What TSCHIO Aachen Can Tell Us Ahead of the World Championships This Summer

Two Germans on the Grand Prix podium at Aachen. The favourite in the class going triple-clear on the biggest stage in the sport. And, quietly, a former champion — DSP Chakaria — hanging in the top six despite being caught by the water in round one.

If you were watching CHIO Aachen last weekend with one eye on the summer, there was a lot to process. The FEI Jumping World Championships are coming. The field at Aachen was, by any measure, a serious rehearsal. And Germany, on home soil, looked very much like a nation that knows exactly what it is doing.

How the Grand Prix unfolded

The course asked hard questions from the start. Only 27.5% of the 38 starters made it through round one clear — 11 combinations. The water challenges claimed their share, with Philipp Weishaupt and Katharina Rhomberg both retiring in round one. Of those who did make it through without a fence, the jump-off was a straight shootout between the world’s best.

Germany’s statement week

The headline is Vogel. United Touch S arrived as the highest-rated horse in the GP field at Elo 785 — now third in the world rankings, but the best present on Sunday — and left having justified every decimal. Triple-clear on a course that produced a 27.5% round-one clear rate. That is not just winning Aachen — that is winning it the way the data said it should be done.

But the more interesting German story, in terms of World Championships implications, might be Hinners. Iron Dames Singclair took third in the Grand Prix — also triple-clear — on an Elo of 765. Earlier in the week, Hinners had been competitive across both GP qualifiers. A 27.5% clear rate tends to sort the field quickly, and the German combination was in the group that handled it.

Thieme and DSP Chakaria, prior winners of this class, had a more complex week. Sixth in the Grand Prix after a fault in round one, with a clean second round. Chakaria also placed seventh in the first qualifier. The Elo moved from 759 to 764 across the GP — a modest gain, but Aachen is not the kind of place where a fault in round one goes unpunished in the standings. The combination that won the title in 2024 is still operating at this level; they just didn’t have the perfect week.

Also worth noting at the German end of the board: Daniel Deusser had Otello de Guldenboom in fifth place in the first qualifier — clean throughout — before finishing 16th in the Grand Prix with eight faults in round two. Otello is an Elo 762 horse. The raw quality is there. The Grand Prix just didn’t go his way.

Why Aachen is different

The numbers from the Grand Prix are worth sitting with. A 27.5% first-round clear rate. Forty-four percent of the field picking up four faults or more in round one. Two retirements.

Aachen asks something specific. The open water and tough combinations have ended campaigns here before, and this year was no different. When a 27.5% clear rate is the threshold, the horses who clear it cleanly — particularly in a jump-off — are doing something the data will remember.

The full GP qualifying competitions across the week told a similarly varied story. The first qualifier on May 22 had a 59.2% clear rate — a more manageable day, and Coyle took that on Farrel. The second qualifier on May 23 dropped back to 27.1% — the same territory as the Grand Prix itself. Keenan and Kick On navigated that clean for the win. The pattern across the week: some days Aachen gives, some days it takes. The horses and riders that handled all three days are the ones to watch.

The horse that wasn’t there — and what that means

Martin Fuchs was at Aachen with Leone Jei — but not in the Grand Prix. The reigning Rolex Grand Prix of Aachen winner jumped in the Prize of Soers and the Prize of Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein, picking up four and seven faults respectively. In the Grand Prix, Fuchs used Conner Jei, finishing 12th — clean in round one, four faults in round two.

The separation matters. Leone Jei was at Aachen, but he was not pointed at the biggest class of the week. For a horse of that profile and a rider with a World Championships in his sights, running a smaller class and then holding back from the Grand Prix is a deliberate choice. The combination is being peaked for something else.

Vogel’s approach was different. United Touch S ran only the Grand Prix — one appearance, the biggest stage of the week, and a triple-clear to win it. That is also a deliberate choice, and a very different signal about where that combination stands right now.

Richard Vogel & United Touch S

The form book on this combination is now very difficult to argue with. United Touch S came into Aachen as the second highest-rated horse in the GP field — now third in the world — and left it having gone triple-clear on a course that only 27.5% of the field handled clean in round one. United Touch S was saved specifically for Sunday. The Elo moved from 785 to 789 — a modest headline gain, but the context matters. When a horse of this rating clears on a day when most of t he field cannot, the system is noting it.

DSP Chakaria & Andre Thieme

Sixth place and a fault in round one is not the ideal Aachen Grand Prix, but for the reigning world champions there is a different lens to apply. Chakaria had a top-seven finish in the first qualifier earlier in the week, went clean in round two of the Grand Prix, and the Elo moved from 759 to 764. This is a horse that is going to World Championships in very strong form. The question the data can’t fully answer is whether a fault at Aachen reflects a horse that is still tuning up, or one that is close to its ceiling at this level.

Otello de Guldenboom & Daniel Deusser

The qualifier run was everything you’d want. Otello clean across the board, fifth place, Elo 758 going in. The Grand Prix was a harder story — clean in round one, eight faults in round two, 16th place. The Elo barely moved (762 to 763), which reflects that a 16th place in a field of this strength is not a disaster. But the gap between the qualifier performance and the Grand Prix is the kind of variance that will be on the selectors’ minds when naming teams later this summer.

What Aachen tells us about the summer

A 27.5% clear rate in the Grand Prix on a field strength of 756 is a useful data point in its own right. But it is the shape of the week — which horses handled the hard days and which did not — that feeds into the World Championships picture most directly.

Germany arrive at the summer in a strong position. Vogel is in the form of his career on a horse that the rating system marks as one of the best in the world. Hinners showed that Iron Dames Singclair can handle Aachen conditions on the big day. Thieme and Chakaria are still operating at the top of the sport even if the Grand Prix was not their best performance. And Deusser, on the right day, remains a top-ten horse at any 5* in the world.

The world number one, Farrington, was here too — clean through round one on Greya before a fault in round two left them eighth. Greya at Elo 788 is one of the highest-rated horses in the world, and an eighth at Aachen with a round-one clear is not a bad week. But the jump-off was the separator, and Farrington wasn’t in it.

The wildcard is the horse that barely showed. Leone Jei won this event last year. Fuchs chose not to peak here. For a team trying to read the form ahead of the World Championships, that absence is itself a piece of information — the combination is being saved for something.

The form book says Vogel. The clear rate says Aachen will sort the field again when it counts. The absence of Leone Jei says Fuchs is pointing at a different day. And Chakaria says the prior champion always deserves a second look. Who is on your World Championships podium?