Many dressage riders use the Whitsun tournament in Wiesbaden to present their young horses in front of a large audience. This included Leslie Rohrbacher, who led the lap of honor in the Intermédiaire I for seven to nine-year-old young dressage horses in front of Biebrich Palace with the Escolar son Ecco MW.
In the Prix St. Georges, Leslie Rohrbacher and Ecco MW had to settle for second place after minor coordination problems in the series changes – more on this later. But in the Intermédiaire I, the nine-year-old Rhineland stallion by Escolar out of a Fürstenball dam came up trumps and won with just under 70 percent, almost one percent ahead of the rest of the field. Anything but surprising for Leslie Rohrbacher.
“Ecco has an insane character and an insane attitude. He learns everything at lightning speed and what doesn’t come to him, he makes up for with his fighting spirit. I’ve never had a horse like him,” she enthuses, praising in particular the walk and canter of the stallion, who is a full brother to the 2017 ZfdP Champion Stallion El Corazon. Ecco’s canter is “typical Escolar”, describes Leslie Rohrbacher. And he is known to regularly receive top marks for this basic gait, from tests for young riding horses to Grand Prix.
Leslie Rohrbacher and Ecco MW – the initials stand for the owner, Markus Winkler GmbH – are a well-rehearsed team. The licensed Rhinelander was born at Dr. Johannes Brinkmann’s Hülsdau stud. When he was just four years old, he was ridden by Rohrbacher. They qualified for the Bundeschampionat the following year and came eighth in the final. The rest of his career was similarly straightforward – his first ribbons in advanced (S) level as a seven-year-old and his first yellow ribbon as an eight-year-old. For Leslie Rohrbacher it was her first victory in the advanced class, but thankfully not Ecco MW’s last.
“In six months, I had achieved my Golden Riding Badge with him,” she reports. And even more. They qualified for the decision in the Nuremberg Burg Cup, the most important series for young dressage horses in Germany at Prix St. Georges level. In the final in Frankfurt, where Ecco’s father had also once shone, they came eighth.
And now? As Ecco is such a lightning learner, Leslie Rohrbacher had put the subject of single changes on the back burner. Ecco can already do them, but then he also wants to prove his ability in the triple and quadruple changes and he should go on a short tour this season. However, because he is already piaffing “quite well”, she is already considering an Intermédiaire II start this year. The Louisdor Prize is at the top of her wish list for next year. Ecco MW could follow in his father’s footsteps there too.
