PHOTO – Team RED MILLS rider Bertram Allen and the seven year old mare Barnike, on their way to winning the gold medal at the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses 2014 at Lanaken in Belgium. (FEI/Dirk Caremans) 

22/09/2014

Team RED MILLS show jumping rider Bertram Allen and the seven-year-old mare Barnike, have become the first combination in history to score back-to-back wins in at the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses 2014 at Lanaken in Belgium.

 

Having landed the gold medal in 2013, Bertram Allen and the daughter of Baldwin B, returned to Lanaken again this year to record a spectacular repeat gold-medal winning performance at the home of the Zangersheide Stud.

 

A massive 236 starters began the competition on Thursday with the top 32 going through to Sunday’s final over a tough 1m45 course. Ten combinations managed to jump clear in the opening round but the jump-off saw just one double clear round, with 19 year-old Bertram Allen from Co Wexford beating off a host of the worlds top riders to land the coveted World Breeding Championships Gold medal with Barnike, who was representing the Dutch Ridinghorse and Pony Studbook, 

 

Speaking afterward’s, Bertram Allen whose entire string of horses at his base in Germany are fed on Connolly’s RED MILLS feed said,

 

 “We did a few shows after Lanaken and they went well, but then she (Barnike) had a long rest of three or four months before starting again, and it took longer to bring her back this time. She was too fresh at first, but eventually she improved. I wasn’t expecting to win when I brought her here this time though!” Allen said.

 

“I took risks and the mare jumped even better against the clock – I think she likes to run!” he added.  

 

Earlier this year Bertram Allen won the coveted Longines Grand Prix of Dublin with Molly Malone V before going on to finish seventh individually at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy.

 

The Team RED MILLS Show Jumping squad also includes Edwina Tops Alexander, Shane and Trevor Breen, Denis Lynch, Billy Twomey, Dermott Lennon and Nicola Fitzgibbon.

 

 

RESULT  – FEI World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses 2014, Lanaken, Belgium 21/09/2014

Seven-Year-Old Final: GOLD – Barnike (Bertram Allen) IRL 0/0 41.33; SILVER -Casuality Z (Christian Ahlmann) GER 0/4 41.50; BRONZE – Hasard 1245 (Niklas Arvidsson) SWE 0/4 44.46