Clooney 51: From World Breeding Championships finalist to European Champion

Clooney 51: From World Breeding Championships finalist to European Champion

Clooney 51 (by Cornet Obolenksy) is the current European champion. And since next year's European Championships were canceled, he will be the European Champion for a little longer. But what did his way to the top look like? A portrait. 

Clooney was born at breeder Bernd Richters stable in 2006. During his life as a young horse, the Cornet-Obolenksy son jumped mainly national and regional competitions in Germany. He was already noticed here in the classes for 5 and 6 year old horses. In April 2013, he appears on the international stage for the first time with his then rider Jana Wargers. The German rider debutes him in a class in for 7-year-old in Ebreichsdorf. The duo immediately jumps to fourteenth place. In the same weekend they jump to a seventh place in the final.

Martin Fuchs also noticed that Clooney has exceptional qualities because it would immediately be Wargers' last ride with Clooney. From 2015, the Swiss, with whom he still jumps at the highest level, will take place in the saddle. They immediately make their debut at CSI5 * level in Doha. There they jump to second place in the Grand Prix of Al Shaqab. They continue their way to the top in March 2015 on the Toscana Tour in Arezzo where they jump to second and third place in the CSI3 * competition during the first week. After this they travel back to Northern Europe where they compete at the Paris GCT and the Nations Cup of Lummen. They will jump to the fifth place in that Nations Cup. Other great achievements that year are a fourth place in the CSI5 * of Aachen, the victory in the Nations Cup of St. Gallen, a first and second place during a CSI3 * in Gorla Minore, a second place in the Nations Cup of Hickstead , and several top ten rankings in the CSI5 * -W of Helsinki. The first year of Clooney and Fuchs at the highest level is therefore exceptional to say the least.

That good trend continues in 2016, where the duo immediately jumps to a sixth place during their first competition of the year in Basel. Also in Zurich, Fuchs and Clooney get three top ten placings. The duo will participate in several Nations Cups that year, such as those of La Baule, St Gallen and Rotterdam. They will also go to Rio that year to participate in the Olympics. During the first day, the duo achieved a disappointing 27th place under the Brazilian sun. The second day they finish in sixth place. The duo would eventually finish in a tied ninth place on their Olympic debut. In the Nations Cup final in Barcelona that year, they are also part of the Swiss team that jumped to sixth place, besides that, they also jumped to a third place in the Verona World Cup and a fourth place of the World Cup in Stuttgart that same year. 

Other highlights from Clooney's career include a fourth place at the World Cup final in Omaha, second place at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon in 2018, second place in the World Cup final in Gothenburg in 2019 and of course his European title in 2019. The now 14-year-old gelding was again Fuchs' first choice for the Olympic Games in Tokyo this year and that will probably be no different next year. Fuchs and Clooney are perhaps the prototype of a combination: they started together relatively inexperienced at the highest level and are 'living the dream' as they jump from one classification to another.