German Olympic silver medalist Isabell Werth will be making her return to the show ring aboard the 15-year old Westfalian gelding El Santo at the 2016 CDI 5* Mallorca on Friday 7 October 2016.
The bay Rhinelander gelding by Ehrentusch x Rythmus is owned by Werth's long time sponsor Madeleine Winter-Schulze.
In January 2016 Spanish Jose Antonio Garcia Mena, who regularly helps Werth with piaffe training at home, got the ride on El Santo in an attempt to qualify on the Spanish team for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Unfortunately the partnership was not a success. At their show debut at a local event in Unna-Massen, Germany, in april the pair first finished second in the Grand Prix with 68.467%, but then had to withdraw for the Kur as the horse knocked himself and became unsound. They did not return to the show ring after that.
Werth is now back aboard El Santo for the 5* Grand Prix in Mallorca. They will be competing against a familiar horse, the 17-year old Hanoverian River of Joy (by Ravallo x Cavalier) who was formerly owned by Isabell's first sponsor, Dr. Uwe Schulten-Baumer, and competed by Ellen Schulten-Baumer before he sold to Spain in 2015 for Antonio Diaz Porras to ride.
Photo © Selen Scarsi
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