Steve Guerdat traveled to the DKB Horse Week in Hohen Wieschendorf with four horses, including his World Championship hopes for Aachen No. 1 and 2. This is the Olympic champion’s debut at the four-star event with a Baltic Sea charm. Which horses does he have? What does he particularly enjoy? How does he look at the future of the competition? On the sidelines of the DKB Horse Week, spring-reiter.de spoke with the Swiss top rider and Olympic champion Steve Guerdat about welcome culture, fake experiences at tournaments, and the difficult development in the tournament landscape.
Steve, you are at the DKB Horse Week in Hohen Wieschendorf for the first time – what is your first impression?.
Steve GuerdatI arrived here on Wednesday and rode three horses – it was so pleasant. I really enjoy the climate and the fresh air here. And the conditions are great: the stables, the training area, the training ground. Often the training areas aren’t that big, but here there is a tremendous amount of space, and there is also plenty of room everywhere for the horses to graze. It’s really all tiptop.
Their number one choice for the World Championships, if she continues to develop as planned, is Dynamix de Belheme. With her, you became European champions in 2023; now the mare has been injured for a few months, but they brought her to Hohen Wieschendorf with them.
Steve GuerdatYes, exactly. It wasn’t anything bad, but you always take a little extra time with a horse like that. I brought her here for training so that I could slowly start again with tournaments and think about the World Championships. With Iashin Sitte and Venard de Cerisy I have two other horses that have championship experience and are eligible for the World Championships, but I know that if I want to be on the podium – then with Dynamix. Iashin is also in the mix; for him, Hohen Wieschendorf is the first tournament since the World Cup final in Texas, where we finished sixth. Since then, he has had a break and is supposed to start again with two 1.40-meter jumps, in preparation for the Nations Cup in St. Gallen.
For the four-star tour you brought two more horses…
Steve GuerdatThese are Lancelotta and Hadj de Bliniere. Lancelotta has already won a lot of races, including difficult ones, and she can be used in a very versatile way. She is my number one horse here in Hohen Wieschendorf, considering the Grand Prix. And Hadj is a nine-year-old that I bought from a video in France at the beginning of the year. He is a very wild horse, but I believe he has potential. I will be starting with him in the championship on Saturday; that will be his biggest challenge so far, his first 1.55-meter jump.
They came more than 900 kilometers to Hohen Wieschendorf – why?
Steve GuerdatThere was no tournament of interest to me that was closer. I didn’t want to go to Rome, and everyone else was at least 200 kilometers away. But I had already heard so much good about this tournament here, and I really enjoy new tournaments. You get to see new places, other people, and other horses – that’s interesting to me. And I met the organizer, who is super nice, and it’s nice to be part of this tournament. I can already say: I will definitely come again.
You have been to almost all tournament venues around the world. How would you rank the tournament venue of Hohen Wieschendorf?
Steve GuerdatIt’s rare for a tournament to really reflect what it is. When I go to a Global Tour event, I don’t feel comfortable. Everything is fake there – the people, the atmosphere, the mood. It’s all kind of staged and not real. That’s how I feel. When you arrive here, it’s cozy. You’re welcome and the horses are welcome too; the atmosphere is familial. The people are happy to be there and they also radiate that.
Let’s take a look at the future. Do tournaments like Hohen Wieschendorf have a long-term chance against the tournaments you described, with a lot of ‚fake‘ action but often also huge prize money?
Steve GuerdatIt is certainly difficult. Thanks to these highly-funded tours, there is more money in our sport. That’s true. If the other tournaments want to compete, they have to pay that amount of money too. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to find sponsors. That is a problem. I also don’t understand why we have to invent more and more new tours that are often faceless. It would be much more interesting to invest the money in the traditional tournaments or the World Cup.
Steve Guerdat fears that the bill for a sponsor might not be covered in the future:
Steve Guerdat: Actually, only people who simply love horses and who love this sport are emotionally connected to it. I just read that the main sponsor of Stuttgart has pulled out. That’s just pointless. I can’t understand it. The tournament is so much fun and the atmosphere is great.
Is money overvalued in the sport of skiing?
Steve Guerdat: I’m sometimes surprised when some colleagues talk about a prize money of ‚only‘ 200,000 euros in the Grand Prix. That’s insanely a lot of money. So, we riders are living a bit far from reality, even though we obviously have high costs; that’s just the way it is. But when it comes to prices for horses, things have gone completely out of control. Sometimes millions are paid for a horse, sums that only in the rarest of cases are returned in profit. And I think that’s a bit far from reality.
A question that cannot be missing on the Glantz strawberry farm: Do you like eating strawberries?
Steve GuerdatNot as much as my daughter (smiles), but I do like eating strawberries; actually, I eat almost all fruits. And even more than that, I love eating asparagus.