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Local hero Victoria Max-Theurer impressed with her two top horses Birkhof’s Topas FBW and Abegglen FH NRW at the CDI3* tournament at Schloss Achleiten. At the end of her home tournament, the 37-year-old rider from Upper Austria conjured up a beautiful freestyle with ‘Abby’ in the Schlossparkviereck, which not only made the hearts of the enthusiastic spectators beat faster, but also received a score of 81.735 from the top-class jury.

The German rider Laura Strobel and Valparaiso 2 came second with a score of 77.650 percent. The 30-year-old completed her first music freestyle with the Max-Theurer-horse. The Swiss rider Delia Eggenberger and her Fairtrade followed in third place with a personal best score of 75.200 percent.

“I am really happy today! Unfortunately we had a little insecurity in the traversal, I rode in too timidly. But we had a lot of super highlights, for example in the canter and in the pirouettes, we were also super in the piaffe and passage and we rode the changes to the point. It was only our third music freestyle. Abby did very well today, it was very harmonious – I am more than satisfied. It really makes me want to do it more often,” Vici Max-Theurer beamed.

Multiple Olympian Victoria Max-Theurer Dazzles on a “Perfect Weekend”

The freestyle to the music of Verdi’s La Traviata and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, to which the multiple Olympic participant already danced with Abegglen at her home tournament in 2021, seemed to inspire the 13-year-old Westphalian gelding in particular: “This classical music, which Michael Erdmann again played perfectly for us and mixed to perfection, suits Abegglen perfectly. He gave me a great performance, I trusted him and he trusted me because I could give him security. It was very cool! A nice ending to a perfect weekend.”

Max-Theurer’s partner Stefan Lehfellner, who opted for the spectator role this time, gave a similarly positive summary: “We can look back on a perfect weekend. It’s nice to be able to do the things you work hard on in training and then put them into practice in the test. Both Abby and Topas showed how fit they are and at what level they can currently deliver. This is not only good for Vici, but also for the whole team. During the home tournament, I was already itching to take part myself. But we deliberately decided against it and used the time to prepare thoroughly for Aachen. This will be a big highlight for me and I am really looking forward to it.”

The Upper Austrian will soon be competing for the first time at the CDI5* in Aachen with Roberto Carlos MT.