Grand Prix and CAVALIADA Tour for Harm Lahde

The PKO Bank Polski Grand Prix, for the PKO Bank Polski prize and under the patronage of the Mayor of the City of Kraków, gathered 38 horse-and-rider combinations on the starting list. It was a competition counting for the world ranking, the FEI World Cup Central European League Final and for the CAVALIADA Tour. The course designer, Gérard Lachat from Switzerland - the same who will be working at the FEI World Cup Final in Basel in a few weeks' time - did not set an easy task for the riders.

‘The course was extremely demanding - the drawing required full concentration and the time allowed further enforced a high pace. It is difficult for me to point out which element was the most difficult, as poles fell at every point. However, the class was appropriate to the level of the competition and the semi-finals held and effectively selected the best and allowed others to gather valuable experience. Gérard did a really good job throughout the whole show.’ - said Szymon Tarant - sports director of the CAVALIADA Tour.

In the end, five pairs qualified for the jump-off. In the final barrage, the pair of Germany's Harm Lahde and Oak Grove's 12-year-old stallion Commander Bond galloped to victory for the second time during this year’s CAVALIADA Kraków. 

‘There were only 5 of us in the jump-off and I wanted to be as fast as possible, but there was no clears before me so I had to keep the poles up - it was a bit of a calculation of how fast I could go but not have a knockdown. I was worried about Amanda's ride because she is always very fast, especially with this horse, but today we managed to win. I'm definitely going to miss CAVALIADA, for us it's not an ordinary competition. We really enjoy coming to each of the Tour locations because it's always fantastic. Everything is top-notch here - the ground, the course designers, the prize pool, the fans - I could go on for another ten minutes about it.’ - Harm Lahde said.

Riding as the last to go, Amanda Slagter with Cornet Blue PS finished in second place and the Top 3 with one knockdown in the jump-off was closed by the Czech Republic's Ales Opatrny aboard Kapsones W.

Poland's best representative, Dawid Skiba, riding the 10-year-old horse Kasper, just missed out on the jump-off. The pair exceeded the time allowed by a mere 0.02 seconds and, with one penalty point, placed sixth.

Today's competition also decided who will win the right to compete in the World Cup final, which will be held in Basel from 1-6 April. The top athletes of the Central European League with a ‘ticket’ to this most important indoor event are: Czech Ales Opatrny, Hungarian Vince Jarmy and Romanian representative Andrea Herck.

The PKO Bank Polski Grand Prix was also the grand finale of CAVALIADA Tour 2024/2025, with the most points this season collected by the winner, Harm Lahde, who also triumphed in Friday's semi-final.

‘I love the CAVALIADA for the audience - it's great, the best of all the shows I've been to and the cheering is great every time.’ - said Lahde at the prizegiving ceremony.

Second place went to Dutch rider Jur Vrieling, while Germany's Lesley Wulff stood on the lowest step of the podium.

In the final of the Small Tour, for the prize of the Malopolska Equestrian Federation, under the patronage of TVP Sport, the best one was Hungarian Gabor Szabó Jr. riding Genius Conference. Second place went to Andrzej Głoskowski with Montenea Z and third to German Michael Jung with Qwatt.

Results: https://livejumping.com/ap/event/12453/competitions

The organiser of CAVALIADA in Krakow is Grupa MTP. The Main Sponsor is PKO Bank Polski, the Strategic Partner is Respect Energy, the Host City is Kraków, and the Partner is the Małopolskie Voivodeship.