Obviously, it is the dream of almost every horse-fan to ride in Aachen one day. But only very few pursue their dream as ambitiously as Richard Vogel, who won the Final of Germany’s U25 Jumping Trophy of the German Top Level Competition Sport Foundation in the Prize of the Müter Family today.

The trials for Germany’s most talented under 25-year-old show-jumpers were staged In Mannheim, Wiesbaden and Balve. The best of them were allowed to compete at the CHIO Aachen this weekend. The starter list includes names that have already proven themselves in top international sport, such as Laura Klaphake and Maurice Tebbel for instance, who both rode for the winning team in the Mercedes-Benz Nations Cup on Thursday evening.

But not even they had a chance against the 21-year-old Richard Vogel today with the ten-year-old Hanoverian-bred Solitaer. The professional rider from Ludger Beerbaum’s stable sped across the jump-off course with his grey horse in an unbeatable time of 41.25 seconds and left the two European Championship team silver medallists of the Young Riders, Cedric Wolf with Cho Chang J (who also claimed silver in the individual classification of the European Championships) and Justine Tebbel with Light Star, trailing behind him.

Richard Vogel’s success was anything else but coincidental. “I have prepared for this jumping competition all season with Solitaer. Each time I rode him, I had Aachen in mind,” the rider who comes from Baden-Württemberg stated. “It was a new experience for me to go to shows with the aim of preparing for a certain goal rather than just to win – that is one of many things I have learnt from Ludger Beerbaum.”

He already dreamt about riding in Aachen one day as a small child. His deceased mother came from a horse-loving family. He rode at his first German Championships on a horse that descended from the breeding stock of his grandfather. Richard’s father supports his passion, but didn’t actually ride himself. However, Richard’s uncle does and he knows Philipp Weishaupt, so he was able to put his nephew into contact with the Beerbaum Stables. Richard introduced himself and was able to stay. At the time, he had already completed his training as a professional rider. Before that he left school a year before taking his A’ Levels – to the distain of his family. “In that respect I am quite stubborn. I simply knew that this is what I want to do!”

Now Richard has achieved his goal for the year. “So I can go back to normal everyday life now. It was down to the generosity of my boss, Ludger Beerbaum that I was able to compete here. At a show for four days with just one horse – that is like being on vacation.” It is not just any old horse either, Solitaer was bred by Dietrich Schulze, the deceased husband of Ludger Beerbaum’s long-standing sponsor, Madeleine Winter-Schulze. Richard: “He was definitely keeping his fingers crossed for me up above.” It certainly helped!