The Europa team won the silver medal at the Youth Equestrian Games in Aachen. In a thrilling competition, the team had to concede defeat to the „North America“ team, with riders from Belgium, Germany, France, Greece and Great Britain. The bronze medal went to the team from Africa, where the next Youth Olympic Games will be held in Senegal in 2026.
All three teams had already finished the first round on Wednesday without a penalty point – the three best of the five rides were scored – and repeated this performance on the second day, which made a battle for the victory necessary. For Europe, this was Claudia Moore from Essex, a former highly successful pony rider and member of the British World Class Programme, a four-stage development program for riders with corresponding potential, whom she demonstrated in Aachen with another zero round in the battle. Like all the participants, she also started with a drawn horse, in this case the eleven-year-old wild pony Lago van den Molenhoek. In the end, only around 30 hundredths of a second were missing to win. The American, Mimi Gochman, had been faster by just about 30 hundredths. She completed the obstacle course with the ten-year-old thoroughbred Merino van de Achterhoek in only 32.26 seconds, securing her team's victory. Because the third participant in the obstacle course, Jad Guerraoui from Morocco with the Oldenburg mare Lady Angeles, also reached the finish line without any errors, but was slightly slower than the frontrunners. However, the joy and the jubilation of the fans who accompanied her and her teammates were certainly reassuring to her.
In addition to Claudia Moore, the Belgian Jay Junior Vandecasteele, the French Jeanne Hirel, Annie Mayo-Vitalis from Greece, and the Warendorf soldier Charlotte Höing will also compete for Team Europe – the first German participant at the Youth Equestrian Games ever. With two zero rounds, she contributed significantly to the team’s success. „I’m very satisfied. On the second day, my horse even jumped even better,“ Charlotte Höing praised her four-legged partner Andy’s Boy Bretoniere. „And it was a great jump. Of course, we would have liked to have won, but I’m mega satisfied; it couldn’t have gone much better.“
Even in the second round it became clear that the young riders from all over the world were well suited to the requirements and that the horses had been selected accordingly. The North American equestrian team leader, DiAnn Langer, paid great praise to the organizers and the horse owners. The young people had had five days to get used to their new partners – in addition to an extensive educational and introductory program that was also prepared for them. As it turned out upon closer inspection, most of the participants come from horse-breeding families, having been introduced to horse racing from an early age.
In total, 30 riders from 30 nations and six continents will compete in the Youth Equestrian Games (YEG), grouped into six teams of five riders each. The fourth to sixth places were won by teams from Asia with four penalty points, Australia with eight penalty points, and South America with a total of 20 penalty points.
On Saturday, all the female riders still have the chance to win a medal. Then it will start all over again from scratch. (fn-press)