San Patrignano: July 20, 2025 - There were twenty two horse and rider teams competing in Class 1, Bayer at San Patrignano’s 11th International Show Jumping Competition “Vincenzo Muccioli Challenge”. The class, reserved to seven year old horses, was the first chance for the riders to test out the enormous grass competition arena.
The course was designed by Swiss duo Rölf Ludi and Heiner Fischer and was clean with many straight lines and few challenges for the young horses. The winner was Joie Gatlin from the United States riding Twindoline, a Dutch jumper by Namelus R who turned in a clean round with a time of 58.01. Behind Gatlin was Germany’s Markus Beerbaum on Cartell, who also gave a clean round but lagged two seconds behind the winner (61.32). Third place went to Eric Van Der Vleuten on Ticket, also clean but with a time of 62.91.
The best Italian in the class and last among the clean rounds was Giuseppe d’Onofrio riding Lagherfeld, a Sella Italiana by Lancer III who came in eighth place with 74.88.
Italy and the Ukraine end in a tie in the Scot Prize
The second prize of the day (“Scot”) of the “Vincenzo Muccioli Challenge” International Horse Show gives the Italian fans their first thrill of victory with the win of Juan Carlos Garcia on Contact BZ, who tied with the Ukraine’s Gregory Wathelet on Caesar. Both rode to clear rounds with a time of 30.53, and were followed by a set of five riders who all came in within a single second. Germany’s Otto Becker was third on Nightlover with a time of 30.86, Richard Spooner from the United States was fifth on Apache with 31.44, followed by Christian Ahlmann on Catwalk (31.57) for the German team.
The class, which featured 41 competitors, was divided into four consecutive phases. Only 28 horse and riders teams rode through to the second round by going clean in the first. The last fences seemed to be the ones that made a difference, as the course designers gave riders tricky, if time saving options. Only the most well balanced horses and bravest riders could shave those precious tenths of seconds off their time and come out winners.
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