4 July 2016
Signy: Successful first edition
Signy is Switzerland hosted a very successful CAI2* competition for the first time last weekend, led by the enthusiastic Swiss four-in-hand driver Cyril Maret, who is based in Signy. For the first time in eight years, the Swiss were able to compete in an international competition in their own country. Apart from one Belgian and one Italian driver, the competitors field was made up of just Swiss drivers, but this did not affect the great atmosphere at the competition.
Cedric Scherrer won the dressage and the marathon and did not give away his leading position in the cones. The second place was claimed by Vera Bütikofer, followed by Linus Berther.
Christof König won the pony pairs class, with little advantage to Lea Schmidlin. Sandra Chardonnens finished third.
Stefan Ulrich was simply the best in the horse singles class. He won the dressage and the marathon, where his father Werner Ulrich acted as his groom. He remained clear in the cones and also won this phase of the competition. Sébastien Bottelli finished second at a respectable distance. The third place went to Céline Schaller.
Bruno Widmer put down the best performances in the horse pairs class, followed by Toni Windlin and Mario Bezzola.
The four-in-hand class resulted again in a battle between Werner Ulrich and Jérôme Voutaz. Ulrich won the dressage, Voutaz was the best in the marathon. Before the cones, Voutaz was in the lead with 6 points difference to Ulrich. Ulrich collected 10,55 penalty points in the cones course, which widened the gap between the two top drivers. Voutaz started off well, but already had three balls down in the first serpentine. He then had a problem with his harness and one of his grooms had to get off the carriage to fix it. After that, he drove fast and without any more mistakes and even managed to stay within the time allowed. He was crowned the winner, with Ulrich finishing second and Willy Birrer in third position.
Photos: Claudia Spitz
