On September 06 Gerrit Nieberg and his horses Ben and Blues d’Aveline went to Calgary for the tournament. The tension was high, as the reigning Rolex Grand Prix winner of the CHIO Aachen, an extra bonus and a lot of money were at stake.
However, the courses at Spruce Meadows have their own set of rules. The tradition-rich International Ring holds obstacles of several Olympic Games and also current obstacles of the World Championships in Herning in August were specially flown in together with the horses.
The horses could recover a bit from the long journey the first days and also get used to time change (-8 hours) and the different climate (Galgary is over 1000m high).
Blues and Ben showed already in the first tests how comfortable they feel in the high altitude and that even Olympic obstacles don’t bother them. There were no Germans in the Nations Cup this year and so we could cheer with the Swedes and keep our fingers crossed for Pius Schwitzer whose stallion Vancouver showed fantastic rounds with the equigetic Jump.
In the Grand Prix on Sunday, the course seemed almost unjumpable. Consequences – distances and dimensions were so difficult and required courage and incredible confidence to the rider.
Ben flew off and gave his fans two unbelievably great rounds in which both rider and horse made only 1 single mistake. This brought a great 5th place.
The victory in the Rolex Grand Prix also went to Germany and Daniel Deusser won already the third big jumping competition this year with Killer Queen.
