THM asked Jan Tönjes, who edits Germany’s St Georg what makes Michael Jung so special…
“I’ve known him from the times when he wasn’t Super Michi, but only an upcoming young rider with as much talent as guts, tons of it. And way back then he was always a man who wouldn’t talk too much, but only focus on his next ride, be it a puissance, a 3* or a four-year-old in a stallion show.
Here’s Michael and the stallion Grafenstolz at an outdoor presentation
The most amazing thing I ever did with Michael was on a stallion show at Birkhof Stud (Jan is also a commentator at stallion shows – he is also a breeding expert) when he was riding Grafenstolz TSF, then the world champion of young eventers. His parents Brigitte and Jochen came into the arena first with one of these small but high tables you can lean on while having a chat at a garden party. That table was put on the diagonal, some three strides out of the corner. They had a bottle of champagne on the table, and glasses in their hands: They were saluting each other – cheers!”
“Michael and the stallion turned on to the diagonal, jumped over his parents’ hands with the glasses and then on the same diagonal rode some 11 (maybe only 9, but all well through) one tempis. The audience was completely silent because they obviously couldn’t really believe what they had just seen.” Read more about Michael Jung here: