Busy times at the Hetzel Spring Masters – Double victories in Goch

The young show jumpers have already completed their program at the Hetzel Spring Masters. On Thursday, everything was noticeably higher and wider, including two 1.40m classes, and the under-20 generation is making a strong showing in Goch. There are many different ways a double victory can play out: Linus Georg Weber and Johannes Ehning pulled off just such a feat in the Prize of MPU West. Weber took both first and second place with two Hubertushof horses, No Problem and Calido. Ehning wasn’t far behind—he claimed both third and fourth, with C-Jay and Ogano.

That may have left some of their fellow competitors looking a bit surprised—after all, the young generation is making waves. Juliane Rölfing from Borken had already scored a points victory earlier. The young trainer won the day’s first 1.25m with a horse named Why Not. If the answer is always that clear, it’s all the better for Rölfing, whose focus is particularly on bringing on young sport horses.

Generation U21 in Goch

The candidates for the “Preis der Besten” in Warendorf are even younger than Rölfing. The Hetzel Spring Masters serves as a key event for this selection, and so the U21 generation is out in force in the Masters competitions—for example, Tony Stormanns, the junior European champion from Eschweiler. And not all of them come from the Rhineland: Max Merschformann, for instance, who finished fifth behind Linus Weber and Johannes Ehning in the 1.40m class, hails from Rosendahl in Westphalia. He is the son of former European Champion and former national youth coach Markus Merschformann. Ava Ferch, who was already known for her speed as a pony rider, has come from Bavaria to compete in the Spring Masters.

What does all this mean? The next generation of show jumping talent is already knocking at the door, and they’re making it anything but easy for the veterans in the saddle to secure a win.