Despite the pouring rain, it was of all people the Southern Europeans who triumphed in the LUMILEDS Prize, the Grand Prix Freestyle of the I-Tour this evening. First and foremost, the bronze-medallist from the 2015 European Championships, Beatriz Ferrer-Salat.

It is a good job that equestrian athletes aren’t football players, wimps, or pansies! Namely, this evening the Lavazza Prize turned into a water fight. And it was fantastic fun!

The Danish dressage rider, Anna Kasprzak and her big hope for the future, Quarton, dominated the Small Tour at the CHIO Aachen 2017. As in the Prix St. Georges, they also took the victory in the Intermédiaire I, the WOTAX Prize.

The name of the winner in the Sparkassen-Youngsters-Cup is very fitting “the Youth from Paradise”. Her rider prophesies a big future for her.

After taking second place in the Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia Christian Ahlmann was almost more or less consoled with a weekend at Aachen that he had so much looked forward but which got off to a bad start. Today, he has plenty of reason to cheer again.

Anne Meulendijks travelled to Aachen from the CHIO partner country in 2017 as the Dutch Champion and with high expectations for the U25 dressage tour, the Prize of the Liselott and Klaus Rheinberger Foundation. Her high expectations were totally justified.

The XXXL Pallen Marathon course was tough! The opinions of the four-in-hand drivers were unanimous here. The Germany driver Christoph Sandmann and his team mastered the course the bests. Germany was able to significantly improve its standing in the Nations’ Cup classification. The rankings in the Prize of the Richard Talbot Family is unchanged.

In Germany’s U25 Jumping Trophy, show-jumping heroes of tomorrow are made. The Final at the CHIO 2017 went to Maurice Tebbel, a rider who already joined the ranks of the famous riders on Thursday.

All good things come in threes – but including the team classification, the Lambertz Nations’ Cup, it was actually number four for the Germans at the CHIO Aachen 2017. And just in time for her 30th birthday, Laura Graves was delighted to have finally achieved her aim, after many attempts.

Mission possible! “We are going to claim the Cup back”, was the declaration by Hans Melzer with regards to the DHL Prize. And his riders did just that. Ingrid Klimke with Horse Ware Hale Bob OLD, Michael Jung with La Biosthetique-Sam FBW, Sandra Auffarth with Opgun Louvo – the dream team took the victory again.

Cheering can be so nice! Even when captured on a photograph, one can still feel the short moment of triumph, the second in which one knows: Mission accomplished! One has reached the top! The photographer from New Zealand, Libby Law, perfectly captured such a moment.