Lehfellner Premiers Victoria Max-Theurer's Abegglen at 2022 Austrian Championships

Dressage

Austria

Austrian World Championship team rider Stefan Lehfellner has taken over the ride on the Grand Prix horse Abegglen, which is owned and previously competed by his life partner, Victoria Max-Theurer.

After a five-month absence from competition, Abegglen made a surprising return to the show scene under a new rider at the 2022 Austrian Dressage Championships which are held this weekend (2 - 4 September 2022) in Steyr.

Abegglen is a 12-year old Westfalian gelding by Ampere out of Curly Sue (by Carabas). He is bred by Christa Nagelschmidt-Terwort and was named after the Swiss footballer Max Abegglen.

Baumgurtel - Bouten - Hermes

The horse was discovered by the German Baumgurtel family as a 2-year old at the 2012 Westfalian Stallion Licensing in Munster-Handorf. He was first started by Matthias Bouten and in 2014 Marcus Hermes trained the horse to Grand Prix level. Abegglen was 15th at the 2016 Bundeschampionate in the 6-year old finals. In 2017 they were 12th in the Nurnberger Burgpokal finals and in 2018 fifth in the Louisdor Cup Finals.

Hermes and Abegglen made their international Grand Prix debut at the CDI Oldenburg in November 2018. In 2019 they showed at CDi's in Le Mans, Mannheim, Munich, Fritzens, Verden, Waregem and Stuttgart. At the 2019 CDI Stuttgart in November their scores peaked to 74.652% in the Grand Prix and 75.106% in the Special, which qualified them to be submitted to the German B-squad.

Victoria Max-Theurer

After Stuttgart Abegglen sold to Victoria Max-Theurer as her Tokyo Olympic hopeful. The horse qualified for the Games and travelled to Japan but was withdrawn from the Grand Prix because of dental issues. At the 2021 European Championships in Hagen two months later they were 22nd in the Special with 71.672%.

Victoria on Abegglen at the 2021 European
Championships in Hagen

Trained by Isabell Werth, Victoria and Abegglen kicked of 2022 on the World Cup circuit, competing first in Neumunster, followed by 's Hertogenbosch where Max-Theurer retired from the short Grand Prix test after the horse showed resistance in the piaffe.

New Start

The Austrian Championship is not the first competition where Stefan Lehfellner has ridden Abegglen. The combination has also been previously spotted at the indoor show in Ankum, Germany, in a test of choice class on 24 March 2022.

Victoria and Stefan have regularly swapped horses, for instance with Fackeltanz, Di Navarone, and Rockabilly, amongst others.

Lehfellner and Abegglen won the first round, the Grand Prix, at the 2022 Austrian Championships on Saturday with 73.500%