The Chio Aachen loads a Danish rider with reference to horse welfare, but her controversial coach Andreas Helgstrand can start again.
It is a explosive return to the Chio in Aachen. Andreas Helgstrand rides to the dressage stadium in the Soers on Thursday afternoon at the stallion Jovian. For a year he was blocked after an animal welfare scandal, and only since March he has been fighting competitions again.
Now he is back on the very big stage in Aachen, starts in the Nations Prize for Denmark. The Danish team ends up in fifth place, and the best Danish individual result is ninth. The audience greets and says goodbye with warm applause.
Videos show massive spore use
Of course this is not, because when it comes to animal welfare, the emotions in the equestrian community often cook high. When a Danish TV team in 2023 shows massive spore and denture use in secretly filmed recordings, the outcry is great. Helgstrand cannot be seen personally, but the pictures come from his stable.
“In the documentation you can see examples of poor use of horses. This is unacceptable,” said Helgstrand a few weeks later in a video message in a video message at the request of the WDR Instagram Canal @diemitdenphoren – and praises improvement.
Werth rides Helgstrand horse To Olympic gold
Helgstrand (48) is an internationally renowned rider, won the World Cup in Aachen in 2006, bronze with the team at Olympia 2008. He is also very active in horse breeding with his company “Helgstrand Dressage”.
While Helgstrand’s lock switched to Isabell Werth. Just because Werth harmonized directly with Wendy, she received a starting place at the Olympics. In Paris, she won team gold and individual silver and thus became the most successful German summer Olympic in history.
Also Helgstrand student blocked
While Helgstrand rides in Aachen, his compatriot Carina Cassö Krüth is missing. She has also become a leaked video of her. It shows how Krüth strikes her horse with the whip in training twice in 2022. As a coach of the 40-year-old: Andreas Helgstrand.
According to Horse.de, the Danish association imposed a fine of 5,000 Danish crowns (equivalent to 670 euros) against Cassö Krüth and blocked it for three months. This punishment has also expired and Krüth would have liked to start in Aachen. But in their case, the organizers refused the starting law.
Cassö-Krüth excluded, Helgstrand not
Carina Cassö Krüth 2022 in Neumünster
“On the one hand, our decision is based on our values and our understanding of horse welfare, which in our opinion was not always respected by the rider,” he wrote a Chio spokesman for the Danish public service broadcast.
On the other hand, the CHIO also explains that Helgstrand can start, on the other hand, on the WDR request that he could not have excluded it – because of Helgstrand’s nomination for the nation price. “The final compilation of the teams is only the responsibility of the responsible equipment of the invited nations,” says the response of the organizing Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein (ALRV).
Helgstrand starts again on Saturday
Cassö Krüth was not nominated for the Nations Prize and should only ride for four-star tests-i.e. in the second highest category. “For the invitation of individual riders, the decision -making authority lies with the organizer,” writes the ALRV. “We are not only based on sporting criteria, but in particular also on the values that have always shaped the Chio Aachen.” For the Alrv “the well -being of the horses always has top priority and is above every sporting success,” it continues.
Helgstrand will have at least one more appearance in Aachen: on Saturday from 9 a.m. at the Grand Prix Special.
Our sources:
- Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein eV
- horse.de
- Dr
