Ingrid Klimke and Vayron made expensive mistakes in the HAVENS Horsefeed-Prize on Wednesday. They wanted to make sure that didn’t happen in today’s Grand Prix Spécial, the consteed-Prize. They totally achieved that aim.

Ingrid Klimke and Vayron won the Grand Prix Spécial, the consteed-Prize with a score of 74.128 percent, followed by the pair that came third in the Grand Prix: Henri Ruoste (FIN) with Tiffanys Diamond (73.872). The winners of the HAVENS Horsefeed-Prize, Isabel Freese (NOR) and Total Hope, had to be satisfied with third place today and a score of 73.660 percent.

Ingrid Klimke was delighted that her plan came off after the Grand Prix on Wednesday, when she and Vayron made expensive mistakes in the canter tour on the centre line with the pirouettes, an exercise that the Westphalian stallion finds difficult due to his sheer size – 1.90 metres, as his rider explained. After that the two-time team Olympic gold medallist and ex-European Eventing Champion followed a tip the former national eventing coach told her. “Hans Melzer always used to say: ‘No mistakes and you are on the podium!‘ That was my motto today. I said to myself I want to go through the exercises one by one without any mistakes.“

It worked. And Vayron performed immaculately. “I had the feeling he was completely focused in the Spécial. He marched down the long sides on his own, so that I thought in the extended trot: Wait a minute! But he was great to ride and he was totally in his element,” the Master of Riding explained about the eagerness of the Vitalis son, who won team silver for Denmark at the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 with his former rider, Daniel Bachmann Andersen.

Ingrid Klimke emphasised that the national dressage coach has contributed greatly to her and the horse getting used to each other so quickly. “I must say a big thank you to Monica Theodorescu. Since I have had him, she comes every week and has always said we will get there. I think you will manage it as soon as he learns to trust you.“

A victory at the CHIO Aachen definitely shows that the two of them are on the best track.