Münster: The free jumping final was the highlight of this year's free jumping season for three-year-old riding horses and riding ponies on 1 April at the Westphalian Horse Centre. The young talents were able to qualify for the final in Münster-Handorf on seven dates in various districts. For this, a minimum score of 8.0 was required for the riding horses, the riding ponies and small horses had to achieve at least a 7.5.
10 riding ponies and a Haflinger mare started the free jumping finals on 1 April. The superior winner here was the champion stallion of the jumping riding pony stallions of the 2022 riding pony licensing, Top Messenger. The judges awarded a score of 8.6 for manner and 9.2 for ability, resulting in a final score of 8.9. The stallion, bred by Friedrich-Wilhelm Feldhaus in Breckerfeld, had previously also been victorious at his qualifier in Ennigerloh in the Warendorf district.
Top Messenger is owned by the renowned riding pony stallion owner Josef Volle from Lüdinghausen. Second place went to the highly talented Big Star TF/FS Don't Worry daughter Big Daisy with a final score of 8.6. It is worth mentioning here that the mare also completed her qualifier in Ennigerloh and came second there behind the aforementioned pony stallion Top Messenger. The bay mare was bred by Wolfgang Stein, Warendorf and is owned by Paul Horstmann from Ennigerloh. With a final score of 8.5, the young stallion Nordlys L. by FS Numero Uno NRW out of a FS Pour l'Amour dam (breeder: Olaf Linneweber, Beckum) was close behind in third place. Lea Lammerskitten from Lengerich is the owner of the bay stallion, who had previously won his qualifier in Borgholzhausen (Gütersloh/Bielefeld district).
In the riding horse classes, 25 participants competed in the free jumping series in the large event hall of the Westphalian Horse Centre. The winner of this year's Riding Horse Final was in excellent form. With a score of 9.2, a three-year-old mare by Chaccon Blue/Coriano came out on top of the field of participants. The dam of the winner, the performance jumping mare, Curuba, was highly successful in 1.35 m jumping competitions with Sebastian Holtgräve-Osthues. She descends from the famous Holstein dam line 8145, which produced Ludger Beerbaum's unforgettable Ratina Z or the internationally successful Comme il faut NRW under Marcus Ehning. With an overall score of 9.1, a son of Contact Me from the Performance Jumping Stud, Calida, placed second in the Classement. The Calido daughter was successful in jumping up to 1.40 m under Sven Sudhölter.
Third place went to the son of Chaccon-Blue/Coriano with a score of 9.0. Breeder and owner of the three finalists is Manfred Merschmann from Delbrück. He managed the feat of having the three top places in the finals occupied by horses bred by him.
