May 11, 2026 
What a difference two years makes. Back in 2024, Katharina Rhomberg, still new to the 1.60m level with Colestus Cambridge, made her Olympic debut in Paris for her native Austria with the then-9-year-old Westphalian gelding.
Riding as an individual and Olympic rookie on the youngest horse in the field, the pair had an admittedly tall order ahead of them. Rhomberg, then 31, says the pair struggled during the opening round of competition. “He’s a great horse and we knew he had the quality, but of course, it was a big step for him,” the Austrian rider told Horse Show Jumping last March.
And though their first outing in the Paris Games wasn’t what she hoped, the pair improved by the second, ending on a positive note. “I learned a lot from it—and so did the horse. These kinds of moments shape you,” she said.
This weekend, some of those lessons on the sport’s biggest stage paid off for Rhomberg and Colestus Cambridge during the CSI5* Grand Prix Giorgio Armani at the Longines Versilia Horse Show in Tuscany. There, the pair bested a field of 48 combinations to earn their first-ever, 1.60m 5* victory on Uliano Vezzani-designed tracks.
“I can’t believe it! I just won my first five-star Grand Prix!” said the 33-year-old Austrian rider. “I’m just incredibly happy, my horse jumped amazing.”
As the last of seven combinations to return for the shortened course, Rhomberg put her trust and five-year partnership with gelding to work in the jump-off, pressing the pedal down and never letting up. The pair stopped the clock at 36.54 seconds, outpacing Saudi Arabia’s Abdulrahman Alrajhi with Ventago on 38.06 seconds. Belgium’s Jérôme Guery was third with Qartouche de la Pomme d’Or (39.24 seconds).
“There were very fast riders in front of me, and I thought, I can’t beat them, but I could, and it was just amazing,” Rhomberg said.
“I’m also very satisfied, because I took this victory with Colestus Cambridge. I’ve been riding this horse since he was six years old. We actually grew together.”
Indeed they did, first campaigning in the international Young Horse classes for 8-Year-Olds back in 2022 and working their way up the ranks to the 1.55m level two years later. The pair jumps clear at 59% and 71% at 1.50m and 1.55m, respectively, according to Jumpr.
Also of note in Versilia: the much-anticipated return of Henrik von Eckermann’s (SWE) King Edward to 5* competition. The pair jumped to 18th place with just one rail down in Sunday’s Grand Prix Giorgio Armani after taking a one-year break from top-level competition in 2025.
“[Sixteen] years old,” von Eckermann wrote after posting one of ‘the King’s’ schooling rounds back in April, “but the feeling and his motivation in the ring never changes.”
