Impress-K van 't Kattenheye Z impresses in St Gallen

Last weekend, a lot of international attention went to the iconic Hamburg Derby, but the CSIO of St Gallen in Switzerland also saw competition at the very highest level over the past few days. There, Belgian rider Thibeau Spits and his black pearl Impress-K van 't Kattenheye Z had another strong competition, impressing in both the Nations Cup on Friday and the Longines Grand Prix on Sunday.

The CSIO of St Gallen may no longer be part of the famous Longines League of Nations as of this year, but it still remains one of the finest Nations Cups of the season. On Friday, therefore, all eyes were on the Land Rover Discovery Nations Cup, in which the Belgian team included Thibeau Spits in action with his 10-year-old stallion Impress-K van 't Kattenheye Z, a son of Indoktro-K van 't Kattenheye out of Vagabond de la Pomme from the breeding farm of Tony Raman and Mieke Strobbe. Spits and Impress-K van 't Kattenheye Z already jumped an impressive record last year and once again confirmed in St Gallen that they are now among the world's best. Both in the first and the second round of the Nations Cup they left all obstacles untouched and with those two strong rounds they made an important contribution to the Belgian team's great ^second place.

On Sunday afternoon in St Gallen, the Longines Grand Prix was then looked forward to and in it, too, Spits and Impress-K van 't Kattenheye Z took a leading role This 1.60m-high Grand Prix ran over two rounds, with the best sixteen combinations from the first round qualifying for the second and decisive stage. Thibeau Spits and his black pearl also managed to qualify for that second round, appearing in the ring again as the fifth combination. Just like in the previous rounds, they again made no mistakes, which eventually earned them a handsome ^4th place in the standings.

Prior to the Land Rover Discovery Nations Cup, there was also a 1.50m class with jump-off on the programme within the CSIO5* competition. In that class, British rider Jessica Mendoza cleverly managed to ride herself to a podium place with the 10-year-old stallion Summerhouse, a son of Guidam Sohn and Indoctro bred in the Netherlands by C. Den Boer. In both the basic round and the jump-off, Mendoza and Summerhouse kept their cool, eventually seizing ^3rd place in the standings.

Besides the CSIO5* competition, a CSIU25 competition also took place in St.Gallen, in which a Z-horse also managed to stand out. That honour went to the 11-year-old mare Emerine Z, a daughter of Emerald van 't Ruytershof and Camus, bred by Soleika Cretskens. Emerine Z we know mainly from under the saddle of Steve Guerdat, but appeared in St Gallen at the start with his young compatriot Guillaume Gilloz. The duo got off to an excellent start to their show immediately on Thursday morning, where they were the winners of the 1.40m opening class. But also in the CSIU25 Grand Prix on Sunday morning, Gilloz and Emerine Z managed to jump to a top ranking with a fantastic^2nd place. In a jump-off for which five combinations managed to qualify, they came a clear round in 43.48 seconds about a quarter of a second short of taking the top prize.