Dressage-News

By ILSE SCHWARZ

VERDEN, Germany, Aug. 8–Denmark’s Andreas Helgstrand and the wonderful Danish mare, Uno Donna Unique (Don Schufro-Falkland) made it two in a row, winning both the preliminary round and the all important final. Similar to Saturday’s 5-year old final, the silver and bronze medals were both won by the same rider. Eva Möller won silver on the Hannoverian stallion Soliere (Sandro Hit-Donnerhall) and bronze on the Westfalian gelding, Blickpunkt 3 (Belissimo-Weltmeyer). Also similar to Saturday, it is consecutive gold medals for the winner. Helgstrand won the 2009 5 year old championship on Honnerups Driver (Romanov Blue Hors-Don Schufro).

The most sensational story from Sunday has to be surrounding the two rides of Andreas Helgstrand. On Saturday, there was a sea of orange  for the Dutch gold medal, Sunday a veritable ocean of red representing Denmark. There were absolute highs and lows, frustration and disappointment over the scores of Honnerups Driver (7.80). After his ride on Driver, believing that he completely nailed it, Andreas fist-punched the air in delight. An initially  jubilant Andreas looked completely crushed and confused after the judges results were announced. He then had just over an hour to re-group before riding Uno Donna Unique, a very hot mare. It has to be said that he really looked unhappy as he entered the ring on her and at the end of the test, with less than fluid flying changes through the test, he had to be wondering how the judging panel would react so it was a very restrained final salute. The Danish crowd (and I swear half of Denmark were present) held their collective breath until the first score, the trot score, was announced…cheers of relief more than anything when it was still good enough for “10.”

The bottom line is that, although she arrived on the arena absolutely drenched in sweat, this mare is breath-taking. The trot is something that every trainer in the crowd had to be itching to ride…I certainly was. The walk was also exceptional and this was one of the few combinations to maintain clear four-beat rhythm between the walk pirouettes and also execute relatively fluid pirouettes, 9.5. Time for the canter score, again the crowd waited in anticipation. The judges had been really tough on most of the horses through the day when the changes were not good, with the marks of both canter and submission being affected. Technically Uno Donna Uniques changes were clean but certainly not balanced, straight or uphill. The questions was how much the green changes would influence the canter results, score 9.3. Submission 8.9 and General Impression 9.6, final score 9.46. Despite the fact that this is a stunning mare, I was left wondering just a little if the panel felt they had to somehow balance their very harsh comments regarding Honnerups Driver. Nevertheless, it was clear that this would likely, and deservedly, be the winning horse with only Soliere left to go.

Eva entered the ring, last to go, on Soliere. She was in a perfect position, already lying second on her previous ride, Blickpunkt, so she really had nothing to lose. During the press conference that was held after the Championship was awarded, Eva Möller professed to have a soft spot for both horses. She has been riding the pair of them since they were 3 years old and her husband, Dr. Ulf Möller, bought them both as foals. Eva presented Soliere perfectly, no mistakes, perfect rhythm and steadiness in the bridle . There was a little tilting of his head in the second shoulder-in and his hindlegs really do push away from his center of gravity in the trot, especially noticeable in the trot extensions so a score of 8.2 for trot.

He had a very clear walk rhythm and although the first walk pirouette was somewhat hurried it still deserved the 8.8. The canter was very uphill and he performed balanced changes, really on the aids. The canter extensions and the transitions into and out of them were balanced and clear, a score of 9.0. Submission 8.8, overall impression 8.5 and a total of 8.66 and the silver medal. As the scores came up, owner Natascha van Dyk (who’s husband is Paul van Dyke, a DJ who is something of a phenomenon in Europe) leaped in the air and screamed with delight, a show of pure unadulterated delight!

Eva Möller really had two beautiful rides. Blickpunkt, owned by Silvia Rizzo, is so obedient and relaxed in the arena. Eva seems to literally wander out of the arena, in absolutely no hurry, at the end of the test on a completely long rein, Blickpunkt appearing way wiser than his young 6 years. Of course, this is a case of “been there, done that,” this combination won the bronze medal in the 5 year old championship in 2009.  You simply have to love the chestnut gelding with all that white on his face for his cool attitude! His powerful swinging trot and balanced canter could both use more freedom of the shoulder, especially in the trot extensions, but the trot deserves 8.6, the canter 8.4. The extended walk was the best we had seen after seven horses and maintained its correct footfall between the walk pirouettes, 8.8. He stiffened against the bridle in the two changes that occur on the short diagonal and there was some tilting in the early lateral work in trot, submission 8.2 and a strong overall impression score of 8.7. Final score 8.51, which was good enough for their second bronze medal.

I had planned to try to write this story consecutively, presenting my impressions of each horse and describing mood of the crowd/the judges after each horse, building up to who won gold/silver/bronze. As you can see, this idea went completely out the window! However, I want to describe the sense of anticipation as the third last horse entered the arena. These horses represented the Netherlands with Zhivago, Denmark with the ultimate winner, Germany with Soliere and Germany already in the lead with Blickpunkt so it was still anyone’s game. If anyone is naive enough to think that the World Championships for Young Horses is only about the horses, you are so WRONG! It is Germany versus Holland versus Denmark, no question. It is very serious stuff!

Many more words to come including what happened to the delightful Deja 5…in short the flying changes were very influential in this year’s 6 year old championship

Complete Scores:

1.	829	Uno Donna Unique	Helgstrand, Andreas	DEN		2000 EUR	Wertnote 9.46
	R 6-j.S v.Don Schufro/M.v.Falkland/DK/102RE58/B: Stutteri UNO ApS
2.	765	Soliere	Möller, Eva	GER		1100 EUR	Wertnote 8.66
	R 6-j.H v.Sandro Hit/M.v.Donnerhall/HANN/102ZL72/B: Dyk,Natascha van
3.	70	Blickpunkt	Möller, Eva	GER		800 EUR	Wertnote 8.54
	F 6-j.W v.Belissimo M/M.v.Weltmeyer/WESTF/102QZ47/B: Rizzo,Silvia
4.	960	Rebelle	Andersen, Maria	DEN		400 EUR	Wertnote 8.42
	F 6-j.S v.Don Schufro/M.v.Regazzoni/OLD/B: Blue Hors Aps,
5.	750	Skovens Rafael	Skaerbek, Lotte	DEN		200 EUR	Wertnote 8.38
	F 6-j.H v.Romanov Blue Hors/M.v.Don Schufro/DK/102RE60/B: Skärbäk & Lindgren
6.	324	Dresden Mann	Klimke, Ingrid	GER		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.32
	SCHWB 6-j.H v.Dresemann/M.v.Florestan I/WESTF/102MC51/B: Wallace,Jason
7.	869	Zamora	Maas, Lynne	NED		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.22
	F 6-j.H v.Krack C/M.v.Farrington/KWPN/B: Maas,Lynne
8.	876	Zhivago	Hanzon, Theo	NED		150 EUR	Wertnote 8.18
	B 6-j.H v.Krack C/M.v.Jazz/KWPN/B: Uytert,J.M.
9.	62	Belamour	Gielen, Susanne	SWE		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.98
	F 6-j.H v.Belissimo M/M.v.Lord Sinclair I/WESTF/102RM48/B: Flyinge AB,
10.	265	Deja	Svanberg, Anna	SWE		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.88
	B 6-j.S v.Silvano/M.v.Don Schufro/S.WBL/102ZW84/B: Haward,Marie
11.	325	Du Soleil	Lieben-Seutter, Saskia	GER		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.82
	F 6-j.W v.De Niro/M.v.Caprimond/HANN/102ZI76/B: Wahler,Burkhard
12.	944	Hönnerups Driver	Helgstrand, Andreas	DEN		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.8
	DB 6-j.W v.Romanov Blue Hors/M.v.Don Schufro/DK/B: Kasprzak,Hanni Toosbuy
12.	635	Redford	Werndl, Jessica	GER		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.8
	F 6-j.W v.Rosentau/M.v.Escudo I/HANN/102NF03/B: Werndl Gutsbetrieb GbR,
14.	877	Ziesto	Maree, Gerdine	NED		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.76
	B 6-j.H v.Lancet/M.v.Clavecimbel/KWPN/B: Maree,J.T.M.
15.	846	Watulele	Maruhn, Esther	GER		150 EUR	Wertnote 7.26
	F 6-j.W v.Wolkenstein II/M.v.Frappant/HANN/102QY33/B: Berwe,Roland