Richard Vogel has a secret – Cydello is his name
The Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] is just four weeks in and already Germany’s Richard Vogel and Cydello have landed three showcase victories after a win in Saturday afternoon’s $215,000 FEI 4* Grand Prix on the Derby field – also a contest for The Village of Wellington Cup.
“I have no secret,” Richard said, accounting for his success to date. “My secret is Cydello.” Richard and the 11-year-old Hanoverian chestnut gelding have been in partnership for some 18 months and since the start of WEF in January have won Grands Prix on the grass twice and once in the International Ring at Wellington International.
“He’s such a cool horse, so smart, so intelligent and such a fighter,” said Richard, after the pair won the six-strong jump off in a time of 43.22 seconds ahead of two Irish contenders – Shane Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz runners up on 43.75 and Niamh McEvoy and Jargon DN in third place with a time of 44.71.
Thirty horse and rider combinations took on the course designed by Brazil’s Anderson Lima, with USA’s Michael Morrissey and Incento SA and Spencer Smith aboard HHS Seattle notching up the first two clear rounds. While there was no one clear nemesis in terms of fences, the course saw three eliminations in the first half of the field.
Cydello had a hand in the successful jump off when he figured out the strides needed to the second fence. “I have to give Cydello a lot of credit for fence number two,” said Richard. “I saw Shane and he actually got there well on the nine strides and I walked ten. But I thought if you have a very good shot to number one and you can cut right into the inside track there might be nine for you, which I tried to do for the first seven strides but then realized we’re not quite getting there. Cydello [realized this]three strides out [and put in an extra stride] so luckily he’s very smart and so clever, which saved us there.”
Cydello is said to be quiet in his stall, but lively as soon as he leaves it. “It doesn’t matter if you go for a hand walk or for a ride he’s always high-energy and has attention for everything, literally everything,“ said Richard. The gelding needs a certain personality to work with his temperament and although Anna Halasz has only groomed for Richard for a few months, in a short space of time, she has built a crucial rapport with Cydello.
“For horses like Cydello that are very sensitive, with them it’s very important that they have a secure surrounding and they need to feel like they are in a family environment,” said Richard. “They need to know the people they work with. Anna is a brilliant groom and does a perfect job so I couldn’t ask for more right now.”
This could be interesting: