Everyday life had him back faster than expected. Gerrit Nieberg, the winner of the Great Prize in Aachen, cheered by 40,000 people on Sunday, stood in a long queue at Düsseldorf Airport on Monday. “Two planes have already been cancelled,” he says, slightly annoyed, on the phone. The vacation with girlfriend Johanna on the Greek island of Kos had been planned for a long time, even before the 29-year-old won the prize money of 500,000 euros with a brilliant ride on the eleven-year-old Westphalian gelding Ben in the Soers.
Of course, this is not for him, but for the owner of the horse, his father, the two-time team Olympic champion Lars Nieberg, and his boss, the Münster entrepreneur Hendrik Snoek, who was also once highly successful in the show jumping saddle. With this victory, Nieberg also bought the ticket to CSIO Calgary in September, another Grand Slam station. There he can top up the prize money by one million euros.
It was good that Lars Nieberg, 58, wore his sunglasses as he heard the words of gratitude his son found for him, the father, teacher and biggest fan. Without him, Gerrit Nieberg would not be where he was on Sunday, and that he would finally fulfill the wish that his father had cherished all his riding life, namely to win the Grand Prix of Aachen, the most important show jumping event in German equestrian sport – that was already worth wet eyes.
The champagne for the right tip remained corked: Nobody had bet on Nieberg
Aachen should now be the springboard to bigger tasks. “We want to go to Herning,” says Gerrit Nieberg, “that’s what we’ve been working towards all year.” The World Championships will be held in the Danish trade fair city in August, four German riders are allowed to go, seven are hoping, at least. And Gerrit Nieberg’s participation no longer sounds presumptuous. “The national coach will probably start thinking a bit,” said Lars Nieberg.
The Otto Becker mentioned is keeping all options open. “I can’t set up a new team after every tournament, in the end the most consistent ones come along,” he explains. He has full respect for Nieberg’s performance. “He had a plan that he pulled off very coolly against really, really strong competition.” No one had Nieberg on their slip, the bottle of champagne that the sponsor wanted to raffle among the media representatives for the right tip remained corked.
In the five-man jump-off, the greenhorn defeated four experienced champions, all of whom had tried their best at championships, the Olympic Games and Grand Prix. Five riders, five horses, one task: namely to overcome the nine obstacles, up to 1.65 meters high, that course designer Frank Rothenberger had put in their way, quickly and without being knocked off.
The huge Aachen stadium invites you to gallop forward, but in the end it was the skilful choice of route that made the difference. Nieberg was the only one to choose a shortcut to the double combination that the others might have considered but not dared; that brought the decisive fractions of a second ahead. Before that, he had asked the 2012 Olympic champion, the Swiss Steve Guerdat, for advice on whether he could take a risk. “Steve said you can do it. So I did it and that was good,” said Gerrit Nieberg.
Exuberance is not anchored in Nieberg’s genes, one remains factual and focused. A family in which everyone has dedicated themselves to horses, even if Gerrit was only 13 years old, at an age when other rider children are already riding ponies. Until then he wanted to play football instead of riding horses and even dreamed of a professional career. In the end it got to him.
Supported by his parents – mother Gitta was also a successful rider in the past – and together with his brother Max, a training and trading stable was raised at Gut Berl near Münster. Max is responsible for selling horses, Gerrit rides, father Lars watches every gallop of the offspring. Everyone builds on the other. Lars Nieberg says that people sometimes talk plainly. And that’s only possible if everyone speaks the same language.