Aachen, Germany – Veteran four-in-hand driver Chester Weber (Ocala, Fla.) and his team produced an excellent dressage test today at the Driving Stadium at CHIO Aachen to open the competition with a bang, topping the class of 25 entries with a score of 35.59. Weber and team finished ahead of Boyd Exell (AUS) and team, who scored a 38.79, and Mareike Harm (GER), who received a 40.99.

Weber and the team have always found success in the dressage phase, but today’s result is one that is important for the entire Live Oak team as they look ahead to the FEI Driving World Championships Four-in-Hand Horses hosted in Szilvasvarad, Hungary, this coming September. The team of First Edition, Julius V, Kadora, and Nico Teusje C, received top marks across the judging panel, including a class-high score of 191.00 the judge at C, Pia Skar of Denmark.

“There were no obvious mistakes, and I was really pleased with the horses. This is one of the best team of dressage horses in the world. We won here last year, and they’ve been dominant so far this year, but you still have to go in and get it done,” said Weber.

Of the team, Nico Teusje C is the newest addition to the foursome, having come into his own over the past few years in Weber’s program. As the youngest horse on the team at just six-years-old, “Nico” has steadily improved through the team’s summer campaign and Weber continued to be impressed with the gelding’s willingness and readiness to step-up, making the move to put him in the team’s line up in all three phases.

“Nico has done a lot of shows with us this year and one of his first big competitions was Windsor. He was a COVID purchase, and I found him on Facebook and was quite young when I purchased him. Since we’ve been training all year, he just keeps stepping up. We were using him in some training last week to help one of our other horses in the team who is a bit hotter, and this one just kept impressing me and not making any mistakes and he just really has done a good job in the team,” said Weber.

As for the rest of the weekend, Weber is looking forward to the “Top Score” competition tomorrow, followed by the remaining phases, including the marathon on Saturday. The track will be tricky, as the ground is still wet from the significant rain throughout the spring and within the past few days, which must be considered in terms of the strategy and planning.

“The marathon looks quite good, but this is always a very tricky track. The ground here is very wet, they’ve done a lot of work to try and work on the ground, so we’ll see how it goes on Saturday,” he concluded.

Results

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