22 juni 2009

New team for Christoph Sandmann

Germany’s Christoph Sandmann has recently bought four KWPN horses of British four-in-hand driver Peter Bennett. Sandmann started at the national driving event in Exloo, the Netherlands, this weekend to try some of the new horses.

The silver team member of Beesd performed to his satisfaction in Exloo, driving two Dutch Warmbloods Slicco and Variant (both v. Manno) and two horses of his ‘old’ team. Sandmann explains his purchase: “I lost three horses in the past two years. Except for one horse, I have a completely new team now. When Bennett came to train at my place, I was already interested in his horses, but he did not want to sell them at first. Later on, he offered them to me anyway and I made use of his offer. I started with two new horses in Exloo, the other two are not quite ready yet for competition. This year is a try-out year for me to see which horses go best in what position. My goal is to compete at the WEG in Kentucky in 2010 with my new team.
German coach Ewald Meier has shown faith in Sandmann’s new team by putting Sandmann in the German team in Aachen, together with young talents Michael Brauchle and Christian Plücker.