CSI5* Saut Hermès: the schedule from day 2.

A special competition will be taking place today at the CSI5* Saut Hermès, the “Le Saut Hermès”, in which the 10 best male and 10 best female riders from day 1 have been chosen for a team trial.
Each team will be made up of one male rider and one female rider, and they will be seeking to collect as many points as possible in this two round against the clock trial before the final run.
LE SAUT HERMES: THE STARS FROM 2014
Last year’s winners were the home rider Penelope Lèprevost (with Flora de Mariposa) and Germany’s Marco Kutscher (with Colestus). The pair collected 4 penalties in the two rounds and an overall time of 90.40 seconds.
In second place last year were Irish lady-rider Jessica Kurten (Arezzo VDL) and Frenchman Kevin Staut (Reveur de Hurtebise) – 4 penalties / 95.78 seconds.
The final podium slot went to Katharina Offel with Charlie and Germany’s Christian Ahlmann with Cornado II – 8 penalties / 90.65 seconds.
Colestus
Colestus, the stallion with which Marco Kutscher won last year’s competition, has now moved to the stables of his mentor Ludger Beerbaum. The latter has announced that he will be competing at the next Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 with this mount.
Thanks to the contribution and sponsorship of Madelein Winter-Schulze, the German champion can rely on an excellent jumper who already started to attract interest as of the year 2009. Colestus was in fact sold at auction for the highest price and in 2012 won the Westfahlenchampionat and was inserted in the 7 year-old category of the Bundeschampionat.Colestus descends from a very important equestrian line and is son to Cornet Obolensky, considered a guarantee of quality, and is grandson to Stakkato thanks to his dam line.
At Riesenbeck in 2013, he was paired with Marco Kutscher and with excellent results. Colestus is also a highly rated reproducer but as requested by his rider Ludger Beerbaum, won’t be available to horse breeders until the end of the next Olympics.
Flora de Mariposa
Flora de Mariposa was the Belgian champion in the 6 year old category in 2009, and was paired with Penelope Leprevost in 2013 thanks to the sponsorship of Haras de Clarbec. This talented jumper made its super league debut in the Nations Cup match in 2014 in Rome and the performance from the horse was one of the best. 2014 was a year of immense progress, winning competitions, but also gaining plenty of international experience and a second place finish in the CSI5* 1.55m in Hong Kong.
Flora de Mariposa was considered to be a bit of a gamble by rider and sponsor, who wanted to insert the horse in the list for the French Equestrian Federation at the WEG 2014 despite being very young. In the end the decision was forced upon them because of the injuries to other horses in the French squad.
In other events from today meanwhile, there will be plenty of other talents on display in the second stage of the Les Talents Hermès. The hurdles have been set at 1.45m and the trial will see the best under-25 riders go head to head.
At 13.00 spectators will be treated to the Prix GL Events over 1.45m while late in the afternoon the highly anticipated and aforementioned Le Saut Hermès over 1.60m takes place with prize money of 100.000 euros.
www.sauthermes.com