Riders Tour 2019

The BEMER-Riders Tour 2019 was the 19th season of the Riders Tour , an international show jumping tournament series .

The season's program comprised six special stages at CSI  3 * and 4 * tournaments. The organizer of the Riders Tour was a company of the same name, whose managing director is Paul Schockemöhle .

The title sponsor of the series was BEMER Int. AG. This had previously been one of the main sponsors of the Riders Tour for three years.

Course of the tournament series

After there had been hardly any changes to the stages of the Riders Tour since 2006 (and no changes at all since 2014), the 2019 season brought massive changes. With the Whitsun tournament in Wiesbaden , one of the founding tournaments was eliminated, so of the tournaments of the 2001 season only the German jumping and dressage derby remained in the Riders Tour. The previous final stage at the Munich Indoors is no longer part of the Riders Tour.

There were also two new tournaments in northern Germany, organized by PST Paul Schockemöhle Marketing GmbH: The Redefin Horse Festival and, already in 2020, the VR Classics in Neumünster as the final stage.

According to the announcement (with the exception of the German Jumping Derby), the evaluation tests were each carried out as a jumping competition with two different rounds . However, the penalty points were not taken from the first round, so the test format (apart from the starting order in the second round) largely corresponded to a jumping competition with a winning round. The best quarter of the participants in the first round qualified for the second round.

The evaluation points were awarded as follows:

space	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th
Points	20th	17th	15th	13	11	10	9	8th	7th	6th	5	4th	3	2	1

The exams

Hagen aTW

At the CSI 4 * tournament " Horses & Dreams " in Hagen am Teutoburg Forest , the first stage of the 2019 Riders Tour season took place. The tournament was held from April 24th to 28th, 2019, the show jumping Grand Prix was on the program on April 28th from 2:30 p.m.

The endowment for the examination was increased by 25,000 euros to 100,000 euros compared to the previous year. In the first round only six out of 50 participants remained without errors. Thus, all five riders who were only charged with time penalties as well as the two fastest four-fault rides qualified for the second round.

While the result for Holger Wulschner as the first starter in the second lap was rather mediocre (eight penalty points), things went much better for the second starter: The 27-year-old Frenchman Julien Anquetin came clean with his gelding Gravity of Greenhill in just 51.94 seconds across the finish line. While Tobias Meyer and Christian Kukuk crossed the finish line without mistakes, but much more slowly, Katrin Eckermann was able to take the lead. As the last participant to receive penalty points in the first round, she completed the course in the second round without mistakes in just over 50 seconds.

The best result of the following riders was delivered by Ludger Beerbaum, who crossed the finish line with his chestnut gelding Casello in 53.25 seconds without penalty points. The victory thus went to Katrin Eckermann, who had already won the main test on Saturday in Hagen with Caleya last year.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Katrin Eckermann	Caleya	1	-	0	50.06	20th
2	Julien Anquetin	Gravity of Greenhill	4th	-	0	51.94	17th
3	Ludger Beerbaum	Casello	0	-	0	53.25	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 50 participants)

Redefin

Like the Riders Tour, the Redefin Horse Festival has been organized since 2001. At that time it succeeded the CSI Rostock, which was held in Dummerstorf until 2000 . The CSI 3 * tournament, which was part of the Riders Tour for the first time, was held in Redefin from May 24th to 26th, 2019 . The jumping competitions took place on the riding arena in front of the portal of the riding hall of the Redefin State Stud .

The main mistake in the first round of the Riders Tour special stage turned out to be the entry into the double combination. The curved, monochrome white plank, which was the uppermost element of the obstacle, prevented the penultimate jump from making a zero-error ride. The time allowed did not prove to be a problem, ten pairs remained without fault.

The best 25 percent of the first lap who were allowed to start again in the second lap also included the fastest four-fault ride. This came from David Will, who with his Selle Français mare Spring Dark was the first starter in the second round. As in the first lap, where they had reached the finish a good five seconds faster than most of their competitors, the couple was also on the second lap at a high basic pace. This time they stayed clear and took the lead with a time of 37.55 seconds. In the further course of the second lap, it turned out to be difficult to master the course at all in a time of less than 40 seconds. Michael Kölz and his 12-year-old gelding DSP Anpowikapi came close to David Will's time with a time of 38.70 seconds, but they made an obstacle error. Thus, the South African Alexa Stais, who lives in Lower Saxony, became Will's most serious competitor: With her Oldenburg Quintato , she crossed the finish line in less than 39 seconds and secured second place. For David Will, who had started his own business a few months earlier, the victory was certain.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	David Will	Spring Dark	4th	-	0	37.55	20th
2	Alexa Stais	Quintato	0	-	0	38.88	17th
3	Harm Lahde	Heartfelt	0	-	0	39.95	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 41 participants)

Hamburg

Shane Breen and Can Ya Makan just missed victory in the 90th German Jumping Derby

A few days after the end of the Redefin Horse Festival, the next tournament of the Riders Tour was already on the agenda: The German Jumping and Dressage Derby in Hamburg was held, as always, on the Ascension weekend , from May 29 to June 2, 2019.

The German Jumping Derby is the only Riders Tour stage for which two qualifying tests are held. In these two competitions the riders and horses already have the opportunity to master most of the special derby obstacles for the first time. In the first qualification, which was held on Wednesday of the tournament, Benjamin Wulschner won with his fast Oldenburg mare Bangkok Girl . In the second qualification on Friday Shane Breen won with Can Ya Makan in front of Sandra Auffarth and last year's Derby winner Matthew Sampson.

Another two days later the derby was on. 32 riders started. Until the 27th starter it looked as if there would be a jump-off between the riders with four penalty points. At this time Benjamin Wulschner with Bangkok Girl , Nigel Coupe with Golvers Hill (Derby second 2016) and Gilbert Tillmann (Derby winner 2013) with Hadjib were in the lead with four penalty points each. But Shane Breen dashed these hopes: just as confidently as in the second qualification, he remained flawless in the jumping derby himself. Here he rode 13-year-old Holsteiner Can Ya Makan , with whom he was third in the British Jumping Derby in Hickstead in 2018 .

While André Thieme made two obstacle errors with the 11-year-old Contadur , Nisse Lüneburg secured a place in the jump-off: As in 2017, he and the Holstein gelding Cordillo remained free of penalty points. Sandra Auffarth made an obstacle error with La Vista an obstacle in front of the Pulvermanns Grab, but her time (the fastest time of all riders in the Derby 2019) brought her to third place, as in the previous year. The last couple to start were two derby-experienced participants: Holly Smith was part of the British squad at the CSIO in St. Gallen this weekend , but she provided her derby horse Quality Old Joker (2nd place at the British Jumping Derby 2018) to Matthew Sampson . Sampson had already proven in the qualifications that he harmonized well with his "loan horse" and also seemed to have good prospects for a faultless round in the Derby. But with him too, as with Auffarth, the coupling gate fell. He came in fourth place hardly slower than Sandra Auffarth.

In the jump-off, Shane Breen advanced, rode briskly, but at a pace that was appropriate for the particular derby obstacles. He crossed the finish line flawlessly in 54.71 seconds. Nisse Lüneburg managed the jump-off course a little better, he crossed the finish line over a second faster and without any mistakes. After 2012 and 2014 with Calle Cool, he achieved his third derby victory with another horse.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Nisse Lueneburg	Cordillo	0	-	0	53.52	20th
2	Shane Breen	Can Ya Makan	0	-	0	54.71	17th
3	Sandra Auffarth	La Vista	4th	157.67			15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 32 participants)

Muenster

The Riders Tour returned from its summer break three weeks before the European Championships . The fourth stage took place as part of the winner's tournament in Münster . The CSI 4 * tournament was held from August 1st to 4th, 2019.

After there had been a very large number of faultless rides last year, Olaf Petersen jr. conceived course of the Grand Prix of Münster 2019 much more selective. Only four riders and their horses made no mistakes in the first round. Nisse Lüneburg, up to now leader of the Riders Tour 2019 and winner of the qualification for the Grand Prix, was not lucky with his mare Alina . After several mistakes, he gave up.

In the second lap, the 270-degree turn from the third from the last to the penultimate obstacle proved to be the decisive point: Here an obstacle stood on the ideal line of the turn, so the riders had to decide: either they rode another arc around this obstacle or but they risked a tight turn that might not ideally get them to the penultimate jump. The first starter in the second round of the best nine participants was Niklaus Rutschi. Unlike in the first lap, the Swiss made no mistakes with his gelding Cardano CH , but lost time when he failed to make the aforementioned tight turn (required time: 36.70 seconds).

The next rider, Charlotte Bettendorf from Luxembourg, was also able to improve on the first lap. After the tournament had already been highly successful for her so far, she found an ideal path through the course of the second round with her mare Raia d'Helby . In less than 34 seconds she crossed the finish line without a mistake. Angelica Augustsson Zanotelli took the next penalty-free ride: After she was the only rider to finish with (only) one time error in the first lap, she attacked in the second lap. With 34.42 seconds she came in second.

The opposite situation occurred for the participants who had made no mistakes in the first round. Zoe Osterhoff, Holger Wulschner and Markus Brinkmann each made a jumping fault, with rather slow times they finished the test in eighth, seventh and sixth. The final rider was Simone Blum. At the “dress rehearsal” before the European Championships, she rode a fast lap with Alice , and without any mistakes she placed third. With her victory in the test endowed with 120,000 euros, Charlotte Bettendorf was at the top of a pure “Amazon podium”.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Charlotte Bettendorf	Raia d'Helby	4th	-	0	33.93	20th
2	Angelica Augustsson Zanotelli	Nintender Star	1	-	0	34.42	17th
3	Simone Blum	DSP Alice	0	-	0	34.99	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 36 participants)

Paderborn

The last tournament of the Riders Tour in 2019 was the Paderborn Challenge , a CSI 3 * tournament. The fifth stage of the tournament series was held from September 12 to 15, 2019 on Paderborn's Schützenplatz.

Six pairs of participants had made no mistakes in the first round in Paderborn. The time allowed in the first lap was chosen to be tight, so that in addition to the two fastest four-fault rides, five riders with one time penalty each were allowed to start in the second lap.

Nisse Lüneburg started the second round with his 12-year-old gelding Luca Toni . With 22 evaluation points so far, Lüneburg was the best placed rider in the Riders Tour overall standings in the second round, and he also tried directly to expand this number of points. The pair cleaned up and crossed the finish line in 39.02 seconds. Finja Bormann also attacked as the next rider, but only crossed the finish line after 39.71 seconds with her gelding A Crazy Son Of Lavina .

In the further course of the second lap, Patrick Stühlmeyer, Peter Moloney, Mario Stevens and the last rider in the lap, Eiken Sato, also managed to cross the finish line without mistakes and in under 40 seconds. David Will was the only one to manage the circuit faster than Lüneburg with his Holsteiner Never Walk Alone (with which he had won the CSIO 5 * Grand Prix at Hickstead seven weeks earlier). But a jumping fault prevented his victory.

As a result, Nisse Lüneburg already won the second Riders Tour stage this season. With 18 points ahead of the final stage, it was already clear that Lüneburg would end the Riders Tour on a podium.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Nisse Lueneburg	Luca Toni	4th	-	0	39.02	20th
2	Mario Stevens	Landano OLD	0	-	0	39.25	17th
3	Patrick Stühlmeyer	Varihoka du Temple	1	-	0	39.41	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 50 participants)

Neumunster

The VR Classics in Neumünster were part of the Riders Tour for the first time in early 2020 and also served as the final stage of the tournament series. The CDI 3 * tournament, which was held for the 70th time, took place from February 13th to 16th, 2020 in Hall 1 of the Holstenhallen .

At the start of the Grand Prize endowed with 75,000 euros, David Will came onto the course. Will, who was up to this point in second place in the Riders Tour overall ranking, made two jumping errors with his gelding Forest Gump . Of the 40 pairs of participants, eleven remained without errors and thus made it into the second round.

Angelique Rüsen was the first starter to manage a good lap in the second lap, with her gray Arac du Seigneur she crossed the finish line without mistakes in 35.56 seconds. Marco Kutscher, as the third starter, managed the tightest turn of the second lap particularly well, he crossed the finish line in under 34 seconds without a mistake. Patrick Stühlmeyer took second place with Varihoka du Temple a little more slowly. Then there was a phase in which, due to the increased pace, some riders crossed the finish line with errors, including Julien Anquetin. The Frenchman, who competed with Gravity Of Greenhill , had so far been in a promising position in the overall Riders Tour ranking.

Markus Brinkmann chose the best strategy for her with his Holstein gelding Dylon , rode at a brisk pace that was not geared towards victory and crossed the finish line in 35.48 seconds without penalty. In addition to fifth place in this Grand Prix, this also brought him a front place in the Riders Tour. Mario Stevens, who only really got into the Riders Tour 2019 with his second place in Paderborn, also relied on his gelding Landano in Neumünster . With this he chose the high pace necessary to take over the leadership, which he also succeeded: Without making mistakes, he crossed the finish line three hundredths of a second faster than Marco Kutscher.

For Nisse Lüneburg, due to his large lead, the overall Riders Tour victory was already certain when he entered the second round. Motivated by several victories on the previous days, he attacked with his gelding Luca Toni and was even able to beat Mario Stevens' time. But a pole fell at the last obstacle of the test, which threw him back to eighth place in the Grand Prix.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Mario Stevens	Landano OLD	0	-	0	33.93	20th
2	Marco Kutscher	Charco	0	-	0	39.25	17th
3	Patrick Stühlmeyer	Varihoka du Temple	0	-	0	34.15	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

Final score overall

	equestrian	Stages						Total points
		Hagen	Redefin	Hamburg	Muenster	Paderborn	Neumunster
1	Nisse Lueneburg	-	2	20th	0	20th	8th	50
2	Mario Stevens	0	0	-	-	17th	20th	37
	Patrick Stühlmeyer	-	7th	-	-	15th	15th	37
4th	Markus Brinkmann	0	11	-	10	0	11	32
5	Julien Anquetin	17th	-	-	6th	-	5	28
6th	David Will	0	20th	-	0	4th	0	24
7th	Harm Lahde	0	15th	-	-	0	6th	21st
8th	Katrin Eckermann	20th	-	-	-	-	0	20th
	Charlotte Bettendorf	-	-	-	20th	0	-	20th

Web links

• Internet presence of the BEMER-Riders Tour
• FEI tournament calendar

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DKB-Riders Tour - Imprint , accessed on May 25, 2019
2. ↑ Results Riders Tour 2001 (PDF)
3. ↑ Paderborn horse show remains a stage of the Riders Tour , Frank legske / Neue Westfälische , March 1st, 2019
4. ↑ Riders Tour begins - new title sponsor in its 19th year , press release, February 27, 2019
5. ↑ The sporting regulations of the DKB-Riders Tour 2018 , accessed on May 25, 2019
6. ↑ Result of the Grand Prix of Deutsche Kreditbank AG, CSI 4 * Horses & Dreams 2019
7. ↑ Horse Festival Redefin - A really good challenge , press release, April 17, 2019
8. ^ Result of the Grand Prix of Deutsche Kreditbank AG, CSI 3 * Redefin 2019
9. ↑ Redefin: David Will wins Grand Prize , press release of the German Equestrian Association, May 26, 2019
10. ↑ Results of the German Jumping Derby 2019
11. ↑ Course plan Grand Prix of the City of Münster 2019 (PDF)
12. ^ Victorious weekend for Charlotte Bettendorf in Münster, third place for Simone Blum , Alexandra Koch / Reiter Revue International, August 4, 2019
13. ^ Result of the Grand Prix of the City of Münster 2019
14. ^ Result of the Grand Prix of Paderborn 2019
15. ↑ Result of the Neumünster Grand Prix 2020
16. ↑ Final result of the Riders Tour 2019 (PDF)