3. CIAT de REDEFIN (D)
July 1st - 3rd  2022

 

The traditional ‘Evening of the Nations’, as well as the entire event, was organized with professional and loving skill by Dorothea von Eberhardt. This outside event, where the international participants bring along culinary specialties from their home areas, unfortunately had to be spontaneously transferred to the stud director’s office due to a lengthy downpour although the weather forecast had promised a dry evening. Ironically, because Mecklenburg was suffering from a longstanding drought the rain ought to have been most welcome. The participants, however, were not put off and partied till late. Therefore, some people were not quite as fit as they might otherwise have been before the reconnaissance drive on Saturday morning.

At noon, all 21 participants appeared in time for the presentation of the turnouts. The jury consisted of Baron Christian de Langlade (F), Tadeusz Kolacz (PL) and Hartmuth Huber (D). There were very many charming turnouts such as Irma Voorn van Sleewen´s (NL) hackney put to a
Liverpool gig, or Ebbo Schelten`s (NL) tandem of Welsh cobs to a morning cart. The competition also included correct rural turnouts such as Heinz Poll´s pair of coldbloods to a hunting carriage, and Peter Lange´s heavy warmbloods also to a hunting carriage. This year, Urbain van de Voorde (BEL) did not turn out tandem with his most successful Spanish horses but drove them as a pair to a most stylish spider phaeton by Kruck, Wiesbaden. Unfortunately, one of his horses had health problems thus forcing him to take part as an unofficial competitor. And despite damage to his four- wheel dogcart Prof. Paolo Fornara was still able to successfully drive the competition.

During the course of the afternoon ,Mrs Kirsten Stelljes introduced the Mecklenburg breed of horse to the public and following this, she introduced the CIAT turnouts with Anette Spitzenpfeil adding specific information. Immediately after the Presentation the participants - who were clothed most elegantly for the presentation anyway – were able to attend the BBC concert in the riding school. At dusk, many visitors to this popular event had gathered in the stud’s park and put up their picnic equipment in the shade of the trees of the spacious park in order to enjoy the parade of the horses and turnouts and to hear the interesting explanations. Eventually they struggled to their feet and also poured into the riding school for the concert. Afterwards, the temperature sunk to bearable level and many of them settled down beneath the trees with candle light and Rotkäppchen-Sekt till late for a lengthy chat.

Sunday’s Routier, (roads and tracks), turned out to be a pleasant drive. On the one hand the rain had provided roads without dust but, on the other hand, the horses had to pull over sandy tracks; a fact that the drivers had to include in their time calculation. A positive feature of the drive was that most of the track lead through the shadow of the forest, with the effect that it was cooler. The horse flies, however, were quite active. The PCs, (difficulties or skills), did not offer problems. First up was the ‘Circle’, next the ‘Drinking Glass’, third the ‘Greeting’, and the last the ‘Passage’
The drivers proved to be well acquainted with these tasks and only made a few mistakes. The ‘Drinking Glass’ and the ‘Passage’ were particular magnets for the public´s interest because they were laid out on the green in the village of Belsch, and the challenge of the this last was that the turnouts had to pass close by a live musical band, which played amusing tunes the whole afternoon, and together with the spontaneously arranged serving of beer produced the mood of a fair. Sad to say, the popular master driver Eckert Meinecke´s horse was injured in the first really harmless difficulty, causing this really experienced horseman to have to give up for the sake of his horses.

The Maniabilité, (cones), in the afternoon was given a more relaxed character by the comments of Anette Spitzenpfeil. However, it was still pretty strenuous for the horses and not because the course was so long or difficult but because the heat rose considerably during the afternoon and the horses had already completed the roads and tracks that morning.

Sad to say, the turnouts had to wait for the prize-giving ceremony for a while - although luckily under the shadowy trees of the Hofchaussee - due to every organiser’s nightmare, the breakdown of their computer. Perhaps it had heatstroke but the printer was not able to print the list of winners.
Hectically, nervosity, grumbling, but eventually, Thaddeusz Kolacz rushed – despite the heat – across the show ring with the list in his hand to give out the rosettes and cups to the carriage drivers who had lined up in a disciplined way.
Finally, the festive ceremony ended up in a few laps of honour accompanied by the traditional tune: “Good bye, my little officer of the Guard…”

 

 

The winners were as follow:

Pony singles
1. Regine Schwarzer (D)

Ponys tandems
1. Ebbo Scheltens (NL)

Coldblood singles
1. Klaus Baumeister (D)
2. Thomas Wöllenstein (D)

Coldblood pairs
1. Torsten Hess (D)
2. Heinz Poll (D)

Horse singles
1. André Szewczyk (D)
2. Irma Voorn-van Sleeuwen (NL)
3. Dagmar Wegner (D)

Horse pairs
1. Siegfried Kusel (D)
2. Prof. Paolo Fornara (D)
3. Tom Schicketanz (D)

Horse tyeams
1. Matthias Pfeifer (D)
2. M. Meloth (D)