Lexington, KY - The upcoming Olympic Games in London have made U.S. representation at CHIO Aachen this week scarce, but the riders and horses that did make it to Germany have been on top of their game.  Lauren Hough has been one of those riders and Saturday morning she was impressive once again in winning the Sparkasse Youngsters Cup Finale and finishing atop the Youngsters Cup standings.

See final Sparkasse Youngsters Cup standings here.

The Sparkasse Youngsters Cup is a series of two qualifier classes and a final. After the qualifiers Hough (Wellington, FL) & her own Ohlala were tied with Germany’s Hans Dieter Dreher & Canberra R in the overall standings. Hough and Ohlala finished behind the German pair in the first qualifier and outran them by less than one tenth of a second to finish first in the second qualifier.

When Dreher failed to qualify for the the jump-off in the finale the window was opened. Hough guided Ohlala through it with a speedy 46.37 fault free round. That was one second faster than runners up Philipp Weishaupt  & Chico 784 and good enough for a win on the day, and in the final standings.

For her win Lauren earned a foal from For Pleasure, on of the horses that helped the German show jumping team win gold at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

The final standings in the Sparkasse Youngsters Cup reflected the final standings in Saturday’s finale. Hough & Ohlala took first, Weishaupt  & Chico 784 second, and another German pair, Marc bettinger & Zydoctro vd Kapel, third.

Follow all the action at CHIO Aachen here.