Topoľčianky National Stud was successful at the European Vaulting Championships

The show jumping department of the Topoľčianky National Stud Farm is one of the long-standing and stable entities in Slovakia. They started their activity in June 1993 under the leadership of the then coach Alena Matúšková. Already in this period, they recorded great success on the international stage. In 1997, the mare Carmen competed at the European Championships in Aachen, Germany, in the individual category with Ľudovít Holý. They took 17th place in the world competition. A year later, Carmen and Lucia Naštická qualified for the World Equestrian Games in Rome, where they placed 23rd. Carmen took 9th place in 1999 at the European Championships in Nitra in the individual category with Martin Vaváček. This same pair started the following season at the World Championships in Mannheim, Germany, where they won 14th place in strong competition. In 2001, Carmen, led by Alena Matúšková and competitor Jana Malíková, took part in the European Championships in Poznań and a year later they started at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain.

In 2005, Boris Kodak took over the leadership of the vaulting department, who successfully continues to achieve excellent results at international championships. He has already prepared many successful trainees and a large number of excellent vaulting horses. The training also includes gymnastic training with professional instructors and vaulting training sessions, which coach Boris Kodak organizes several times a year. At the national level, they are the holders of championship medals in various categories almost every year, and the horses are consistently awarded the title of "Horse of the Year" by their evaluations. Their performances are competitive not only at international events, but also at European and world championships. With the mare Fantagíra, his team took part in the ME 2012 in Pezinok (SVK), Ebreichsdorf 2013 (AUT) and Kaposváry 2014 (HUN) in the category of individuals and pas de deux. In 2015, she took part in the World Championships in Ermelo, the Netherlands, in the pas de deux category with Nikol Švajčíková and Diana Antalíková. In 2019, the junior group on the horse Leon returned to Ermelo for the World Championships. In 2021, Ivana Cigáňová and Andrej Meňhert started at the WC in French Le Mans in the individual category. The squad also met the qualification and won 7th place.

On July 27-31, 2022, the Junior European Vaulting Championships were held in Kaposvár, Hungary. Two individuals from JK pri NŽ Topoľčianky met the qualification and were selected for the national team - Andrej Meňhert in the junior men's category and Laura Balážová in the junior women's category. The squad consisting of Andrej Meňhert, Laura Balážová, Stela Strečková, Gabika Karáčová, Sebastián Kodak and Matúš Solčiansky also met the qualification criteria. The trainees took part in the championship with a horse of the National Stud - with a 10-year-old gelding Leon by the French stallion Dormane du Puy, out of a dam by Lord Inci Tatus. At the moment, they have in preparation a new promising mare with a massive frame with an excellent spacious gallop - Liliane - by Charisma from the dam of Lord Inci Tatus, which the department is currently testing at national level.

However, let's go back to the EC in Kaposvár. With great tension and hope for a medal, we watched the performance of Andrej Meňhert, who, after the mandatory lineup in the first round, took third place out of 13 trainees from 8 European countries. Despite a successful free, he dropped to fourth place with a minimal loss to the third Bel Lehnen from Germany. In the second round, Andrej practiced his free with an excellent rating of 8.159. After adding up all the results, it came in fourth place, just 0.188 points short of the bronze medal. With this placing, Andrej followed up on the performance of Adam Lukáč from the ME juniors in Pezinok in 2012, who also took 4th place on the Topoľčiansky mare Fantagíra. At the time, Adam Lukáč was a trainee for SOUP Šaľa under the leadership of Mrs. Majdlenová. Their horse was injured, and Fantagíra was the ideal replacement in order to preserve the Slovak national team and the chance for a good result.

In the squad category, 7 teams of different nationalities met in Kaposvár this year. The squad under the leadership of Boris Kodak steadily held the 4th position after both rounds with a total rating of 6.994. In the competition of 38 competitors, Laura Balážová took 34th place.

Congratulations to the entire vaulting department and we wish you many more successes.