Impressive premiere for Richard Vogel at WEF

Germany’s Richard Vogel hit the ground running in the Premiere week of the Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] closing out with a win in the $75,000 WEF Premiere Grand Prix aboard Event De L’Heribus to add to two wins in the 1.40m and a victory in the WEF Challenge Cup.
“I’ve never had a start like this,” Richard said after Sunday’s Grand Prix debut show – and win – with the 10-year-old German-bred gelding, aka ‘Sven’ behind the scenes.

Richard and Event De L’Heribus’ time of 34.086 seconds in the 12-horse jump-off over a course designed by USA’s Eric Hasbrouck, nudged the current leader, Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam on Gilona AO, into second with a time of 34.24 seconds, while USA’s Jacqueline Ruyle and Cyramo Z claimed third with a plucky performance in 35.065 seconds.

“I think we could have not wished for a better start,” said Richard, currently ranked 6th in the world. “There’s many weeks ahead and from here on it only gets bigger and more difficult. So I think we shouldn’t be too excited, but obviously we enjoyed the success. I think you could really see how happy the horses are to be back here and how well they jump and how good they fight in the ring. It’s always good to have a good start and not a ‘wishy washy’ start, so we’re delighted, and we will try to keep things up.”

Richard spied Sven in the stable of the Berger family in Bavaria, southern Germany and was recently able to add him to a string of talented chestnuts, including Cydello and Levi Noesar, with whom he won the opening round of the WEF Challenge this week. “More than a year ago, I bought another horse off them and I saw him in the stable,” Richard recalled. “Even in the stall I could see that he was smart. I knew him from videos and followed the horse quite a bit, but they weren’t ready to sell. I went back two months ago to try him and the feeling was very good.”

Sabrina Berger brought the horse up through the divisions, with considerable success in the young horse classes. “Sabrina did a super job with him,” Richard said. “She brought him up very well so that we can take over the reins and straight away have success. That’s a nice feeling and a compliment to their work also.”

Sven and Richard’s next appearance at WEF is likely to be on the grass derby field in week two. Given that Sunday’s Grand Prix was their first time showing, the change in surface will also be a new experience for the pairing.

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