The talented young horses opened the day in the Main Stadium of the Aachen Soers in the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup today. Nicola Philippaerts won the class with a horse that his father and his brother have competed with so far.

Belgian’s Nicola Philippaerts and the eight-year-old Selle Français gelding, Gadget Mouche by Andiamo Semilly, jumped to victory in 58.16 seconds in the second of three competitions that make up the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup. He finished ahead of the number one in the world rankings, Henrik von Eckermann (SWE), who had saddled the BWP stallion, Steely Dan by Hardrock Z. The pair took 59.11 seconds to master the 440-metre long, 1.45-metre high course that comprised of eleven obstacles and 13 fences. The Canadian show-jumper, Erynn Ballard, secured herself third place with the Zangersheide-bred mare, Marieke Z Santa Rosa by Moncler van Overis (60.06).

Nicola Philippaerts and Gadget Mouche already jumped clear into eight place in the first round of the youngsters tour on Tuesday. Even though Aachen is the pair’s first international performance. Un until now the gelding was primarily ridden by Philippaerts’ father Ludo and most recently by his younger brother, Thibault. There were pragmatic reasons for the change in rider: “I am allowed to ride here in Aachen this year and thought it would be a good arena for him. He proved today that he likes the stadium here in Aachen. And of course – when you come to Aachen you bring your best young horses with you, because this is always a special show.”

The fact that 20 of the 35 young horses that competed in the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup this afternoon jumped clear is an indication of how good the young horses here are. What makes Gadget Mouche special for Philippaerts? “I think he is very cool. He is not frightened and he has an inner calm. What’s more, he has a lot of scope and is careful. We have high hopes in him for the future.” It is not yet decided which of the Philippaerts brothers, whether Nicola or Thibault, will profit from the young talent in future. “We haven’t planned that yet. First of all we planned for him to compete in Aachen and we’ll see what happens after that. I hope we do well in the Final!” The Final that will be decided by a jump-off is on the agenda on Saturday.