Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and Caillan dominate in seven-year-old final!
What a fantastic ending of the FEI WBFSH Jumping World Breeding Championship for Young Horses 2022 we had! Five days of top-class sport at the very highest level just finished with a thrilling final for the 7-year-old horses. In the end it was Sweden's top rider Rolf-Göran Bengtsson who gave the fastest performance with Caillan (Casall) earning the new World Champion 7-year-old horse’s title!
Like the final for the six-year-olds, the seven-year-olds also had 40 combinations at the start of this final, but you could clearly see that the level of difficulty was even higher. Of those 40 combinations, this time eight duos managed to keep all the rails up and secured a ticket for the all-decisive jump-off.
As the penultimate starter, it was Rolf-Göran Bengtsson's turn with the Holstein-bred gelding Caillan, a breeding product of Gerd Ohlsen who combines the blood of Bengtsson's former top stallion Casall with that of Carry. Bengtsson had a flying start with plenty of pace and a short turn from obstacle 1 to obstacle 2 helped him clear the course in 38.92 seconds, securing the World title."We have had an incredibly good year. We already won the Championship in Holstein and Warendorf and this is really the icing on the cake. If I compare him to his sire, Caillan is more explosive on the jump than Casall, but of course he still has a long way to go to match his track record (laughs)."
The very last combination to look forward to was Christian Ahlmann with the Zangersheide-bred and licensed stallion Dourkhan Hero Z, a son of Don't Touch Tiji Hero and Zandor Z bred by High Jumper Sprl. Ahlmann and Dourkhan Hero Z also started their jump-off excellently, but unfortunately lost some time on the Longines double. They eventually finished in 41.55 seconds and thus had settle for the second place. "I tried to ride my turns the same way with these young horses as I do with my experienced ones, but today I learned that that doesn't always work out the way you hope”, the German rider explains. After the Longines double jump I knew it was going to be difficult to improve Rolf's time, so I chose to aim for the 2nd place."
The bronze in this final for 7-year-old horses went to Olivier Philippaerts with the BWP-bred mare Precious Dwerse Hagen, a daughter of Cornet Obolensky out of Thibeau Spits' former GP mare Classic Touch DH. The Belgian rider sent the breeding product of the Spits - Ceulemans family trough the finish in 44.74 seconds scoring the first clear round in the jump-off.
However, with a finishing time of 38.41 seconds, it was Christian’s countryman Hannes Ahlmann who managed to ensure the fastest jump-off. He had a fault on the very last obstacle with the Holstein-bred mare Tokyo 4 (Toulon x Cassini I - F: Jürger Boege) and thus ultimately just missed out on a medal. Finally, 5th place went to Jeroen De Winter (BEL) with the BWP-bred mare Paulien Dwerse Hagen, who is also the full sister of Precious Dwerse Hagen.
Click here for the results.
