Beerbaum Jumping Dynasty Comes Out On Top

 27 April, 2008, Goteborg, Sweden--- The 30th anniversary fixture at the Goteborg Horse Show in the Scandinavium delivered some of the most breath-taking show jumping ever seen. Riding for Ireland, Jessica Kuerten held the lead going into today's closing rounds but, just as the she had predicted on Friday night, it was her great rival who ruled, when Kuerten herself gave it to her by driving through instead of jumping over fence six, a narrow vertical, in the second to last round on Sunday in the final.

Meredith rode last and had the opportunity to watch as the other riders faced the course’s challenges. Shutterfly, a 15 year old gelding, had his work cut out for him at the triple combination in today's opening round but he just opened up his jump a little more, got the job done and brought her home clear. Shutterfly was relaxed and it all looked so very easy. Post-competition Meredith said, "He's been in a great mood here all week and he wasn't nervous at all. He enjoyed working in the warm-up ring which was very quiet and he reflected that in the ring."

Rich Fellers, the Oregon-based trainer, aboard his lovely stallion Flexible, seemingly appeared out of nowhere since he has spent little time competing in Europe, created a huge sensation when finishing second. Fellers credits his readiness for the competition to having ridden continuously throughout the HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal, CA earlier in the year saying, "The indoor arena at HITS really gave us a sense of what a tight arena with crowds in the stands would be like." Flexible worked wonders for Rich against some tough odds having come back from two injuries, a broken scapula suffered in a turn out and what would be an angioplasty surgery for a human to correct a blocked artery in one of his forelegs. During our interview with Rich he said coming in he wasn’t sure what his chances were but that after Friday night he began to think there was potential for Flexible to come through. The Irish-bred 12 year old stallion is by Cruising out of a mare called Flex that was ridden by Edward Doyle. "You don't know what they can do until you ask them, and when I asked him this week to jump higher and go wider he just kept saying Okay," the rider pointed out. Flexible will be going home to Oregon for a much deserved rest according to Fellers.

Heinrich-Hermann Engemann and Aboyeur took the third place slot.

Course-designer Rolf Ludi designed some of the toughest, most technical courses that many of the competitors have ever seen ion Days one and two and presented two more fascinating tracks on the third and final afternoon. The courses demanded that the riders be accurate and that the horses perform to their maximum ability, stretching themselves over enormously high and wide oxers, tight turns and rollbacks and unusual distances between jumps.

Two of the 24 starters retired in the opening round; Judy-Ann Melchior and the adorable stallion Levisto Z after hitting two elements of the triple combination at fence eight and America's Todd Minikus and Olinda after dumping the narrow vertical at fence six. The triple came up quickly off a left-hand turn after a big oxer and fence six that also put an end to Kuerten's dominance. Kuerten, in the lead after the first two legs and having won the Grand Prix with Quibell on Saturday night, looked like shoe-in that just couldn't be stopped. But as all top riders are only too willing to admit, show jumping is the luck of the draw on any given day.

Belgium's Patrick McEntee produced the first clear round with Ever Mury Marais Z with the two Swedish riders Helena Lundback with Madick and Rolf-Goran Bengtsson with Ninja La Silla coming through clear as well. The packed stadium went wild. However in the standings, they were significantly behind the main players, carrying double-figure points after Thursday's Speed and Friday's Jump-Off classes.

Switzerland's Steve Guerdat and Tresor and Engemannin seventh place both went clear. He began to move up as Ludger Beerbaum fell victim to the middle-element of the triple with All Inclusive NRW and the defending champion, Beat Mandli from Switzerland, dropped two rails with Ideo du Thot.  Michaels-Beerbaum applied pressure and when the last three got into trouble she was in pole position. Peter Wylde’s rookie Esplanade picked up 12 faults, Fellar's stallion hit the vertical at six as did Kuerten and Castle Forbes Libertina, although the partnership recovered their cookies quickly to finish without further incident.

The second-round course was shorter with nine fences but the challenge was still very much there and course-builder Ludi admitted afterwards that he might have been a little kinder with the distance to the very final fence, a high vertical that came after the wide Rolex oxer. The distance called for either three pushing, or four short and snappy strides from the previous oxer and, time and again, the riders just couldn't master this one.  Wylde returned to show the huge promise of his amazing mare Esplanade to come up with the first clear. Mandli mastered the last distance too but Guerdat, now lying sixth, kicked out the final vertical as did Ludger Beerbaum when both attempted the distance on three strides while Kuerten, now fourth, slipped further down the order with a frustrating mistake at the very first fence. Fellers chipped in an extra stride on the last line and Flexible came through snapping up and over to hold his position with a clear round.

Engemann took a rail from the first jump of the double combination down which left Meredith Michaels Beerbaum to close the deal. The crowd went wild for over ten minutes as she cleared the last vertical that had been the downfall of so many before her in four strides. In post-competition press conference she said that she was very glad to have slayed the dragon of last year's final when she dropped out of contention due to a freaky fall.

'I'm very proud to win my second World Cup title and the first Rolex-sponsored World Cup final" said the rider who previously topped the line-up in Las Vegas in 2005. "Shutterfly showed he was in great form over three days and at 15 he is not young --- he was super and he never had a rail down. I'm pleased with myself today too, and glad I got him around safely," she added.

RESULTS
The first score are points carried into today's competition from the first two classes.

1, Shutterfly (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) Ger 4/0/0 - 4; 2, Flexible (Rich Fellars) USA 2/4/0 - 6; 3, Aboyeur W (Heinrich-Hermann Engemann) Ger 5/0/4 - 9; Equal 4, Ideo du Thot (Beat Mandli) Sui 4/8/0 - 12, All Inclusive NRW (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger 4/4/4 - 12, Castle Forbes Libertina (Jessica Kuerten) Ger 0/8/4 - 12; Equal 7, Esplanade (Peter Wylde) USA 3/12/0 - 15, Tresor (Steve Guerdat) Sui 10/0/5 - 15; 9, Suncal Portofino (Michael Whitaker) GBR 8/5/5 - 18; 10, Ninja la Silla (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson) Swe 15/0/4 - 19; 11, Madick (Helena Lundback) Swe 16/0/5 - 20; 12, Ever Mury Marais Z (Patrick McEntee) Bel 20/0/1 - 21; 13, Up Chiqui (Kent Farrington) USA 14/4/4 - 22; 14, Quick Study (Lauren Hough) USA 13/8/5 - 26; 15, Guarana Champeix (Rutherford Latham) Esp 18/6/5 - 29; 16, Isaac (Royne Zetterman) Swe 13/8/9 - 30; 17, Vancouver d'Auvrey (Danielle Torano) USA 20/8/9 - 36; 18, Cristallo (Richard Spooner) USA 18/8/16 - 42; 19, Summer (Mandy Porter) USA 18/8/22 - 48; 20, Ilostra Dark (Eugenie Angot) Fra 11/12; 21, Onira (Brianne Goutal) USA 19/20; 22, Oki Doki (Albert Zoer) Ned 17/Ret; 23, Olinda (Todd Minikus) USA 21/Ret/ 24, Levisto Z (Judy-Ann Melchior) Bel 22/Ret.