Only two months married and already a big 5* victory in the bag: Martin Fuchs and his Selle Francais gelding Fave d’Authuit secured victory at the Equita Masters with a time error of two 1.60m rounds. The Swiss and the 11-year-old gelding know each other very little: Shortly after the World Championships in Aachen, Martin Fuchs took over the Cornet Obolensky son from the Canadian Erynn Ballard, who was competing with him in Aachen.
„The horse is indeed very experienced, but we haven’t been together for that long yet; we have never been able to go through such a difficult jump together. Therefore, I didn’t even know if I should start in this competition. But the owner is here and he encouraged me. For the second round, Henrik von Eckermann helped me and gave me tips on how to ride the line. That really helped me,“ Martin Fuchs said afterwards and thanked his colleague.
Martin Fuchs and his new addition had already stayed error-free in the first round. As the last starter in the second round, he only had to somehow get faster and, of course, arrive at the finish line without making any mistakes. Penelope Leprevost, who was leading with Hileklaire and Prince (v. Number One d’Iso un Prince) with three time penalty points, did just that. And Martin Fuchs, who also had a time penalty on the clock at the end, fortunately did not have to pay for it anymore.
Third place went to Mark McAuley and Clooney van Spalbeek Z (v. Comilfo Plus Z) with three time penalties over two rounds. The fastest round in round two was shown by Julien Epaillard and his small black „Kugelblitz“ Fini L’Amour (v. L’Arc de Triomphe), however, the fastest time of 45.38 seconds was not very useful, as the pair came off the course in round one with a throw, so they finished fourth.
World champion Steve Guerdat took fifth place, he had his Lancelotta (v. Falkenshof’s Lancer) saddled.
DEUS SERVED
Sixth place went to Daniel Deusser and his new addition Navarro from Eelshof (by Jappelloup vh Dauwhof), whom he had acquired from Rik Hemeryck in the summer. In the first round, Deusser and the very ambitious 13-year-old stallion still suffered a fall, but then remained faultless in the second round.
The whole result: HERE