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July 13th, 2010

Swiss double victory in the STAWAG-Prize – Steve Guerdat and Pius Schwizer head the field
Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum doing a balancing act between the jumping sport and baby sitting

Is it alright if I bring Brianne-Victoria with me?” asked Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum politely, on her way to the Press Conference with her daughter, the five-month old Brianne-Victoria. The winner, Steve Guardat, nodded with a laugh, even though the Swiss rider knew he certainly wouldn’t be the centre of attention anymore in spite of the fact that the 28-year-old had just celebrated his first victory in Aachen. The Swiss rider won the STAWAG-Prize, a penalties/time jumping competition, with Jalisca de Soler. Guerdat jumped clear in a time of 72.55 seconds, leaving his fellow countryman, Pius Schwizer on Ulysee (74.09 seconds) and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (Thedinghausen/74.42) on Checkmate far behind.

“The STAWAG-Prize may not be the most difficult jumping competition that we will be faced with this week, but because it is a penalty/time competition, one has to take a risk from the very start,” is how Guerdat analysed his round. “At least if you want to reach a good ranking – and this was the goal I had set myself, because I know that Jalisca is a fast horse.” The course offered plenty of possibilities to take tight turns in order to save time. “I think I was faster than Pius at fence 5 and at the double oxer.”

His fellow competitor had the advantage of jumping after him: “I saw Jalisca, I know how fast she is so I knew it would be really difficult to beat Steve,” admitted Schwizer, who has just been knocked from the top of the world rankings by the Canadian rider, Eric Lamaze. “But Ulysee can also jump very fast. He is a horse you can jump the really big courses over 1.60 metres with, as long as everything goes exactly according to plan. His world is more competitions over 1.50 metres.”

The 15-year-old Checkmate recently demonstrated that he can master the most difficult courses in the world in Estoril, where he won the Grand Prix. “He is now getting back into good form again after his injury and my maternity leave. I am very pleased with him,” said Michaels-Beerbaum, who was happy with her third place, because “I saw Steve ride and I didn’t really try to beat him. At the start of the CHIO week, I just wanted to complete the course at a good pace.” Since the 40-year-old doesn’t want to compete at World Championships anymore with her other top horse, Shutterfly, because he is already 17, deciding instead to enter only selective competitions with him in future, Checkmate is her possible candidate for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in the autumn. “But I am realistic, at the moment I am only no. 6 in the squad,” commented Michaels-Beerbaum. She also revealed her dream for this year’s CHIO: “I would love to ride Shutterfly in the Grand Prix on Sunday. Already aged 17, it would no doubt be the last time. I’ll wait and see how things go this week before making my final decision.”

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