Equigetic Jump - Gerrit Nieberg & Ben at the front of the Rolex Grand Prix of Spruce Meadows, Canada

On the 6th of September, 2022, Gerrit Nieberg and his horses Ben and Blues d’ Aveline arrived in Calgary for the Spruce Meadows Master’s. The winner of the Rolex Grand Prix of Aachen, tensions were high coming into this tournament.

However, the courses in Spruce Meadows have their own rules. The traditional International Ring contains the obstacles of several Olympic Games and also current obstacles from the World Championships in Herning in August.

The horses were able to recover a little from the long journey for the first few days and also get used to the time change (-8 hours) and the other climate (Calgary is over 1000m high).

Blues and Ben showed in the first classes how comfortable they felt at the altitude and that even Olympic obstacles do not matter to them. No Germans were represented in the Nations Prize this year and so we could cheer with the Swedes and keep our fingers crossed for Pius Schweitzer whose stallion Vancouver showed fantastic rounds with the equigetic jump.

In the Grand Prix on Sunday, the course seemed almost springable(?). The consequences being that distances and dimensions were so difficult and demanded courage and incredible trust in the rider.

Ben flew around the course and gave his fans two incredibly great rounds where the rider and horse made only 1 single fleeting mistake. This ended in a 5th place finish.

The victory in the Rolex Grand Prix also went to Germany and Daniel Deusser. His third big win of the year with Killer Queen.