Dressage-News

By Ilse Schwarz

VERDEN, Germany, Aug. 07 With a score of 9.18, Emmelie Schultens and Astrix 7  of the Netherlands add the 5 year-old  World Championship to the long list of Championships won by the Dutch in 2010. Second and third place were captured by Germany’s Claudia Rüscher on the stallions Lissaro van de Helle (9.08) and Schumacher (8.76). The black stallion Astrix (Obelisk – Olivi), owned by Stal Perlee made a wonderful impression as he entered the arena with his big impressive and expressive trot. It was apparent that Emmelie was making as certain as possible that she captured consecutive gold medals, she won the 6 year old final in 2009 on Westpoint.

Astrix really captured the judges attention with his trot, scoring 9.3. It was nicely uphill with good activity in the hindlegs. He also showed one of the best stretching circles, softly taking the rein and stretching to slightly in front of the vertical. The walk was a highlight with 9.5. In the canter he did have a few hiccups. At the beginning it was a little rushed and took a moment to find good balance and could still have shown more of an uphill tendency, especially in the counter canter. Nevertheless it was good enough for 8.9. Their final score of 9.18 did leave the door slightly open for the remaining riders, so there was excitement in the audience until the final ride. When the score of the last ride was announced it was Dutch hysteria with orange shirts appearing from all over, cheering, leaping, whistling and any other noise of jubilant celebration!

Astrix is not an approved stallion, he was never presented to the KWPN. Emmelie, who got the ride on Astrix in April, joked that maybe this would change really soon.

The silver and bronze medals were won by horses ridden by Claudia Rüscher, who at the age of twenty eight, was making her World Championship debut. She captured the silver on the stallion Lissaro van de Helle (Lissabon-Matcho AA), owned by Paul Mais. In 2008 the bay Hannoverian stallion won the Bundeschampionate for 3 year-old stallions, also ridden by Claudia.

Today, even though obviously a little tired, the trot had enough activity with the hind legs and good expression in the extensions to receive 8.9. The walk was also a highlight with this horse, his looseness and overtrack scoring 9.5. The canter was beautifully uphill with good jump and worth 9.0 today. Overall, he showed a lovely contact with the bit and it was a really well ridden test. Lissaro is already popular as a breeding stallion, Claudia estimated that he booked around 200 mares this year.

The bronze medal went to the  licensed Westfalian stallion Schumacher (Stedinger-Weltmeyer) owned by Antonius Schulze-Averdiek. He is again black and beautiful and has a wonderfully light footed way of going. Schumacher is also a former reserve Bundeschampion. He showed a very active hind leg, much shoulder freedom and beautiful balance in the canter. Some contact issues influenced the scores, so it was trot 8.9, walk 8.0, canter 9.2 and overall 8.76.

Claudia said she was really happy to have her training and work “validated”, even so she was “pretty surprised” to find herself in second and third place.

Complete scores

1.	45	Astrix	Scholtens, Emmelie	NED		2000 EUR	Wertnote 9.18
	R 5-j.H v.Obelisk/M.v.Olivi/KWPN/B: Stal Perlee,
2.	542	Lissaro van de Helle	Rüscher, Claudia	GER		1100 EUR	Wertnote 9.08
	B 5-j.H v.Lissabon/M.v.Matcho AA/HANN/102ZK20/B: Mais,Paul
3.	718	Schumacher	Rüscher, Claudia	GER		800 EUR	Wertnote 8.76
	R 5-j.H v.Stedinger/M.v.Weltmeyer/WESTF/102ZK18/B: Schulze-Averdiek,Antonius
4.	1074	Damon Jerome H	Gräf, Uta	GER		400 EUR	Wertnote 8.74
	F 5-j.H v.Damon Hill/M.v.Guy Laroche/RHLD/102ZR87/B: Hischold, Thomas Prof. Dr.
5.	440	Grevens Sa’Va	Ahlers Pedersen, Camilla	DEN		200 EUR	Wertnote 8.62
	DB 15-j.S v.Soprano/M.v.Romancier/DK/B: Poulsen,Svend Age
6.	819	Torveslettens Stamina	Helgstrand, Andreas	DEN		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.54
	SCHI 5-j.S v.Stedinger/M.v.Carano/DK/B: Rugaard,Pernille
7.	458	Henglein’s Licosto	Frahm, Steffen	GER		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.44
	DF 5-j.H v.Licotus/M.v.Rosenkavalier/WESTF/102ZI91/B: Henglein,Hans
8.	1	Aaron	Freund, Jana	GER		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.42
	DF 5-j.H v.Florencio I/M.v.Record/KWPN/B: Livens,Louis
9.	487	Isac	Telde, Minna	SWE		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.32
	B 5-j.H v.Hip Hop/M.v.Master/S.WBL/102ZW12/B: Bengtsson,Per-Christer
10.	43	Aston Martin	Hvalsoe Saul, John	DEN		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.04
	SCHWB 5-j.H v.Monteverdi/M.v.Sixtus/TRAK./B: Andersen,Lone
11.	848	Weihegold OLD	Wulferding, Kira	GER		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.02
	R 5-j.S v.Don Schufro/M.v.Sandro Hit/OLD/102ZI90/B: Arns-Krogmann,Christine
11.	710	Sarkozy	Möller, Eva	GER		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.02
	R 5-j.H v.Sandro Hit/M.v.Weltmeyer/HANN/102ZL68/B: Schockemöhle,Paul
13.	603	President’s Allright	Lieren, Laurens van	NED		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.8
	R 5-j.H v.Jazz/M.v.Royal Dance/KWPN/102ZN57/B: President Investment B.V.
14.	25	Anne Beth	Bruntink, Vai	NED		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.74
	B 5-j.S v.Oscar/M.v.Corleone/KWPN/B: Norel,G.W. van
15.	32	Aptrick	Smalto, Benedicte	FRA		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.62
	DB 5-j.W v.Tango/M.v.Kennedy/KWPN/B: Smalto,Benedicte