Helmut Schönstetter & Toulanda Degli Assi Thrives in the Grand Prix of Vejer de La Frontera CSI 2*

By Jumper News on 2024-01-23

Vejer de La Frontera, Spain – January 21, 2024 – It was a German win in the €28,200 Grand Prix of Vejer de La Frontera CSI 2* on Sunday and the anthem rang out across the Milton arena here at Montenmedio as we closed the first week of the 30th Andalucía Pre-Sunshine Tour, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalucía, through Tourism and Sports of Andalucía.

Helmut Schönstetter (GER) was the winner in this hotly contested Grand Prix class. There were nine riders in the jump off and each of the first four went faster than the rider before, really putting on the pressure for the final competitors. However Toulanda Degli Assi, a ten year old by Toulon x Nabab de Reve, could not be beaten, stopping the timers in 36.68 seconds, although there was a late challenge from Swiss, Edouard Schmitz (SUI) with the nine year old mare, Be Hippy TT (Balou Du Rouet x Pep) and who came in second, being timed in 36.80 seconds.

Helmut has been coming to Sunshine Tour every year, for many years with Max Kühner, training and riding the Young Horses, which is his actual job. He told us it is “really super to have won a GP here”.

Helmut will be at the Tour for 5 weeks and he hopes to jump two or three more Grand Prix classes with the mare, Toulanda Degli Assi “but not every week”. He thanked her owner, Milena Pappas of Premium Mares BV and who also has great passion for the sport, and for breeding top quality horses.

Helmut told us he was very happy with ‘Toulanda’; “The course was difficult but fair, the jump off was very fast which was good for me as my horse is very motivated and has a big heart so it was my day!”

In third place was Romanian rider Andrea Herck (ROM), who has had a brilliant week here with nine podium places. On Sunday, he stopped the clock in 37.47 seconds with Epsilon de Roulard (Upsilon x Exploit de Roulard), another mare who has shown her class with three super outings in this week’s CSI 2*.