Making
an impression at the World Cup Qualifier in Neumunster,
Germany, was 31 year old Pia Laus. Aboard the
Westphalian gelding Renoir, the Italian number one Grand
Prix rider scored 70.63% in the first leg of the two
day World Cup qualifying competition. Incredibly successful
as a young rider, Laus had to step back for a while
after the retirement of her mount Adrett (by Adlersfeld).
It wasn't until Renoir came into the picture that Laus
was able to score high again. Purchased at age two,
Renoir was trained up to Grand Prix by Laus herself.
"I loved being coached by Schulten-Baumer, but he had
a hard time to chose between Isabell and his other students,"
Laus explained. For a while now, it is Pia's mother
who supervises her from the sideline. Renoir was very
difficult as a youngster, but thanks to Pia's perseverance
the bay gelding by Rex Fritz came to trust her and the
combination clicked.
Pia Laus, daughter of a German/Italian couple, is lawyer
by profession and puts her equestrian career on second
place. After having won four gold team medals, two individual
gold and one individual silver medal as a young rider,
Pia was confronted with doubts towards a professional
equestrian career or the occupation of lawyer. "After
my final examinations I took a year off to reflect on
my life. The only thing I did then was ride, and strangely
it didn't go that well. I was always pushed to perform
and one moment I had enough," she said. "There is more
to life than just riding horses. If your happiness depends
on the points you receive from judges, than your world
gets creepy and small," she wisely says. "I enjoy training
at home as much as going to competitions. I buy my horses
at age two and train them myself. In my life I rode
three horses up to Grand Prix, so I think I'm doing
not at all too bad."
Making
an impression at the World Cup Qualifier in Neumunster,
Germany, was 31 year old Pia Laus. Aboard the
Westphalian gelding Renoir, the Italian number one Grand
Prix rider scored 70.63% in the first leg of the two
day World Cup qualifying competition. Incredibly successful
as a young rider, Laus had to step back for a while
after the retirement of her mount Adrett (by Adlersfeld).
It wasn't until Renoir came into the picture that Laus
was able to score high again. Purchased at age two,
Renoir was trained up to Grand Prix by Laus herself.
"I loved being coached by Schulten-Baumer, but he had
a hard time to chose between Isabell and his other students,"
Laus explained. For a while now, it is Pia's mother
who supervises her from the sideline. Renoir was very
difficult as a youngster, but thanks to Pia's perseverance
the bay gelding by Rex Fritz came to trust her and the
combination clicked.
