Outstanding commitment to equestrian sport

The Tug Restaurant hosted the Annual Tug Dressage and Jumping Derby at Reiterverein Swakopmund for the dressage, in which the competitors had to ride 3 different tests in order to qualify. The top 4 junior/adult combinations and the top four children had to show their riding skills, as each rider had to ride each of the four horses in a special derby dressage test.

A high quality of dressage was ridden and in the junior/adult category, the top four rider combinations were: Gesche Gilchrist on Seeis Dansuelo, Sumari Piepmeyer on Katiti Legolas, Elizabeth Rossouw on Büllsport Constantin and Aniké Maritz on Baron von Sphinxblick. Both the horse and rider get marked for this event, and top derby rider was Gesche Gilchrist and top derby horse was Baron von Sphinxblick. For the children, the four qualifiers were: Nadine Esselmann on Mahati, Sarita Rossouw on Fury, Carmen Piepmeyer on Jason and Kyra Roets on Oskar. The Top Rider was Sarita Rossouw and the top horse was Oskar.
For most of the spectators, the more interesting viewing was the jumping.
After two qualifying rounds, the riders competed in a jumping derby course. This is a show jumping course with more obstacles and also incorporates some fixed obstacles like in a cross country event. As this is a challenging course, only riders from 90cm upwards compete in the derby.
The 90 cm derby was won by Gesche Gilchrist on Seeis Dansuelo, winning both the dressage and jumping derbies and shows what an incredible horse rider she is, with a beautifully trained and obedient horse. Runners up in this competition were Fran Marie Lang-Becker on her home bred horse, Mercury and Anike Maritz on Baron von Sphinxblick, also a contender in the dressage derby. The 1 metre derby was won by Voigtskirsch Avatar ridden by Kerstin Garbade with runners up, Michelle Kunzle on BeeBee Jay and Ingrid Kotze on Sentinel.
The 1.10 derby won by Sheena Dürr on Claratal Duneside Kiera as the only clear round, and the two runners-up on four faults each, Nadine Flemming on Seeis Eymet and Svenja Spath on Metzger Drilling Bodenhausen Zambezi. The 1.20 derby had 2 contenders and the winner was Michelle Kunzle on Mon Gold. Without The Tug’s commitment to the sport, an exciting weekend of high quality jumping and dressage would not be possible. Brett Southworth from The Tug was at hand to ensure all trophies were received by the various winners, and he assured the riding community of the continued support of The Tug Restaurant.