The water was not quite ten centimeters on the riding arena in Linz-Ebelsberg when the sky opened its floodgates at the start of the State Show Jumping Championships on Wednesday. The amazing thing: You could still ride on. “The ground drains so well that the horses still had grip,” says Helmut Morbitzer. The organizer has come a long way in the equestrian world, but the fact that this track was practically dry again within a minute surprised even him: “We’ve always had good ground in Ebelsberg, but it’s never been so good.” In the spring, the cinder blocks underneath had been meticulously cleaned, and it’s now paying off.
Some absentees
There was a small interruption, however, not because of the rain, but because the electricity in the entire district had failed for almost 30 minutes after a lightning strike. “If there’s lightning, you’re not allowed to ride anyway, it’s too dangerous,” says Morbitzer.
The favorites include defending champion Roland Englbrecht from Schörfling or Bianca Babanitz, who rides for Morbitzer’s stable. Although it is about the state championship title, Austria’s elite is not all at the start in Linz. The reason is a Nations Cup also taking place this weekend in Budapest and the CHIO in Aachen, where Max Kühner was fifth after the first day. “It would not have been possible to skip the state championships before,” Morbitzer is not happy about it.
Source: Nachrichten
