US duo wins at Achleiten debut

Daniel Winkler
Jul 25
2 min read

US rider Benjamin Ebeling wins the opening competition of the Freestyle Tour at his Achleiten debut. Austria's Florian Bacher comes fourth.

Benjamin Ebeling and Bellena have only been a couple for six months.

A brilliant start to the international four-star dressage tournament at Achleiten Castle: 25-year-old American Benjamin Ebeling secured victory in the first Grand Prix competition on his debut in the castle park arena. With his mare Bellena, he scored 71.114 percent, relegating Lisa Müller (GER) with Gut Wettlkam's D'Avie FRH (69.973%) and Laura Strobel (GER) with Valparaiso NRW (68.669%) to second and third place. Austrias Florian Bacher (AUT) came in in fourth place with Fidertraum OLD and 68.397 percent.

“This is my first time here in Achleiten and I'm really thrilled,” said Ebeling after his victory. "It's a beautiful place – whether it's raining or sunny, the atmosphere is simply fantastic. For us dressage riders, this is a real hot spot. I would like to thank the Max-Theurer family for allowing us to ride here.“ The US team rider lives in Wellington, Florida, originally comes from Los Angeles, and has been training with Christoph Koschel for ten years. ”The horse was trained by my father – using the same system I grew up with. I am really grateful that I get to ride Bellena here."

The performance in the dressage arena was an important milestone on the couple's path to sporting maturity: “We've only been a team for six months, but things are starting to develop really well. Today, the halt after the extended trot was a particular highlight – it set the tone for the whole ride.”

Austrias Florian Bacher was also satisfied after his test, even if not everything went perfectly: “All in all, I'm very satisfied. It was a clear improvement on the last competition.” The only downside: “He didn't really pull me during the extended trot today, which caused him to become a little crooked. But overall, there were many good things.” The Austrian was particularly impressed by the progress made in the technically demanding lessons: “I thought the one-tempi changes were very good, as were the zigzag pirouettes and half-passes – you can see that we've worked well.” Bacher attributes a small mistake in the two-tempi changes to external circumstances: “He snorted because of a fly – that can happen.”

After the test, Bacher wants to analyze the round with the team: “We'll discuss it internally and make a few adjustments so that we can step it up a notch in the next test.”

For Benjamin Ebeling, the success in Achleiten was also a step on the way to his big goals: “Of course, I'm thinking about the upcoming World Equestrian Games in Aachen in 2026 – but above all, I want to ride consistently good, faultless tests with power and harmony.” Ebeling wants to show this power and harmony on Saturday in the freestyle with rock music by Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, and Beyoncé: “Belena is a strong girl – she needs strong music.”