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Aachen, July 31st, 2008

CHIO Aachen: Charity cooperation "Glücks-Bringer" generates record sum
Visitors donate 15,000 Euros for therapeutic riding and sports for the disabled

This year, the visitors of the World Equestrian Festival, CHIO Aachen have donated a very high amount of money for a good cause: 15,000 Euros have been collected for Therapeutic Riding and the Society for the Promotion of Sports for the Disabled. This sum is about 5,000 Euros and with that 50 per cent higher than in the previous years. "The visitors' willingness to donate and the commitment of the mostly juvenile collectors have been extraordinary", stresses Klaus Pavel, President of the CHIO-organiser Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein e.V. (ALRV). The cheque will be handed over officially on November 11th, 2008 in the course of the "Night of the Stars", the big benefit gala of the Paralympic Sport in the "Mercedes Welt" at the Salzufer in Berlin. "We will invest the money directly into important projects", says Gerda Pleitgen, the long-time Chairwoman of the Society for the Promotion of Sports for the Disabled. "We are very grateful for the ALRV's support."

The ALRV, the German Curatorship for Therapeutic Riding (DKThR) and the Society for the Promotion of Sports for the Disabled have worked together for many years now within the scope of the charity cooperation "Glücks-Bringer" ("luck bringer" = talisman), and have collected money in the course of the CHIO Aachen. Tens of thousand Euros have been collected until today, additionally further 80,000 Euros have been collected during the FEI World Equestrian Games Aachen 2006. But the cooperation even goes beyond that. "We want to provide a public platform for therapeutic riding and sports for the disabled", explains Pavel.

Thus both organisations presented their work in a booth in this year's CHIO Village. In the show programme, children from local therapy stables showed their riding abilities and legless dressage rider Angelika Trabert took part in the CHIO's opening ceremony as Paralympic representative. Trabert will by the way return to Aachen very soon: Just like the horses of the participants in the Olympic Games, also the horses of the Paralympic riders will go into quarantine in Aachen's stables previous to the Paralympic Games in Hong Kong (September 6th - 17th).

Go to the Curatorship for Therapeutic Riding here.