Sabina Illbruck Interview

 
At the Munich International Horse Show, we got the chance to sit down with Sabina Illbruck, whose son Marco competed in the EYCup this weekend. Sabina has been active in equestrian sponsorship for quite some time and she is one of the co-sponsors of the "Prize of the Future" series for riders under the age of 25. "There are many common points between the EYCup and the Prize of the Future Series," says Illbruck. "Both aim at giving riders under the age of 25 a chance to compete at international events of renown. The first competition of the EYCup series also counts as the preliminary jumping competition of the Prize of the Future, which is why some of the participating riders also overlap."
Also, both Rudolf Hindelang and Sabina Illbruck both sponsor the Prize of the Future series, in Hindelang's case in addition to the EY Cup series, in Illbruck's case in addition to the international showjumping Team Sabina Illbruck, which includes Lutz Gripshöver and the much-talked-about black Westphalian mare Perina. "I consider it very important to give our young riders a chance to slowly prepare themselves for the international circuit," says Illbruck. "one must not forget that, after age 21, when they are out of the Young Riders, they are suddenly expected to compete on the senior circuit. But this is a complete change of scenery for them. There is no or only minimal television coverage of the young riders series, and so, with the U25 series, we give them a chance to compete at high profile events, establish a name for themselves and thus also attract the attention of potential sponsors."

Sabina Illbruck (right) with trainer of her son Marco

 

Matthias Weber wins on Blue Eye

 

 

Saturday afternoon, Matthias Weber and Blue Eye won the U25 S* star jumping competition when he rode the 11 year old Holstein gelding through a clear jump-off, being the only rider to do so. Tobias Meyer and Tamira were also back in form and placed 2nd today, before Mynou Diederichsmeyer who rode Kleopatra to 3rd place. The riders had better luck with the weather today, finding excellent conditions during what turned into a sunny and pleasant day. The riders today negotiated a sophisticated but fair course, of which the greatest difficulty being the blue oxer of considerable depth.
Later, in the VIP tent, there was a pleasant surprise for Rudolf Hindelang, who initiated the series. "Professional Sportsline" CEO Stefan Bensch, whose company offers equestrian yard equipment to the discerning rider, was honored with a sponsorship himself this time. "I am so impressed with Hindelang's special effort that he has put into making these wonderful opportunities available to young riders wanting to go to the top of our sport, that I wanted to give something back to him. So I have decided to equip his entire yard with our exclusive new box stall signs." Rudolf Hindelang was pleased, and daughter Carina, accepting the prize on behalf of her father as the active rider in the family, selected the suitable stall signs from Bensch's extensive range.

Results, 03.05.2008

Gallery of 3rd May - Preis der Zukunft

 





Matthias Weber


Carina Hindelang accepts the honors on behalf of her father

Michael Kölz winner of the EYCup qualification 1,45m

 


Michael Kölz


 

Riding with care, Michael Kölz today won the 1.45 S** qualifier with Lewinski. It was all tactics, really. In the first round, Koelz had decided to go not for speed but for clear. The course consisted of 13 obstacles and 16 jumps, which included a triple and a double. Between jumps 8 and 9, from vertical to oxer, the riders had to negotiate the course between two tree islands on a hill. Either a straight, but riskier, or a curved but slower line, could be ridden. Kölz took the curved line, came through with a clear as planned, but with a 2 point time penalty. These two points he then took through to the jump-off and got lucky: all the riders who went clear in the first round, riding for full risk and maximum speed once more, had one down in the jump off, leading Kölz to victory before Matthias Weber (Blue Eye - 2nd place) and Andreas Rösch (3rd place, Cliquot).

Results, 1,45m

  Gallery of 4th Mai

 

 

 

Nicoletta Stein leaves the men in her dust (CSI JY-A/CSI U25 1.40m)


Nicoletta Stein

Nicoletta Stein in jump-off

Mr. Afflerbach awarded

 

Nicoletta Stein won the 1.40 competition today, having gone in as the first rider. She set the amazingly fast time of 38.61 seconds with Lando, which proved impossible to beat for the riders that followed. (Picture 1, 2) A total of 15 riders had made it through to the jump-off. but only 3 of them finally went clear. Aside from Stein, they were 2nd-placed Michael Koelz (40.08 sec, riding Lord) and Slovakian rider Tomas Kuchar, who rode Cento to 3rd place with a time of 43.42 seconds. Tobias Meyer, who had won the highest ranked class of the day, the 1.45 m, earlier that afternoon with Beauty Belle van't Roosakker against stiff competition from riders like Katharina Offel and Lutz Gripshöver, had bad luck for a change. Tamara had one down in the jump-off, and the pair placed 4th overall.
Patrick Afflerbach, on the other hand, had reason to be proud - of his family! While he failed to make it through to the jump-off, his father was honored just before the final prizegiving. The Sr. Afflerbach runs the Koenigsbrunn horseshow, which was officially awarded the title of Best Show of 2007 (Picture 3), a prize that had previously gone to the Thann Horse Sports Festival (www.reitsportfestival.eu).

Further Results S*, 1,40m

Gallery of 2nd May

 

 

Tobias Meyer today won the preliminary qualifier


Tobias Meyer
Tobias Meyer today won the 1.35 class, the preliminary qualifier for tomorrow's CSI U25/CSI JY-A. Meyer and his Dutch Warmblood mare Tamira has the faste time with 65.94 seconds, riding some very risky turns in the course that paid off in the end. The 8 year old, enormously scopey mare was almost 1 whole second before the 2nd placed rider, Felix Hassmann with Horse Gym's Claire (66.67 seconds). Nicoletta Stein and Landro placed 3rd. There were a total of 28 clear rounds in this class, with all the 16 riders who made it into the ribbons coming from Germany. The slowest clear round was 89.10 seconds. Aside from Germany, the riders came from Luxembourg, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Croatia.

Further results of our riders on the 1st day of the Munich International Horse Show
Gallery

   

 EYCup Qualifier at the 2008 Munich International Horse Show

 

In only two days, the prestigious Munich International Horse Show kicks off in Munich-Riem, and this time it is it's 25th anniversary, with plenty of interesting celebrations and much to see. Part of this important event is also the EY Cup, which enters a new qualifying round. Among our riders, we will see such well-known faces like Lawrence Greene, Hendrik Gravemeier or Jörne and Jan Sprehe as well as Pascal Brunner who rides for Switzerland. But also some of the smaller nations will be competing at Munich: Croatian rider Janka Krasovec, for instance, will be there, or the Luxembourg amazon Viktoria Häussler. The special prizes for the 1.40 class on Friday and the 1.45 class on Sunday, as always, come from the Thomas Sabo company for ranks 1-5. For this, we extend our heartfelt thank yous! If you see our riders walking around the show grounds, incidentally, there is plenty of reason to congratulate - for numerous of our riders were nominated for the "Prize of the Best" at Warendorf. These are: Oliver Berger and Lex Loxley, Simone Blum and Kasandro, Michael Eichler and Bugatti, Maximilian Lill and Zorika, Wolfgang Puschak and Massimo de Flore, Maximilian Weishaupt and Celebration, Nicoletta Stein with two horses to be announced, Max Schmid with two horses to be announced, Kim Kniha and Kristian Kniha.

The special prizes for places 1 to 5 are beeing sponsored by Thomas Sabo GmbH

S*, 1,40m S**, 1,45m Sponsor

Starter lists for the Pferd International 2008 (EYCup riders marked)

Results Munich International Horse Show