Ireland’s Bertram Allen has made history achieving two consecutive wins with the same horseat the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses at Lanaken, Belgium.
Convincing win
Bertram and Barnike (Baldwin B x Animo) won gold in last year’s Six-Year-Old Championship. This year, the won the Seven-Year-Old title (21 September).
There was an incredible 236 starters, which were whittled down to 32 for the 1.45m finale. Ten made it through to the jump-off but the 19-year-old rider was the only one to pull off a third clear round, in the fastest time, for a convincing win.
Christian Ahlmann and Casuality Z had a pole down and were 0.17 seconds slower to take the silver medal for Zangersheide Stud. Bronze went to Sweden’s Niklas Arvidsson and Hasard.
‘Likes to run’
It’s been an incredible few months for Bertram, who is based in Muenster, Germany at the yard previously owned by fellow Irish showjumper Jessica Kuerten. He placed seventh individually at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and won the Dublin Grand Prix in August. However, he said he wasn’t expecting to win this year’s championships with Ballywalter Farm’s bay mare.
“We did a few shows after Lanaken and they went well, but then she had a long rest of three or four months before starting again, and it took longer to bring her back this time,” he said.
“She was too fresh at first, but eventually she improved. I took risks and the mare jumped even better against the clock – I think she likes to run!”
Five- and six-year-olds
The Five-Year-Old Championship was won by Maikel van Mierlo (NED) and Earley, Angelica Augustsson (SWE) and Ard Ginger Pop took silver, while bronze went to Marlon Zanotelli (BRA) and Cool Clarimo.
In the Six-Year-Old final, gold went to Christian Ahlmann (GER) and Hul Buh. Carola Wegene (AUT) won silver with Caspar Blue, and Patrick Lemmen (NED) and Decantos went home with bronze.