm, also in Ocala, to contest the $75,000 SummitMax Grand Prix. The weekly grand prix event is a staple throughout the 10-week series and brings out some of the best in equestrian sport to HITS Post Time Farm. The day’s featured event saw multiple crowd favorites with their top mounts, including Aaron Vale, Hunter Holloway, Tracy Fenney and more, but the best round was produced by Thieme with Paule S.

Nine of the 24 combinations originally listed managed to procure a fault-free first round finish across Oscar Soberon’s track and advance to the short course. Thieme bolstered his chances at a podium finish by qualifying not one but both of his morning’s mounts. With Marilyn Little LLC’s 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding Chacco Hearts, Thieme produced a flawless and fast effort in 40.96 seconds, but it was with Ronald Meissner’s 10-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Perigueux—Lassia, Sir Shutterfly) “Paule” that he would find his way to the top after shaving 2 seconds off of his earlier time and stopping the clock in 38.63 seconds.

“When I walked the course it looked perfect, and I knew it wouldn’t be too easy but also not too difficult,” Thieme said. “I was really happy with my horses. I knew that with Paule going first in the jump-off, I could really go for it and set a statement because I had another horse after him. Then I was a little bit more conservative with my second horse because I knew I couldn’t be faster than I was with Paule. Still we ended up first and third, so it worked out pretty good!”

Canada’s Francois LaMontagne found his way into the top three as he split the difference in Thieme’s times and landed in 40.20 seconds with his 16-year-old Belgian Sport Horse mare Chanel Du Calvaire.