It doesn’t always have to be the Rolex Grand Prix that makes a top rider like Laura Kraut happy. Today, it was the victory in the VBR-Prize with a horse that has just made it back onto the top international sport circuit that left her grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Laura Kraut and Haley were the last pair to enter the ring of the VBR-Prize, a 1.45-metre jumping competition in two phases and left it as the winners. They knocked 0.25 seconds off the time of the hitherto leader, the Swiss rider Alain Jufer with his Westphalian-bred gelding Dark Grey MM by Diacasall. Ben Maher finished third with the nine-year-old Toulon son, Enjeu de Grisien (31.45 seconds).

Aachen is the first big show after a long period of injury for Laura Kraut’s eleven-year-old KWPN mare, Haley by Quality Time TN. Kraut has had the mare since she was a four-year-old and says: “A victory in Aachen is a huge success for her. This is one of her first shows after her injury. So, I am very, very happy. She is carrying on from where she left off.” Where the journey with the mare is headed? “One never knows. But her heart is definitely just as big as she is!”, the Olympic team silver medallist, Laura Kraut, stated.