Jessica Wächter (GER) and Gucci FST at the FEI Driving World Championship for Young Horses 2024 - Lamotte Beuvron (FRA). Copyright ©FEI/FFE/PSV.
Germany’s Jessica Wächter sealed her supremacy in producing young horses at world level as she won both the five and seven-year-old categories, narrowly beating Poland’s Weronika Kwiatek in the older class – but it was a win for Weronika in the six-year-old category.
The 9th FEI Driving World Championship for Young Horses was held for the second year in a row at the Federal Equestrian Park in Lamotte-Beuvron, the headquarters of the French Equestrian Federation. It was also the second week in a row that France hosted an FEI Driving World Championship, hot on the heels of the FEI Driving World Championship for Single Horses at Haras du Pin, Normandy (FRA) where some of the same athletes were competing.
Five Year-Olds
After two days of qualifying rounds, the competition started afresh on Saturday morning with the Dressage followed by the Combined Marathon on Sunday. Jessica clinched the first win of the event in the five-year-old category on a score of 16.08 with Carlo 570, a Sathu gelding owned by Martin Philipp. It is her second world title in this category after her win in 2021 with Dream Catcher FRH and the second time she has won two titles at the same event, which she last did in Mezöhegyes (HUN) in 2019. The wins give her an impressive tally of FEI Driving World Championship for Young Horses titles since her first in 2018 with FST Charly Brown, the same horse she drove in Le Pin last week.
Fresh from her individual silver and team gold in Le Pin, Marion Vignaud (FRA) was second on 14.48 with her KWPN mare Oh La La La SH; she was also seventh in the same class with another of her own horses, Oakley DH. Only 0.06 behind in third was Morgane Pennec (FRA) and Impuls (14.42).
Six Year-Olds
Winner of the six-year-old category, Weronika is another young horse specialist who has consistently placed highly since the series started in 2015, and this was her second world title after she won the seven-year-olds in 2021 with Roncewal. She was also in Le Pin the previous week but this time she was driving Elektroda, a mare owned by Grzegorz Swiatek, to win on a score of 17.36. It was close for second and third as Bettina Winkler (GER) and Herman 91 scored 15.93, 0.14 ahead of Fabrice Martin (FRA) and Idromel Noir on 15.79, who were the five-year-old winners last year. Also having a busy event was the new FEI Driving World Championship for Single Horses Champion, Mario Gandolfo (SUI) who finished fifth with Johnson Du Signal after they were third last year.
Seven Year-Olds
Finally, with only 0.34 between the top three in the seven-year-old category, it was Jessica who edged ahead by only 0.2 to lead with her own Sathu mare Gucci FST on 16.77, despite knocking a ball and losing 0.3 from their score of 8.50 in the Combined Marathon. Weronika and Milo V ended on 16.57, although they tied on 8.50 in the second phase with Mario and Lemmy-K, who were third on 16.43, not able to repeat their wins in both the five and six-year-old classes in 2022 and 2023.
The Young Horse competition takes place over four days and follows a different format. On Thursday, there is a qualifying phase which combines Dressage movements and a sequence of Cones. The top 50% then proceed to the Dressage on Saturday but on Friday, the lower 50% drive again for a place in the final phases, although the number permitted to go through at this stage is set by the officials. Sunday’s Combined Marathon takes place in an arena and consists of one or two Marathon type obstacles and Cones depending on the category. The course designer was Johan Jacobs (NED) who also designed the World Singles courses the week before.
The marking system also differs because the highest score wins. In the Dressage, the four judges work collaboratively and award marks out of 10 which are then averaged to give a single mark at the end, and they award one mark for the Combined Marathon. For the final placings, the scores from the Dressage and the Combined Marathon only are added together and any penalties are deducted from the total.
In total, 44 athletes came forward from 14 nations, the furthest travelled being Jodie Mckeone from Australia.
Athletes compete as individuals and there is no team competition, and each athlete can enter two horses per age category. The emphasis is on the performance of the horse and marks are awarded in accordance with the scales of training appropriate to the horse’s age and development.